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Auction archive: Lot number 260

BURRA (PETER)

Estimate
£8,000 - £12,000
ca. US$9,163 - US$13,744
Price realised:
n. a.
Auction archive: Lot number 260

BURRA (PETER)

Estimate
£8,000 - £12,000
ca. US$9,163 - US$13,744
Price realised:
n. a.
Beschreibung:

BURRA (PETER)Archive of highly-acclaimed critic, essayist and writer Peter Burra (1909-1937), including correspondence, manuscripts, papers, photographs and printed material from throughout his life, and autograph letters from Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and E.M. Forster, comprising:
i) Early Life: Group of c.90 autograph letters and postcards home from his schooldays at Bilton Grange and Lancing College (several mentioning Peter Pears and one mentioning dining with Evelyn Waugh), and other material including school reports and printed programmes, c.250pp, 4to and 8vo, 1912 to 1928;
ii) Oxford University: Some 48 letters to his mother ("My darling Moo") and sister Nell ("Darling Nell") from Christ Church, particularly on his activities in musical circles ("...Life here could be one continuous musical festival if one could afford it..."), the production of Lovers' Vows in his rooms, his bookish tastes ("...Decline & Fall which is screamingly funny... I am beginning Virginia Woolf's Orlando. There was never anything like it in the world before..."), John Middleton Murry ("...looks indescribably sad and puzzled and generally very inspired..."), amusing college characters ("...one man with a black shirt and red tie, and I gathered that in him fascism and socialism were finding reconciliation..."), gossip ("...Oxford is simply rocking with rage over 'The Well of Loneliness' case..."), much on publication of Farrago and its success ("...Virginia Woolf has sent a subscription! Twice!..."), Michael Redgrave in Henry IV ("...quite beautiful..."), Malcolm Sargent ("...the best conductor... I've ever done anything with..."), Vaughan Williams ("...frantically bad rehearsal..."), Jelly D'Aranyi ("...the most wonderful noise & ravishing sight...") and much else, c.210pp, folio, 4to and 8vo, Christ Church and Long Wall, 1928-1932; with a printed programme for Lover's Vows signed by the cast, various concert programmes, postcards, newspaper cuttings and printed miscellanea, etc.; with an additional group of items relating to the publication of Farrago including a rare specimen prospectus, no. 1, February 1930 and printed pre-publication leaflet for issue no. 4, 1931; two original pen and ink designs by Oliver Holt, c.1930; and various incoming letters (A.J. Symons, Laurence Whistler Max Beerbohm commenting on the publication;
iii) Germany: Group of some 25 letters and postcards sent home whilst writing for The Times, much on opera and exhibitions ("...Kokoshka the modern German painter..."), having his portrait painted by Heidi Berzlein, politics ("...frantic riots in the Reichshalle... when Communists shot at Hitlerites...") and hearing Hitler speak in Munich ("...It was the most repulsive exhibition I've ever seen... I think it advisable to see as much of the country as possible now. It will certainly be uninhabitable in a few months..."), c.80pp, 4to and 8vo, Cologne and elsewhere, April to September 1932; programmes and correspondence from Salzburg, 1935; with later letters to his mother ("...coming up to town this evening for a concert Benjamin is playing in, going with Christopher Isherwood... I have got a motorbike, BSA, and am very pleased with it..."), including his last on 26 April 1937;
iv) Britten, Berkeley and Pears: Group of 13 autograph letters and notecards from Benjamin Britten, making arrangements and thanking him for photographs ("...We couldn't have had a worse evening for listening to Jonah... we were in great danger of being struck by lightning..."), congratulating him on his Forster article ("...Christopher Ish was here last night until very late and we had a grand time..."); including four to John Moody after Burra's death ("...I hope by now you've seen Gloriana & approve..."), 18pp, 4to and 8vo, Frinton on Sea, Newquay, London, Aldeburgh, 22 June 1936 to 14 August 1973; eleven autograph letters and cards from Lennox Berkeley ("...Are you being a good boy or are you a wicked thing spending all night in the Barrio Chino?..."), on Britten ("...a charming creature...") and Burra's work ("...Van Gogh... beautifully done..."), 19pp, 8vo, Madrid, Paris, Painswick, May 1936 to April 1937; letters and postcards from Peter Pears to Nell (8), Peter (1) and Ella (1), on various subjects ("...In going though old letters the other day, I found one from Peter from Barcelona where he had just met Ben. He really brought us together..."), c.18pp, 4to and 8vo,, Lancing, Oxford, Aldeburgh and elsewhere, January 1928 onwards; with a typescript interview with Pears about meeting Britten; with tickets, programmes and articles from the Barcelona Festival, April 1936 and further letters and postcards from Burra to his mother and Nell, one mentioning meeting Edith Sitwell ("...perfectly charming...");
v) E.M. Forster: Series of 15 autograph letters and one postcard from E.M. Forster, signed ("E.M. Forster"), three to Peter Burra, the first written after reading his article on Forster in Nineteenth Century ("...nothing that I have read about myself has ever given me more pleasure... great help at the moment when I am needing it... I have been looking at my books lately, partly on account of your article. I think A Passage to India stands, but the fissures in the others are considerable..."), the second a critique on his own work ("...Howards End I lose patience with..."), the third arranging to meet and discussing Burra's work on Forrest Reid, with three autograph envelopes; the remainder to Ella Burra post-1937 (two to John Moody) beginning with his letter of condolence ("...I am a writer, and so can perhaps realise the unreparable loss that he is to literature as well as to those who loved him. I thought him the best critic of his generation... I knew and appreciated him..."), others discussing his introduction to the unpublished memorial Essays and Poems ("...if the book is to be for private circulation I would like to contribute...") and the inclusion of Burra's essay on Forster in the 1942 Everyman edition of A Passage to India, 22pp, 4to and 8vo, Abinger Hammer and King's College, 29 November [19]34 to 29 October [19]60;
vi) Poetry and Plays: Group of c.30 manuscript poems including "Sonnet of the Seeker" (with primary version), "Prelude for the Thrush", "King David at Cambridge", "Not Even Summer Yet", "The Poet's Trinity", "The New Birth", some signed and dated, with a modern typescript; typescripts of 'The Secret Marriage. Cimarosa' (two copies, one annotated by Burra "Dialogue specially written for the Canticleer Company's Production July 1933 by Peter Burra"), two typescript copies of Burra's translation of Eugen Gurster's 'Weather Changeable' (amended to "Outlook Unsettled"), and 'A Note on Shakespeare';
vii) Publications: Papers relating to Burra's biography Van Gogh, including the original annotated typescript, correspondence with the publisher and Van Gogh's nephew Vincent Willem, Burra's research notes, and his translation of letters from Van Gogh to Emile Bernard; original typescripts for Impressionism in the letters of Van Gogh and The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (both unpublished), 1932-1933; with copy of Richard Thompson's Credit Where Credit's Due on the debt Douglas Cooper owed to Burra's research on the Van Gogh-Emile Bernard letters and Douglas Cooper's letter of condolence following Burra's death; printed proofs, pamphlets and original annotated typescripts of Burra's published monographs The Novels of E.M. Forster, 1934, Virginia Woolf, 1934 and Forrest Reid (unpublished corrected typescript); papers relating to Wordsworth, including review of The Letters, 1934;
viii) Death and Legacy: File of detailed notes and analysis of the plane crash that killed Peter Burra on 27 April 1937 including photographs of the scene, accident reports, maps and press cuttings; some 50 letters of condolence ("...Some weeks ago when he was first talking of getting a motor-bike I taxed him with hero-worship of T.E. Lawrence and told him he would come to the same sad end. He said that death on a motor-bike or in an aeroplane was a good way to die..." Simon Nowell Smith); with further material relating to the unpublished Essays and Poems memorial publication, including Ella Burra's original typescript memoirs, with annotations in pencil, 33pp, 4to (260 x 210mm.), 1937; the original printed proof copy of the subscription pamphlet, Peter Burra. Essays & Poems with an Introduction by E.M. Forster and A Memoir For Private Circulation, with further correspondence from P.N. Furbank and others;
ix) Over thirty photographs including Burra, Britten, Berkeley in Barcelona, 1936, theatricals at Oxford, the fatal plane crash; with much other material including a scrapbook of press cuttings kept by his mother, royalty statements from Duckworth publishers, earlier Burra family papers including letters from Burra's grandfather Arthur Grenville Tucker to his mother Ella from Natal, 1880's, legal documents, photographs and ephemera, etc.Footnotes'I THOUGHT HIM THE BEST CRITIC OF HIS GENERATION' (E.M. FORSTER): The Burra Archive, illustrating the critic's life and premature death in a plane crash, on the brink on what promised to be a glittering career.
'He inspired a Lennox Berkeley symphony. His death brought Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears together. E.M. Forster described him as 'the best critic of his generation'... Such praise from a literary giant of Forster's stature must make us ask who Peter Burra was and what he might have achieved had he lived. At Oxford, he was a contemporary of poets, Stephen Spender, Louis MacNiece and Randall Swingler. He knew Wystan Auden, Christopher Isherwood and members of the 'Brideshead generation' including Brian Howard, John 'The Widow' Lloyd and Evelyn Waugh... His biographies of Van Gogh (1934) and Wordsworth (1936) were highly acclaimed, as were his critical essays on Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. However, his premature death has resulted in him being overlooked in assessments of the inter-war literary milieu...' (Richard Thompson).
Retained by his mother Ella, his twin sister Nell (1909-1999) and her husband John Moody (1906-1992), the extensive archive documents his life from his schooldays, where Burra met Peter Pears, to Christ Church Oxford and beyond. At Oxford, Burra edited the literary magazine Farrago, publishing early poems by Evelyn Waugh and Cecil Day-Lewis amongst others and his reputation as a writer was soon established. Whilst working at the Barcelona Music Festival in 1936 as special correspondent for The Times, he met Benjamin Britten and Lennox Berkeley, whose letters to him remain in the archive. As Peter Pears later recalled, it was Burra who brought him together with Benjamin Britten for, after Burra's death, Britten joined Pears (who was living in Burra's cottage at the time) to undertake the task of sorting out Burra's personal effects. It is supposed that for propriety's sake, many 'sensitive' letters and documents may have been destroyed at this time: 'As young gay men, they had reason to fear the consequences of such material falling into the wrong hands given the harsh indecency legislation in force in Britain at the time' (Richard Thompson, Credit Where Credit's Due: Peter Burra, Douglas Cooper and the Vincent Van Gogh Emile Bernard letters, Morgan Library & Museum website).
Burra died when a light aircraft flown by a friend crashed near his cottage at Bucklebury Common in Berkshire and there is much in the archive about the controversy surrounding the accident. After his death, there were plans to honour Burra's memory with a privately published subscription volume entitled Peter Burra: Essays and Poems (a rare subscription leaflet for which is also included in the archive), but Burra's mother felt unable to submit her own memoir and the project did not come to fruition, despite E.M. Forster agreeing to write an introduction to the volume. Forster's appreciation did eventually find its way into print but not until the 1942 Everyman edition of A Passage to India, alongside Burra's monograph The Novels of E.M. Forster.
Much of the original material in the archive is hitherto unseen, although the first two letters from E.M. Forster are published in Lago and Furbank's Selected Letters, Vol. II, 1985, nos. 303 and 305. The original material is interspersed with Dr. Richard Thompson's extensive research notes. A complete listing is available upon request.
Provenance: Peter Burra; his sister Nell Moody (née Burra); thence by descent to her godson Dr. Richard Thompson, the present owner.

Auction archive: Lot number 260
Auction:
Datum:
9 Nov 2022
Auction house:
Bonhams London
101 New Bond Street
London, W1S 1SR
United Kingdom
info@bonhams.com
+44 (0)20 74477447
+44 (0)20 74477401
Beschreibung:

BURRA (PETER)Archive of highly-acclaimed critic, essayist and writer Peter Burra (1909-1937), including correspondence, manuscripts, papers, photographs and printed material from throughout his life, and autograph letters from Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and E.M. Forster, comprising:
i) Early Life: Group of c.90 autograph letters and postcards home from his schooldays at Bilton Grange and Lancing College (several mentioning Peter Pears and one mentioning dining with Evelyn Waugh), and other material including school reports and printed programmes, c.250pp, 4to and 8vo, 1912 to 1928;
ii) Oxford University: Some 48 letters to his mother ("My darling Moo") and sister Nell ("Darling Nell") from Christ Church, particularly on his activities in musical circles ("...Life here could be one continuous musical festival if one could afford it..."), the production of Lovers' Vows in his rooms, his bookish tastes ("...Decline & Fall which is screamingly funny... I am beginning Virginia Woolf's Orlando. There was never anything like it in the world before..."), John Middleton Murry ("...looks indescribably sad and puzzled and generally very inspired..."), amusing college characters ("...one man with a black shirt and red tie, and I gathered that in him fascism and socialism were finding reconciliation..."), gossip ("...Oxford is simply rocking with rage over 'The Well of Loneliness' case..."), much on publication of Farrago and its success ("...Virginia Woolf has sent a subscription! Twice!..."), Michael Redgrave in Henry IV ("...quite beautiful..."), Malcolm Sargent ("...the best conductor... I've ever done anything with..."), Vaughan Williams ("...frantically bad rehearsal..."), Jelly D'Aranyi ("...the most wonderful noise & ravishing sight...") and much else, c.210pp, folio, 4to and 8vo, Christ Church and Long Wall, 1928-1932; with a printed programme for Lover's Vows signed by the cast, various concert programmes, postcards, newspaper cuttings and printed miscellanea, etc.; with an additional group of items relating to the publication of Farrago including a rare specimen prospectus, no. 1, February 1930 and printed pre-publication leaflet for issue no. 4, 1931; two original pen and ink designs by Oliver Holt, c.1930; and various incoming letters (A.J. Symons, Laurence Whistler Max Beerbohm commenting on the publication;
iii) Germany: Group of some 25 letters and postcards sent home whilst writing for The Times, much on opera and exhibitions ("...Kokoshka the modern German painter..."), having his portrait painted by Heidi Berzlein, politics ("...frantic riots in the Reichshalle... when Communists shot at Hitlerites...") and hearing Hitler speak in Munich ("...It was the most repulsive exhibition I've ever seen... I think it advisable to see as much of the country as possible now. It will certainly be uninhabitable in a few months..."), c.80pp, 4to and 8vo, Cologne and elsewhere, April to September 1932; programmes and correspondence from Salzburg, 1935; with later letters to his mother ("...coming up to town this evening for a concert Benjamin is playing in, going with Christopher Isherwood... I have got a motorbike, BSA, and am very pleased with it..."), including his last on 26 April 1937;
iv) Britten, Berkeley and Pears: Group of 13 autograph letters and notecards from Benjamin Britten, making arrangements and thanking him for photographs ("...We couldn't have had a worse evening for listening to Jonah... we were in great danger of being struck by lightning..."), congratulating him on his Forster article ("...Christopher Ish was here last night until very late and we had a grand time..."); including four to John Moody after Burra's death ("...I hope by now you've seen Gloriana & approve..."), 18pp, 4to and 8vo, Frinton on Sea, Newquay, London, Aldeburgh, 22 June 1936 to 14 August 1973; eleven autograph letters and cards from Lennox Berkeley ("...Are you being a good boy or are you a wicked thing spending all night in the Barrio Chino?..."), on Britten ("...a charming creature...") and Burra's work ("...Van Gogh... beautifully done..."), 19pp, 8vo, Madrid, Paris, Painswick, May 1936 to April 1937; letters and postcards from Peter Pears to Nell (8), Peter (1) and Ella (1), on various subjects ("...In going though old letters the other day, I found one from Peter from Barcelona where he had just met Ben. He really brought us together..."), c.18pp, 4to and 8vo,, Lancing, Oxford, Aldeburgh and elsewhere, January 1928 onwards; with a typescript interview with Pears about meeting Britten; with tickets, programmes and articles from the Barcelona Festival, April 1936 and further letters and postcards from Burra to his mother and Nell, one mentioning meeting Edith Sitwell ("...perfectly charming...");
v) E.M. Forster: Series of 15 autograph letters and one postcard from E.M. Forster, signed ("E.M. Forster"), three to Peter Burra, the first written after reading his article on Forster in Nineteenth Century ("...nothing that I have read about myself has ever given me more pleasure... great help at the moment when I am needing it... I have been looking at my books lately, partly on account of your article. I think A Passage to India stands, but the fissures in the others are considerable..."), the second a critique on his own work ("...Howards End I lose patience with..."), the third arranging to meet and discussing Burra's work on Forrest Reid, with three autograph envelopes; the remainder to Ella Burra post-1937 (two to John Moody) beginning with his letter of condolence ("...I am a writer, and so can perhaps realise the unreparable loss that he is to literature as well as to those who loved him. I thought him the best critic of his generation... I knew and appreciated him..."), others discussing his introduction to the unpublished memorial Essays and Poems ("...if the book is to be for private circulation I would like to contribute...") and the inclusion of Burra's essay on Forster in the 1942 Everyman edition of A Passage to India, 22pp, 4to and 8vo, Abinger Hammer and King's College, 29 November [19]34 to 29 October [19]60;
vi) Poetry and Plays: Group of c.30 manuscript poems including "Sonnet of the Seeker" (with primary version), "Prelude for the Thrush", "King David at Cambridge", "Not Even Summer Yet", "The Poet's Trinity", "The New Birth", some signed and dated, with a modern typescript; typescripts of 'The Secret Marriage. Cimarosa' (two copies, one annotated by Burra "Dialogue specially written for the Canticleer Company's Production July 1933 by Peter Burra"), two typescript copies of Burra's translation of Eugen Gurster's 'Weather Changeable' (amended to "Outlook Unsettled"), and 'A Note on Shakespeare';
vii) Publications: Papers relating to Burra's biography Van Gogh, including the original annotated typescript, correspondence with the publisher and Van Gogh's nephew Vincent Willem, Burra's research notes, and his translation of letters from Van Gogh to Emile Bernard; original typescripts for Impressionism in the letters of Van Gogh and The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (both unpublished), 1932-1933; with copy of Richard Thompson's Credit Where Credit's Due on the debt Douglas Cooper owed to Burra's research on the Van Gogh-Emile Bernard letters and Douglas Cooper's letter of condolence following Burra's death; printed proofs, pamphlets and original annotated typescripts of Burra's published monographs The Novels of E.M. Forster, 1934, Virginia Woolf, 1934 and Forrest Reid (unpublished corrected typescript); papers relating to Wordsworth, including review of The Letters, 1934;
viii) Death and Legacy: File of detailed notes and analysis of the plane crash that killed Peter Burra on 27 April 1937 including photographs of the scene, accident reports, maps and press cuttings; some 50 letters of condolence ("...Some weeks ago when he was first talking of getting a motor-bike I taxed him with hero-worship of T.E. Lawrence and told him he would come to the same sad end. He said that death on a motor-bike or in an aeroplane was a good way to die..." Simon Nowell Smith); with further material relating to the unpublished Essays and Poems memorial publication, including Ella Burra's original typescript memoirs, with annotations in pencil, 33pp, 4to (260 x 210mm.), 1937; the original printed proof copy of the subscription pamphlet, Peter Burra. Essays & Poems with an Introduction by E.M. Forster and A Memoir For Private Circulation, with further correspondence from P.N. Furbank and others;
ix) Over thirty photographs including Burra, Britten, Berkeley in Barcelona, 1936, theatricals at Oxford, the fatal plane crash; with much other material including a scrapbook of press cuttings kept by his mother, royalty statements from Duckworth publishers, earlier Burra family papers including letters from Burra's grandfather Arthur Grenville Tucker to his mother Ella from Natal, 1880's, legal documents, photographs and ephemera, etc.Footnotes'I THOUGHT HIM THE BEST CRITIC OF HIS GENERATION' (E.M. FORSTER): The Burra Archive, illustrating the critic's life and premature death in a plane crash, on the brink on what promised to be a glittering career.
'He inspired a Lennox Berkeley symphony. His death brought Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears together. E.M. Forster described him as 'the best critic of his generation'... Such praise from a literary giant of Forster's stature must make us ask who Peter Burra was and what he might have achieved had he lived. At Oxford, he was a contemporary of poets, Stephen Spender, Louis MacNiece and Randall Swingler. He knew Wystan Auden, Christopher Isherwood and members of the 'Brideshead generation' including Brian Howard, John 'The Widow' Lloyd and Evelyn Waugh... His biographies of Van Gogh (1934) and Wordsworth (1936) were highly acclaimed, as were his critical essays on Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. However, his premature death has resulted in him being overlooked in assessments of the inter-war literary milieu...' (Richard Thompson).
Retained by his mother Ella, his twin sister Nell (1909-1999) and her husband John Moody (1906-1992), the extensive archive documents his life from his schooldays, where Burra met Peter Pears, to Christ Church Oxford and beyond. At Oxford, Burra edited the literary magazine Farrago, publishing early poems by Evelyn Waugh and Cecil Day-Lewis amongst others and his reputation as a writer was soon established. Whilst working at the Barcelona Music Festival in 1936 as special correspondent for The Times, he met Benjamin Britten and Lennox Berkeley, whose letters to him remain in the archive. As Peter Pears later recalled, it was Burra who brought him together with Benjamin Britten for, after Burra's death, Britten joined Pears (who was living in Burra's cottage at the time) to undertake the task of sorting out Burra's personal effects. It is supposed that for propriety's sake, many 'sensitive' letters and documents may have been destroyed at this time: 'As young gay men, they had reason to fear the consequences of such material falling into the wrong hands given the harsh indecency legislation in force in Britain at the time' (Richard Thompson, Credit Where Credit's Due: Peter Burra, Douglas Cooper and the Vincent Van Gogh Emile Bernard letters, Morgan Library & Museum website).
Burra died when a light aircraft flown by a friend crashed near his cottage at Bucklebury Common in Berkshire and there is much in the archive about the controversy surrounding the accident. After his death, there were plans to honour Burra's memory with a privately published subscription volume entitled Peter Burra: Essays and Poems (a rare subscription leaflet for which is also included in the archive), but Burra's mother felt unable to submit her own memoir and the project did not come to fruition, despite E.M. Forster agreeing to write an introduction to the volume. Forster's appreciation did eventually find its way into print but not until the 1942 Everyman edition of A Passage to India, alongside Burra's monograph The Novels of E.M. Forster.
Much of the original material in the archive is hitherto unseen, although the first two letters from E.M. Forster are published in Lago and Furbank's Selected Letters, Vol. II, 1985, nos. 303 and 305. The original material is interspersed with Dr. Richard Thompson's extensive research notes. A complete listing is available upon request.
Provenance: Peter Burra; his sister Nell Moody (née Burra); thence by descent to her godson Dr. Richard Thompson, the present owner.

Auction archive: Lot number 260
Auction:
Datum:
9 Nov 2022
Auction house:
Bonhams London
101 New Bond Street
London, W1S 1SR
United Kingdom
info@bonhams.com
+44 (0)20 74477447
+44 (0)20 74477401
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