Beschreibung:

A small archive of letters, Christmas cards, a drawing, and newspaper cuttings by or relating to John Betjeman comprising an autograph letter signed 'John B' addressed to 'Puffin'(?) and dated 1st November 1950, saying "I enclose the only signed picture I have which I drew at breakfast this morning", one page, folded, accompanied by the pen & ink drawing referred to, half-length caricature self-portrait, showing the poet writing with a quill against a backdrop of books, titled in manuscript "'In My Den' A Literary Study of J. Betjeman" and inscribed "with best wishes John Betjeman I.XI.MCML", spotted, one page folded twice, 20 x 12cm (8 x 4.75ins), together with two auutograph letters signed to Bryan Hall from Eve le Strange which relate to the drawing, plus two typescript letters signed from John Betjeman to Father Dicker, dated 1973 and 1974, the latter saying "I am enchanted by the photographs of your house which looks like something in Jane Austen", speaking of his proposed trip to St. Helena, thanking Dicker for his kindness on his mother's death, and finishing "I am very fond of the poems of Dean Alford about Wells. He had Wordsworthian qualities", plus seven Christmas cards signed by Betjeman, plus thirteen volumes by John Betjeman some with the bookplate of Bryan William James Hall most in dustjackets, including John Betjeman's Collected Poems, 1959, inscribed by the Betjemans to Geoffrey Faber, 1959; London's Historic Railway Stations, 1972, inscribed by Betjeman to Alan Aldridge; Murray's Architectural Guides for Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, 1948 and 1949; Ghastly Good Taste, 1933; and First and Last Loves, 1952, 4to/8vo (15)