Beschreibung:

Barger family collection of twenty-eight autograph letters by E.M. Forster, two to his mother Lily Forster, fifteen to his intimate friend Florence Barger, two to her son Evert and nine to Evert's wife Mollie; including: (i) Autograph letter signed ("Morgan"), to "Dear Florence", written while staying with D.H. Lawrence at Greatham, near Pulborough ("...We are in a cottage, or rather barn, belonging to Miss Viola Meynell... The Lawrences I like – especially him. We have had a two hours walk in the glorious country between here & Arundel, and he has told me all about his people – drunken father, sister who is married to a tailor &ct: most gay & friendly, with breaks to look at birds, catkins, &ct... L. is now finishing off his new novel [The Rainbow], which he thinks is good...") and describing how "Lawrence gets almost mad with rage" against respectability and especially Sir Jesse Boot's prudish reluctance to stock his short stories; dated by recipient in pencil "12.ii.1915" [sic], 2 pages, 8vo, "C/o D.H. Lawrence, Greatham, Pulborough", [teatime, 11 February 1915] [Lago, B52] (ii) Autograph letter signed ("Morgan"), to "Dearest Florence", containing the well-known account of his last visit to his dying lover Mohammed el-Adl in Alexandria ("...He sat by me in the Ry carriage and said 'My love to you – there is nothing else to say' which is exactly the truth. I did not think him so well. I trust that the end will come without suffering – poor dear little fellow. His face is unchanged. In the house he wears a yellow velvet cap, shaped rather like Goldie's, and folds his body up as only an Oriental can, so that the intelligent beautiful head seems to be resting on a pyramid of clothes. Ah me – but every thing is bearable, it is the betrayal from within that wears away one's soul and I have been spared that..."), 2 pages, P&O SS Delta headed paper, 4to, "Near Corsica", 25 February 1922 [Lago, B123] (iii) Autograph letter signed ("Morgan"), to "Dearest Florence", describing life with his mother ("...the atmosphere of old-ladyism became more than my nerves could stand...") and her attitude towards his lovers ("...The disappearance of Vicary is a great loss, and mother has never alluded to him since he left. She never mentions Mohammed either. Perhaps she has suspicions..."), before giving full vent to his grief for his dead friend ("...I feel that if my novel [Passage to India] is no good there may yet be some other work for me to do. Also it is poor Mohammed's nearest approach to 'that immortality promised by our ever-living poet.' I feel very sad about my true but vanished friend. The victory of the grave is indeed a very real one. The dead may live on as influences, but each day we remember them less clearly... I wear Mohammed's ring once every twenty hours, generally at night, yet I know that if I lost it/ it would be nearer to him, because he is lost. And it is a sort of comfort to know that my state and his will one day be the same, although he is wrong in supposing we shall meet in it. He is constantly in my thoughts, but it is a labelled concept I think of, not he, and I don't know how long this will go on or what good it does, while it goes on. Art is the only escape, and the esoteric reference at the close of 'Pharos & Pharillon' was a great relief to me when I penned it, so was that story 'The Life to Come' which I read to you and George. My expectation is that the dead are a bore and best forgotten, but I have not suffered enough yet to justify me acting on this..."); the letter also referring to his friendship with Siegfried Sassoon ("...very nice, very intimate, and wants me to come abroad... He is certainly a genius, and this only comes out partially in his writings..."), 4 pages, weak at folds, 4to, Hunnyhill, Brightstone, 24 June 1923 [Lago, B133] (iv) Autograph letter signed ("Morgan"), to "Dearest Florence", describing his first meeting with T.E. Lawrence ("...Then here, which is the most thrilling, as I have spen