Gray Ellington (5 results)

cheap edition. Dust jacket very tatty, with long creased tear & triangular loss to front panel. Used - Very Good. VG hardback in Poor dustjacket Used - Very Good. VG hardback in Poor dustjacket.

AUDIO CD. Condition: Like New. AUDIO CD.

143, (1)pp. Prof. illus. Lrg. sq. 4to. Wraps.

Hardcover. Condition: Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: No DJ. 1st Edition. 1st Edition. Inscribed and Signed by Author. Description: Orange cloth with blind stamped titles to front and black titles to spine. Language: English. Book Condition> Good+: Wear to corners and edges with chipped ends. Tear across spine header. Darkened spine cloth. Cracked lower front endpaper with firm hinge. Authors signature "Ellington Gray" to ffep in pencil. Tanned unmarked pages. DJ Condition> No DJ. 319pp. Size: 8vo 19.5cm by 12.5cm. Provenance: Inscribed and Signed by Author. Inscribed and Signed by Author.

An entertaining and characteristic correspondence. See both their entries in the Oxford DNB. The nine items (seven by Jacob and two by Macqueen-Pope) are in fair overall condition, with all text clear and complete, on lightly aged and creased paper, with slight rust-staining from paperclips, and minor wear to edges. All folded for envelopes. The first seven of the nine following entries are NJ's letters (the last four of which are addressed to 'My dear Popie'), the last two the copies of MP's. ONE: 24 June [1945]. 'ENSA Entertainments. / C/o Welfare, 6th. Brit. Armde. Div. / C. M. F.' Signed 'N J'. 1p, 8vo. Twenty-six lines. MP is not named as the recipient, but NJ ends by praising his 1945 History of Drury Lane. Begins: 'I went off to Trieste after having seen two companies leave here, and found the hostel at Trieste being excellently run. Much brighter then [sic] it was before. The "Nine to Six" Company were in, moving on to Mestre. They then go to Austria.' She continues on the subject of an 'informal' road-side 'conference' with 'Captain Roberts'. She has travelled from Trieste with Jean Webster Brough, to Udine 'where we did "A sister to assist 'er" from B.4 radio station. Apparently this went over excellently, and everyone seemed very much pleased. I go back there to do a single talk on Wednesday.' The second half of the letter touches on an ENSA hostel ('no longer shared with the D.A.R.'), another meeting with Roberts, an 'extensive programme for the station' arranged by NJ and Brough, a trip to Venice, where she met 'the Theatre Manager. The well known and universally repected "Fop". This man is probably one of the most popular people ENSA has ever had out in C.M.F.' The following six letters are all from 'Casa Micki'. TWO: 6 February 1951. 1p, 8vo. Signed 'Naomi Jacob.' On pink paper. Expressing anticipation regarding his new book. She has all his others 'up to date and, as we have no lending libraries out here in Italy that should bring a certain satisfaction to the heart of any author!' In an autograph postscript she asks him to forward a letter to Basil Dean. THREE: 11 December 1951. 1p, 8vo. Signed 'Naomi Jacob.' Twenty-eight lines. On pink paper. She has just finished his 'superb article dealing with that wonderful woman, Our Marie [Lloyd]. To be quite frank, as a rule I dislike impressions of her. Either people become fulsome or impertinent. I rank this article of yours with the one which dear James Agate wrote of her soon after her death.' After praising his 'beautifully written' piece she reminds him that she 'wrote a full length life of Marie [.] My publishers were very dubious [.] When it came out I have never had so many, such long and such enthusiastic criticisms [.] entirely due to the fact that Marie will always live in the hearts of the people who were fortunate enough to see her and still more fortunate to have known her.' She ends by offering him one of her two copies of the 'special photograph [Lloyd had] taken to send to Sarah Bernhardt [.] quite different from any other photograph she ever had taken [.] she does not look unlike Bernhardt in it'. FOUR: 18 January 1952. 2pp, 8vo. Signed 'Naomi Jacob. / (but "Mickie" to my friends)'. Thirty-eight lines. In sending the photograph she gives 'its history'. 'She had some of these photographs taken after Sarah Bernhardt had seen her on the stage and christened her "the Sarah Bernhardt of the Music Hall Stage". Marie of course was tickled to death because no-one venerated other great artistes more than she did and she had these photographs taken and sent one to Bernhardt with the inscription "To Sarah Bernhardt, the Marie Lloyd of the Theatre".' She criticises a BBC radio programme on Lloyd as a 'hotch-potch [.] I have a great admiration for Compton Mackenzie and for Max Beerbohm but what either of them knew about Marie Lloyd I cannot imagine. To refer to her voice as being harsh is of course sheer rubbish. Her voice was a little hoarse but there was no har.