BENNETT MSS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 149, 25 June 1936, Page 22

BENNETT MSS.

SURPRISE LOW PRICE. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, May 30. The many thousands of words, which Arnold Bennett wrote (with those which his friends wrote to him) were appraised at Sotheby's this week at £3745. In his heyday Bennett received an offer of £3000 for the 200,000 calligraphic words of his "best seller," "The Old Wives Tale." He refused it with disdain, stating that he hoped to live to obtain £5000 for his work!" At Sotheby's all bidding stopped at £1250, and, the lot was withdrawn under the name of "Menken," as the reserve price placed upon the story had not been reached. "Menken" claimed also "Riceyman Steps"„at £390, but Mr. R. Smith bought the 241,300 words of "Imperial Palace" for £200. As for the journals, the best price was £30 for the columns of self-communion between October, 1908, and June, 1909. Bennett's correspondents also suffered from this lack of auction room fervour. Eleven letters from Joseph Conrad realised £52; Galsworthy's 36 made £4; a score from George Moore, G. B. Shaw's 15, £10 10/; 87 first-rate letters from H. G. Wells £38. Perhaps Bennett, never wrote truer words than these in his diary for October 23, 190S: "To 'make popular success a condition of one's happiness is painfully silly."