Lot 66D email save

Harmsworth (Cecil Desmond, artist

Sign In to see what this sold for

correspondence including: life long correspondence with his wife Dorothy, née Heinlein, from 1924 onwards (many passionate from their first meetings in Oxford, also letters written during his time at Oxford with many references to Harold Acton and others) and correspondence from her Heinlein relatives; his participation in the Sylvan Debating Club; letters concerning the start of his publishing business; to his father Cecil Harmsworth about his painting (exhibitions etc.); completing a portrait of Madame de Saint Exupéry (wife of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, writer and aviator, 1900-44), "Mme de Saint Exupéry went away; Mme de S.E. came back but was sick, was tired, was excessively busy; finally 2 or 3 days ago St. Ex. flew to Spain on some press mission & his wife was too anxious about that to accomplish anything else"; financial troubles at Desmond Harmsworth Ltd. and referring to his younger brother Eric, his sister Daphne, and Francis Meynell, from Robert Dundas (1884-1960), Senior Censor at Christ Church, Oxford; warm and affectionate letters to his daughter The Hon. Margaret Philips (1928-2007, artist), in New York and Paris, "Don't forget that the Louvre is worth 10 years of art courses... . I have a letter from T.S. Eliot but have not seen him", and her subsequent enrollment at Vassar College, and letters from Margaret to her parents, "I'm working hard - finished everything up on the four pieces of sculpture, and felt terribly relieved to have them out of the way completely. I'm terribly pleased at my patina-ing skill, people won't believe they aren't in bronze"; letters from his trip to Tahiti; his work at the British Library of Information, New York; letters from his brother Eric Harmsworth; Enid Starkie (literary critic, 1897-1970); Sir Harold Acton, A.L. Rowse (regarding Harmsworth's portrait of Rowse); Walter De La Mare, Nancy Cunard, Yvonne Kapp, sending Desmond Harmsworth the manuscript of Short Lease by the hand of Quentin Bell, [1?932]; Robert Magowen, Ladislaus Segy (Art historian); Richard Ellmann, many from Lady Harmsworth's Heinlein family of Bridgeport, Ohio (Minnie A. Heinlein etc.); Countess of Cromer; modern notes relating to the Askew family; correspondence regarding Coronation robes, 1952; condolences on the death of his father, "My Dear Desmond, I was so greatly distressed to read of your Father's death. He was such a particularly delightful person, and I think every one who knew him, loved him" - Sir Osbert Sitwell; part of Desmond's maiden speech in the House of Lords on the abolition of the death penalty; postcards etc., letters and manuscripts, v.s., v.d., [c. 1910-90](lge. qty)

***"Ever since I was a little boy I have had a passion to make things, but I had not found what it was I wanted to make wanted to be an artist in order to create. There was always a vision before me of strong, capable hands for creating, for fashioning something. If only I could tell what it was, if only there could be inspiration. But I understand it now. Self-expression is not enough; it is part of creating, but not all of it. I am almost done with trying to express myself. It is our life that is waiting for us, waiting to be created; and we shall be the creators. There can never be an end to that." - Desmond Harmsworth to Dorothy Heinlein. "You have no idea how your hair shone in the twilight this afternoon and how your eyes matched the tree and how very much I loved you." - Dorothy Heinlein to Desmond Harmsworth, [11th March 1924]. Publishing. "Matters progress with Wyn Henderson (I mean business!) She has made out a budget according to which £1500 or £2000 will be required to set the thing going. What attracts me to her proposal is that she has ideas for printing very cheap editions of good modern books, pamphlets, etc., as well as the usual costly signed editions on beautiful paper. I can't remember if I explained before why there would be a Paris office. Some of the printing would be done here - the printing of anything concievably bannable in England. My part of the business would consist in running the Paris end of it and having an equal share in deciding what to print; not to mention, of course putting up at least half the capital. Mrs Henderson is intelligent and has certainly had a lot of experience; she also has a great many contacts with people in England. On the other hand, she is probably a bad business woman, and has not much sense of what not to undertake - not much critical faculty... . I have, alas, still much more to do: Rodeker's very long MS. to read & return; another, shorter MS. by him; Norman D's 2 essays to look up at the English Review; J[ames] J[oyce] if possible... ." - Desmond Hamsworth to Dorothy, 14th February 1931 & n.d. Sir Harold Acton (aesthete and author, 1904-94) A.L.s. from Harold Acton to Desmond Harmsworth, 16th December 1927, "I do not suppose you have had much opportunity to write; but I am looking forward to hearing good news of creations. Osbert's [Sitwell] poems are not good, pedestrian happy go lucky rhymes about old English country life - or rather, those game-keepers, gardeners, and feudalistic servants who made up that country life which is now expiring by gradual degrees. I have also enjoyed Yvette Guilbert's memoirs, so very ninety-ish with amusing stories about the Moulin Rouge of that period, Toulouse-Lautrec... and Wyndham Lewis's book of stories "The Wild Body" was very refreshing - and occasionally, really great.".

View Bloomsbury Auctions next auction.

Similar lots up for auction