Two Autograph Letters Signed ('M Asquith' and 'Margot Asquith'), both to the Editor of the London Daily Graphic Harold Edward Lawton.

Margot Asquith [Emma Alice Margaret Asquith] (1864-1945), Countess of Oxford and Asquith

Published by 3 and 8 December ; the first on letterhead of 44 Bedford Square London W.C.1 and the second on letterhead of The Wharf Sutton Courtney Berkshire, 1920

About this Item

Both items written in pencil and good, on lightly aged paper, with their stamped and postmarked envelopes addressed by Asquith. Both envelopes with traces of brown paper mount adhering to reverse, and both docketed by the Graphic's editor 'To me Harold Lawton'. Letter One (12mo, 4 pp, headed 'Private'): Amusingly outraged letter regarding a visit by 'two gentlemen' of whom Asquith 'had no sort of knowledge'. Graphic journalists, they assured Asquith 'that nothing wd. be written about me without my seeing it first [last five words underlined in red]'. '[Y]ou can imagine my surprise in seeing the ugly & foolish caricature of me with a striped Swiss petticoat & battle axe sort of hat (I have never heard about) & the long conversation about "book-land" & "glancing" all my "husbands latest photographs" & "it is all my own-" "it flatters vulgar people if you notice them" etc etc not one word of which I ever said'. Her husband did not see the first volume of her autobiography 'till it was in book form'. 'How cd. I have said "we are now of comparative unimportance"? as if I had ever thought we were Gods & Godesses.' She would have thought the 'two very nice interviewers wd. have kept their word'. If they had she would have provided the paper with 'some most valuable & amusing "Copy" (I believe this is the right xpression [sic] for what excites the lowest public taste)'. 'It is better to keep ones word'. Letter Two (12mo, 2 pp): She accepts Lawton's apology. 'I loathe self-advertisement as much as my husband & am a very stupid person about the Press - I never understand it, or its creeds & standards - Your paper is always honest & clean'.

Seller Inventory # 6450

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Two Autograph Letters Signed ('M Asquith' and 'Margot Asquith'), both to the Editor of the London Daily Graphic Harold Edward Lawton.
• Publisher: 3 and 8 December ; the first on letterhead of 44 Bedford Square London W.C.1 and the second on letterhead of The Wharf Sutton Courtney Berkshire
• Publication Date: 1920