Forster (E.M., writer, 1879-1970) Autograph Letter signed to Baroness [Moura] Budberg, 1p., 8vo, Abinger Hammer, Dorking, 17th February 1940, "I'm at present trying to do a 'propaganda' broadcast for the B.B.C and I think I would rather get it off my mind and chest before I attempt anything else...I had a very nice lunch with H. G. W[ells] the other day: I wish you had been able to be there...", pen mark verso, folds.

⁂ An intriguing remnant of Forster's link with a notorious member of the Russian liberal aristocracy, Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya, later Baroness Budberg, affectionally known as Moura (1892-1974).

Moura, a mysterious saloniste of the Bloomsbury group and wider London arts circle, was - under the cover of various fictions and rumours - a suspected double-agent to the British and Russian intelligence services. She was a Russo-Baltic exile living in London and mistress of, among others, H.G. Wells and Maxim Gorky.