DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred (1870-1945) - photo 1

DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred (1870-1945)

Lot 99
13.02.2025 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1362805
Lot 99 | DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred (1870-1945)
Estimate value
£ 8 000 – 12 000
DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred (1870-1945)
Eight autograph letters (seven signed, 'Bosie') to Ada Leverson ('Dear Sphinx'), 35 Fourth Avenue, Hove and 94 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, 30 November 1932 - 3 April 1933
Together 18 pages, 254 x 205mm, letter of 7 December 1932 incomplete, lacking ending. Half dark blue morocco case. Provenance: Barry Humphries (1934-2023; bookplate).

Letters between 'Bosie' and 'The Sphinx', perhaps Oscar Wilde's two closest friends. Douglas's first letter is much preoccupied with Wilde's son, Vyvyan Holland and his association with Douglas's arch-enemy Robert Ross: 'I am a great friend of A.J.A. Symons who is very thick with Vyvyan & who is doing the Official "Life" of Oscar' ... Vyvyan (who is still suffering from a Ross complex) continues to keep up the absurd attitude that he "prefers not to meet" me! It is really rather ridiculous, especially as Oscar always disliked him intensely ...'. Many of the letters discuss Douglas's forthcoming book on Shakespeare's Sonnets: 'I have quoted a lot of Oscar "Portrait of Mr W.H.", but I (reluctantly) do not accept his theory, because I cannot possibly fit it in with the period when I think Shakespeare wrote the sonnets ... Of course you know that Oscar did not invent the "Will Hughes" theory ... '; he later complains vehemently at a review of the book by [Desmond] MacCarthy. There are complaints elsewhere at the 'scandal that there is no state-subsidised theatre', at the difficulty or reading Ada's letters ('some passages are still very obscure, or "obviously corrupt" as the Shakespeare commentators say'), and at being 'horribly "broke"', but he also cheerfully looks forward to lunching with her (within the limitations of his strict Catholic dietary practices) and being introduced to the Sitwells.

The novelist Ada Leverson (1862-1933) was one of the most loyal friends of Oscar Wilde, who christened her 'The Sphinx'; she became a close friend of the Sitwell siblings after the First World War, and later of Harold Acton and Ronald Firbank. She was famous for her witticisms, one of them at Bosie's expense: 'When she heard ... that Alfred Douglas's elder brother had produced a male heir, she is said to have remarked: "For once I think Bosie would have preferred a girl"' (ODNB). She died on 30 August 1933, shortly after the last of these letters.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.02.2025 – 13.02.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred (1870-1945)
DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred (1870-1945)
£10 000

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