WILLIAMSON GIVES ADVICE TO AN ASPIRING AUTHOR WILLIAMSON (Henry, 1895-1977, Author of ‘Tarka the Otter’ & Journalist)

Fine Autograph Letter Signed in full in blue ink, to Mr Humber telling him that he “ought to write your book of autobiography, forgetting all local papers, local attitudes, local prejudices, local mannerisms; write it simple & straight, & make the scenes live for us by re-creating them out of Time. Do not read or show the chapters, as you do them, to anyone. Keep it secret & growing within yourself; guard it as a mistery [sic] or urge or inspiration. Describe the fells & mosses, make pictures of them. Make a picture of your excellent inn & characters. Tell us the story of your life & doings in the places you love & relish. Write it for yourself, in secret, easily, stealthily, say 500 words daily, regularly; & soon we’ll have a transcription of life. Put in the good manners & the bad manners, the uncouth keeper & the snooty person, the cadgers who ‘sir’ for a drink off a stranger & the poachers & the decent chaps & the fast-car ones (?) who make the car itself live, the engineers who care & have passion for perfection, the engine & the chassis, the roads, the lanes, the birds, the cider, the life you’ve flown along & loved & dreaded & dreamt of. Put it all in as a flowing sequence, with the ‘I’ of yourself as thread & mainspring, & you’ll write a book which everyman will want to read & adventure with you & above all, don’t feel ‘Oh, this will be too dull’ for it is the ‘dull’ things that make a book nice & authentic. Don’t write for locals; forget them; write it for your secret self, & when done, get it typed & send it to me & I’ll see if I can get it published in London...”, 2 sides oblong 8vo., with original autograph envelope (somewhat faded), Stiffkey, Norfolk, 28th November

Williamson was inspired by the Wiltshire nature writer Richard Jefferies’ ‘The Story of my Heart’ (1883) to move to Devon and begin writing. After he had written many books including Tarka the Otter he wrote two books about Jefferies.
He was a supporter of Sir Oswald Mosley and had expressed apparently pro-German opinions so when World War II broke out he was imprisoned briefly under defence regulations but he was soon allowed to return to his Norfolk farm. Visiting London in January 1944, he observed with satisfaction that what he perceived as the ugliness and immorality represented by its financial and banking sector had been "relieved a little by a catharsis of high explosive" and somewhat "purified by fire".

Item Date:  1943

Stock No:  41927      £475

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