"AS YOU SURMISE I AM NOT A WOMAN (CAMBRIDGE WOULD NOT HAVE ME IF I WERE)." HILTON (James, 1900-1954, Author of 'Lost Horizons' & 'Goodbye Mr Chips')

Fine early Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Wood, thanking her for her letter and "review in the B. Poet. As you surmise I am not a woman (Cambridge would not have me here if I were), as a matter of fact I am just a B.A. having a post graduate course. If you thought the Times Lit Supp. unfair to Storm Passage, you should have seen its review of C. Herself! The general import of it was that I should go back to my cradle and not trouble the august Times reviewers any more! I am glad however to find you agree with me that the Times reviewing is sometimes a little malicious. The best reviews I have had so far are your own and one in the Manchester Guardian (I conribute to the latter sometimes) ...", with a postscript that he thinks her "criticism ... very valuable especially about Alice Aune's baby. I knew all the time that I had not made the little creature live, but you are the first reviewer to remark on it ...", 2 sides 8vo., Christ's College, Cambridge headed paper 16th May

Hilton's first novel, Catherine Herself, was published in 1920, when he was still an undergraduate. His second Storm Passage was published at the time of this letter. The next eleven years were difficult for him, and it was not until 1931 that he had success with the novel And Now Goodbye. Following this, several of his books were international bestsellers and inspired successful film adaptations, notably Lost Horizon (1933), which won a Hawthornden Prize; Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934); and Random Harvest (1941).

Item Date:  1922

Stock No:  39127      £275

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