HARDY'S BOOKS SOLD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1938, Page 31

HARDY'S BOOKS SOLD

SOME SPIRITED BIDDING

On many occasions at Hodgson's rooms there was spirited bidding for the books which Thomas Hardy had left at Max Gate, Dorchester, and for the autograph letters which Barrie an* 1 Lawrence of Arabia had written to the second Mrs. Hardy. Over £2700 was the satisfactory result, says the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post." None of Hardy's own manuscripts appeared. He was a very generous friend, and the manuscripts which he gave to Clement Shorter and Edmund Gosse, were sold at Sotheby's ten years ago. Then, 30 pages of "Wessex Folk" brought £740. As far back as 1888 Barrie became closely acquainted with Hardy. He forthwith sent his "Auld Licht Idylls," with a note expressing his joy in Hardy's works, holding the first reading of them "as an event in my life." I This first presentation from Barrie realised £50 (Quaritch),- a sum which was much exceeded when Mr. Ben Maggs gave, £255 for the first issue of "The Little Minister" in 1891. Galsworthy, too, was an intimate friend and admirer, and duly sent along his works as they were published, and the gratefully inscribed first edition, 1906, of "The Man of Property" reached £150. "SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM." As expected, the book to bring the highest price of the day was one of the "original subscribers' edition" of Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," 1926. This realised £205 (Salby). A copy has not. fetched so much for some time. The value of this was enhanced by a note to Mrs. Hardy, in which Lavpence stated that he had cut out "superfluous adjectives." The set of 40 letters written by him to Mrs. Hardy, including one in which he- mentioned " 'The Seven Pillars' as 'a very risky speculation, even if H. G. Wells thinks it will go to £ 150,'" went for £102 (Edwards). On the other hand, only £59 had to be paid for the 126 letters addressed to Mrs. [Hardy by Barrie. His original manu- | script of a play entitled "Punch," on -60 pages, brought £40. Among the bargains of the afternoon were two characteristic letters from George Bernard Shaw to Mrs. "Hardy. One of these was written after Hardy's funeral service in Westminster Abbey. i After terms of generous sympathy comes the passage: "Galsworthy never goes to funerals; he feels, as I do, that it is an intrusion; but when' the whole country rises up and intrudes, what can we do but our best to make it a dignified and a beautiful intrusion." Sir Sidney .Cockerell, bidding in per-r son, was able to acquire the pair for £5 10s.