DRIBERG (Thomas Edward Neil, Baron Bradwell, 1905-1976, Jouornalist, Politician, Anglican Churchman and possibly Soviet Spy)

Fine Autograph Letter Signed to Dennis WHEATLEY (1897-1977, Novelist) thanking him for his letter “Hutchinson’s sent the MS back less than a week ago, without even a covering letter, having scribbled all over it in pencil (though I suspect that covering letter was merely omitted in error, for there was a functionless clip on the cover. If you think another publisher would ‘bite’ at the MS as it is, it would be angelic of you to try it on them. I am too bored with it now to tinker with it any more & should simply like to get of out & off my chest. The Express are now of their own accord toying with the idea of bringing out a book of reprinted Hickey. This might of course include the New York section, but in some ways I would rather an ordinary publisher did it; they might pay me a £ or two and would probably print it better...”, 2 sides 4to., Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire headed paper with a fine vignette at the head, Sunday, no date together with a carbon copy of Wheatley’s reply apologising for his late reply as “the Voroshilov book ran out to 120,000 words - nearly double the length that I originally intended,... If you will send me your M.S. I will try it on other publishers with pleasure. Collins, Arthur Barker, Harrap, Robert Hale, Michael Joseph, Chatto, Iver Nicholson are the ones I know best. Who would you prefer me to try it on Arthur Barker is a good man and likes things that are a bit out of the ordinary...”, 1 side A4, no place, 19th August

A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain for more than twenty years, he was first elected to parliament as an Independent and joined the Labour Party in 1945. He never held any ministerial office, but rose to senior positions within the Labour Party and was a popular and influential figure in left-wing politics for many years.
Renishaw Hall was the home of the Sitwel family. A poem by Driberg, in the style of Edith Sitwell, was published in Oxford Poetry 1926; when Sitwell came to Oxford to deliver a lecture, Driberg invited her to have tea with him, and she accepted. After her lecture he found an opportunity to recite one of his own poems, and was rewarded when Sitwell declared him "the hope of English poetry". Driberg maintained his contact with Edith Sitwell, and attended regular literary tea parties at her Bayswater flat. When Sitwell discovered her protégé's impoverished circumstances she arranged an interview for him with the Daily Express. He joined the Daily Express as a reporter, later becoming a columnist. In 1933 he began the "William Hickey" society column, which he continued to write until 1943.
In 1937 Wheatley published Red Eagle: The Story of the Russian Revolution and of Klementy Efremovitch Voroshilov, Marshal and Commissar for Defence of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.

Item Date:  1937

Stock No:  42444      £175

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