Beschreibung:

Series of over 450 autograph and typed letters, many closely-written and of great length, postcards and other forms of missive (generally signing himself as "Bill"), to his close friend Sir John Heygate, largely devoted to his novel sequence, A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight, especially Lucifer before Sunrise, with many long explications of Williamson's evolving plans for the sequence and its hero Phillip Maddison; the series interlarded with vivid descriptions of Williamson's day-to-day life in Devon and of his emotional, romantic and marital entanglements, in which Heygate appears to have played the part of father confessor and counsellor (as with the books); original material pertaining to both being contained in the archive, in the case of books, nine pages of heavily-worked drafts for The Phoenix Generation and eleven for Lucifer before Sunrise and, regarding his marriage, drafts of letters to his absconding wife and copies of letters by her to him; a nine-page revised typescript of a "Tale of a Two Litre" [Aston Martin, as featured in Lucifer]; many letters and notes written on the reverse of recycled letters addressed by agents and others to Williamson (such as Brand & Brand of New York writing: "Thank you very much for sending us a copy of the new edition of The Gold Falcon. We are sending it out to our West Coast office who will see whether interest can be aroused in it for pictures..."), 800 pages or more, some with envelopes, many creased but generally in sound and attractive condition, 4to, 8vo and other formats, Georgeham, Devon (the bulk of letters), the Savage Club, London, and elsewhere, bundled into parcels by Heygate, 1950-1973