MEYERSTEIN (E.[dward] H.[arry] W.[illiam], 1889-1952, English Writer and Scholar, writer of the life of Thomas Chatterton)

Pair of Typed Letters Signed with autograph corrections to Percy and Barbara Muir the first thanking them for their hospitality and saying that he is "sure you did everything you could and of course it is interesting to me, as a comparatively unknown man, to watch big business at close quarters, and when I saw you waving your last contract (Barbara) before the astonished visitors and you (Percy) greeting the miracle play with that dignified absence of comment that I have learnt to associate with Oxford & Cambridge intelligentsia I saw exactly how things would be. Well, one has to live, and as long as one lives for oneself one must, I suppose, try to combine the bray of the poet and the song of the rentier ... One may have money at the bank and yet die of starvation. That is the lesson of 1947. Don't think me bitter. I have to talk like this, for I have no happiness except in lonely creative struggles (which are not all beer and skittles - though thank God there are no wife and brats clamouring for the results of work that pays ... Casual ruthlessness combined with absence of mind are grand assets for the battle of life, but some of us lack them .. It will be long before I forget standing on the Takeley road outside your gate in the night air, invited to listen to 'our nightingales' ...", 1 side A4, together with a "copy of my reply" to Edward answering what was evidently some argument with a fellow guest over the Miracle play and his contract "I 'm sorry the sight of my contract upset you. I hadn't realised that there was anything indecent about a contract as such ...I am sincerely sorry that you have no happiness except in 'lonely creative struggles' ... Well, there it is! We have both liked having you to stay here and enjoyed our talks. And I, for my part, very much enjoyed hearing you read your work - on this last visit your Miracle Play. But is seems you have had less enjoyment ...", 1 side A4 and finally he writes to Barbara that he is "glad I wrote so ingenuously to you since my letter has provoked so ingenuous a reply. I am glad that you can say 'We both liked having you to stay here', and I hope I am a little wiser than I was after trying with however little success, to co-operate in your arduous duties as hostess ... Your children (especially Helen) grow more like you every day ...", 1 side oblong 8vo., 3 Gray's Inn Place, W.C., 28th and 29th May

Barbara Muir, née Kaye (1937-1998) Writer and Bookseller ran the Antiquarian Bookshop Elkin Mathews with her husband Percy. He was a founder member of the ILAB.

Item Date:  1947

Stock No:  39544      £125

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