abdication crisis (4 risultati)

See the entries for Lang and Ross in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo, on light-grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Begins 'Dear Vice Chancellor. / Some time ago I proposed Sir David Cecil for election to the Athenaeum. His name has produced a remarkable number of supporters, but no one has been put down as seconder to my proposal.' He asks Ross to second Cecil's nomination, before writing a sentence which is hard to decipher. He concludes by suggesting that he inform the club secretary accordingly, if Ross is willing.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to 'The Provost of Oriel' and with sprawling signature 'Yours vy trly / Cosmo Cantuar:'. Reads: 'Dear Provost, / I have received your letter of November 20th about Mr. Randall Cooper. I am sorry to say that your letter came too late for the appointment of the first batch of Assistant Cataloguers. They have now been appointed but I am informed that there may be further appointments in the Spring. I am forwarding your letter to the Director of the British Museum informing him that I am willing to give Mr. Cooper a nomination.' For Lang's difficult relations with the British Museum as a trustee of that institution, see D. M. Wilson's 2002 'The British Museum: A History'. See Image.

Initialled "[?]P 10/12" (10 December"2pp., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. A number of minor autograph corrections suggest that the author of the letter may not be a native English speaker. The letter begins: 'Now that the period of delay and doubt, and of consequent uncertainty and uneasiness, is over it may, perhaps, be permitted to express a feeling almost of relief and satisfaction that King Edward has decided to abdicate.' The former king's 'retiring disposition and sensitive temperament were not equal to the fierce light of publicity that always beats upon the Throne', and 'his mental poise and physical strength' have been 'undermined to the point of breakdown'. 'No other charitable explanation seems capable of accounting for his present obvious dereliction of duty. There can be few of his former loyal and loving subjects who were not ready to sacrifice their very lives for him; and yet he could not bring his mind to sacrifice for them a personal desire to wed a wife who already had not been able to retain the affection and fidelity of two husbands, and whom apparently he did not consider a fit and proper person to be his Queen.' He has brought 'dire distress to millions throughout the Empire', and their 'universal love and devotion to him' should be 'extended in full measure to the Prince, who has so nobly and bravely undertaken the task of succeeding him in such painful circumstances'. Accompanied by a newspaper cutting headed: 'AUSTRALIA'S "DEEP EMOTION" | STATE PREMIER'S APPEAL | SYDNEY, Monday.' From the papers of Lieut.-Col. E. B. Peacock.

See Sitwell's entry in the Oxford DNB. In his 1999 biography Philip Ziegler describes how the 'doggerel polemic Rat Week' 'excoriated' the supporters of the Edward VII and Mrs Simpson: 'Osbert realised that this diatribe, if published, might land him in a flurry of libel actions, but he could not resist having a few copies made and distributed to his closer cronies; Mrs. Greville, Lady Aberconway, Lady Cholmondeley and Philip Frere among them. They showed it to their closer friends, copies were made, word of it passed around, soon it was known to everyone who was anyone in London.' Sitwell himself has described how it spread 'with the force and urgency of an eighteenth-century ballad: little did I know that it had multiplied and taken to itself wings, that it was being declaimed in drawing-rooms and saloon-bars and the public rooms of hotels, and that strangers were handing garbled versions of it to one another, later to be read aloud in crowded omnibuses or over the subterranean roar of the tube-trains. No contemporary work of which I am cognisant ever obtained a similar immediate popular response.' When the editor of the magazine 'Cavalcade' published an expurgated version, Sitwell sued for breach of copyright. After some litigation the magazine settled out of court for £500. Mimeograph typescript. 3pp, 4to. Fifty-six irregular lines of rhymed verse, in six stanzas. Paginated. On three loose leaves. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Underlined at top right of first page: 'Private.' Considering the mimeographed nature of the document, the typewriting style, the watermark, and not least the word 'Private', there is every indication that the present item is one of the 'few copies' Sitwell had made. Begins: 'Where are the friends of yesterday | That fawned on Him, | That flattered Her? | Where are the friends of yesterday, | Submitting to His every whim, | Offering praise of Her as myrrh | to Him?' Individuals whose names were suppressed in the 'Cavalcade' version are 'sweet Maid Mendl', 'Colefax - in her iron cage / of curls' and John McMullen. There are also references to 'Balmoral's Coburg Towers', 'dear Fort Belvedere' and 'the Ritz Bar'. Published (Penguin) 1986 (described by dealteers as "First Edition").