[Item #47603] Collection of Correspondence and Chapbooks Addressed to Doris Niles and Serge Leslie. Sacheverell SITWELL.

Collection of Correspondence and Chapbooks Addressed to Doris Niles and Serge Leslie

V.p. 1974-1981. Small working archive of art critic Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, younger brother of Edith and Osbert, all addressed to husband and wife Serge Leslie and Doris Niles, almost all pertaining to the preface Sitwell wrote for the fourth volume of "A Bibliography of the Dance Collection of Doris Niles & Serge Leslie" (1981). Contained in the collection include seveteen pieces of correspondence; seven published poetry chapbooks, five inscribed to the Leslies from Sitwell; and a copy of the fourth volume of the Dance bibliography with Sitwell's preface. Almost all pieces of correspondence with accompanying post-marked envelopes, the letters showing some light wear and the usual mail folds;of the poetry chapbooks and bibliography, one chapbook with light soil, the rest in fine condition. Everything except the bibliography housed in custom paper-covered chemise and slipcase, typescript spine label.

The seventeen pieces of correspondence chiefly in regards to Sitwell's impatience at receiving the proofs of his preface, usually written from the family's homestead Weston Hall, Towcester, in North Hamptonshire, though often informing Niles and Leslie of his travel plans--due to ill health he and his wife Georgia often spent entire winters in Italy or Spain. The most substantial letter in the collection dated January 5, 1978, and is the first to make reference to the bibliography: "What energy Serge has to get started on that fourth volume of his bibliography!" Sitwell continues, "Incidentally, [ballet critic] Dickie Buckle wrote to me that he has just put the finishing touches to his book on Diaghilev, which I think ought really to be a landmark. He has managed in a wonderful way to reproduce the atmosphere of 1914, which I can just remember having been about sixteen or so, but he was not born until some time after. He has taken enormous trouble with documentation and I am sure it will be a landmark when it comes out in, I suppose, about a year's time... I now have the beautiful Picasso drawing of [Russian ballet dancer Lydia] Lopokova in my bedroom and it is a great delight to me. I well remember when she was appearing at Covent Garden and beginning to learn English and also beginning to be very amusing in English, when she had learned to do so which she did to a remarkable degree. I am afraid she is now very old and her memory is gone--she must be 88 or 89." Though Sitwell wrote his preface in 1978, three years would elapse before the work would appear in print when the fourth volume of the Bibliography was published by Dance Books in 1981. Offered together with the archive are seven self-published poetry chapbooks by Sitwell, five inscribed to the Leslies:

1. "An Indian Summer." [Brackley, Northants: Smart & Co., 1972.] Pink staplebound card wrappers.

2. "Badinerie." [Ibid, 1973]. Green staplebound card wrappers.

3. "Auricula Theatre." [Ibid, n.d.] Grey staplebound card wrappers. Inscribed and signed "For Serge and Doris Niles Leslie / From their friend [?] / Sachaverell Sitwell / 10 July 1973."

4. "A Charivari of Parrots." [Ibid.] Pink staplebound card wrappers. Inscribed and signed "For Serge and Doris Niles Leslie / all kind thoughts from / Sachaverell Sitwell / 10 July 1973."

5. "L'Amour au Théâtre Italien." [Ibid.] Pink staplebound card wrappers. Inscribed and signed "For Serge and Doris Niles Leslie / all good wishes from / Sache / 20-1-1975."

6. "Little Italy in London." [Ibid, 1977.] Mustard staplebound card wrappers. Inscribed and signed "For Serge and Doris Leslie / with all my good wishes / S.S. 5.i.1978."

7. "Dodecameron (a self-portrait in twelve poems with an apologia in prose)." [Ibid, n.d.] Inscribed and signed "For Serge and Doris Leslie / all good wishes from / S.S. / 5 January 1978."

Price: $950.00

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