Westcountry Studies. Issue 28, Christmas 2022

 

Westcountry Studies a bibliographical newsletter on Devon and its region Issue 28  Christmas 2022

Henry Williamson 

I never intended to produce another newsletter this year, but this special issue results from an email drawing my attention to a sale from the Henry Williamson Estate sent on Sunday 11 December by Colin Bray of Libraries Unlimited - an appropriately named individual to draw attention to a writer who lived many years by the river Bray in north Devon. He wrote: "Scouring forthcoming auctions like I do, I came across a number of lots selling Henry Williamson's personal archives including two lots of manuscripts etc. The auction takes place this coming Wednesday." 

He directed me to lots 140 and 141 described as: "Henry Williamson: drafts & proofs: a quantity of galley proofs, typescripts and draft copies". Illustrations showed that they seemed to include a wealth of material, including a copy of a manuscript of Dandelion days, a favourite with me because Colham School was a thinly disguised depiction of Colfe's Grammar School which both Williamson and I attended. 

This upcoming auction had passed me by and it does not seem to have been widely publicised. I alerted the The University Special Collections, the Devon Heritage Centre and Exeter City of Literature and also the trustees of the Friends of Devon's Archives and the Kent Kingdon Bequest, both of which I suggested might be able to support purchases of the papers of one of Devon's leading writers, although I thought that the estimates were on the low side, especially should American universities enter the fray. In the short timescale, I had no opportunity to examine the sale catalogue more fully, and I received no feedback except a comment that HW's fascist leanings might make any purchase controversial. 

So the sale went ahead and Colin got back to me: "I followed the auction today and an unusual number of Williamson lots sold to the room, not online. From that I intuit that a) collectors travelled to view the lots and bid in person and b) Devon institutions had limited luck if they did bid. The lots generally sold above estimate - and in some cases, much above estimate ..." - and therefore much above anything Devon could have afforded. 

This led me to look more closely at the sale catalogue. The material from the Henry Williamson estate formed part of a massive three day sale by Stride and Son, auctioneers in Chichester, from 14 to 16 December 2022. and those I discovered were lots 100-168 in the first day of the sale. Each lot contained from one to thirty or more items. I have produced a listing of the lots together with the estimated and hammer prices, rather like bolting the stable door after the horse has escaped, but at least capturing something of what has been lost by the scattering to the four winds of this important literary estate. I have also started to capture some of the illustrations, but am reluctant to do too much work in case the contents of the estate have already been listed and are available locally. Some of the illustrations may be useful for updating the Devon bibliography - if I ever find the time. 

Lot 117 TARKA THE OTTER: AUTHOR'S SPECIAL COPY: the annotated first draft for the privately printed 1927 edition of Tarka the Otter, later released in an issue of 100 copies: with 4pp prospectus tipped in at front, inscribed by Williamson in red ink 'This is No.1 of the Private Emigrants Edition, of which there is only one copy. Made in Skirr Cottage on 7th Jul 1927...': 8vo, crudely bound in brown boards with cloth spine, further inscribed to backstrip 'Private Emigrants Edition' and 'PS the glue isn't: the darned stuff is 'size' after all. BLAST and BEWARE!', with printed Georgeham label and owl device to front cover, further inscribed by Williamson 'Bibliographical Note and Warning...this very extra special first (glue) edition of Tarka the Otter was made in exasperation, fingers, clothes, hair, ear those all in contact, while Pie and her kitten were eating Ida's very special supper of egg stuffed with last night's sardine-remnant. During the confusion, the fact escaped the author-binder that the leaves HEREIN were loose and unstitched. So beware!!! Open carefully lest the bag of tricks falleth apart. Prize this first & sole copy of the first edition: it will be worth much gold in the (?) to come!!': with occasional further marginalia in ink and pencil at points throughout, contents shaken, front and rear 'endpapers' formed of specimen pages from the subsequent limited edition. (1) Hammer: £1800.

ReConEx

On 8 December I recorded a second podcast for the Writing religious conflict and community in Exeter 1500-1750 project.      It continued my discussion of the region's book trades from the mid 17th century until the end of the period covered by the project and will be released in the New Year.    It involved the production or revision of several web pages.      I was anxious to extend the coverage of publications to include illustrations and selected and placed in chronological order the earliest topographical prints listed by John Somers Cocks in Devon topographical prints 1539-1750: a chronological listing. The list adds to them some earlier items which may not exactly fall within the scope of Somers Cocks but which indicate the slowly emerging published iconography of Exeter and Devon. Many of the earliest items were woodcuts, printed at the same time as the text, and were sometimes highly imaginative. While the earliest image of Exeter depicts the twin towers of the Cathedral, the Castle, the city walls and the bridge, it remained in manuscript from about 1539 until 1822. Others were mere factotum woodblocks, which could serve for any town  the printer happened to be dealing with. It was not until the later 17th century (with the notable exception of John Hooker in 1587) that realistic images of the city and county began to appear. One surprising aspect is the good representation of technical and scientific topics - the Eddystone lighthouses were at least as popular an icon as Exeter Cathedral in the early 18th century. 

I also produced a draft listing of engraved Portraits of Devonians published before the mid-18th century. It includes entries for bishops of Exeter for whom no published portraits have yet been traced to show how selective coverage in this early period is - there is nothing to compare with the iconic portraits of Luther, Melanchthon and other reformers which illustrated the early Reformation on the continent of Europe. The groundwork for the present page is based on the collections of the National Portrait Galley, but it is hoped to augment them with engraved portraits in the collections of the Westcountry Studies Library, Devon and Exeter Institution, Exeter Cathedral Library, Royal Albert Memorial Museum and University of Exeter Special Collections. The P&D references are to Exeter City Library stock numbers assigned mainly during the 1930s. Portraits to be included in future issues of this page would be mainly limited to published engraved or lithographed portraits and caricatures of individuals with Devon connections or by Devon artists or engravers and will be extended forward in time into the 19th century.

On a a seasonal note

Casting around desperately for a seasonal note on which to end the year, I stumbled upon a Westcountry author unknown to BNB:

Paulinyi, Rebecca. The Worst Christmas Ever? Christmas in Devon / by Rebecca Paulinyi. -  Independently published, 2018. - 260 pages ; 22 cm. ISBN‎ 9781790763580. - South West Series Book 1. -

Looking for something more positive I noted that it was the first in a series, and fortunately things improved for the heroine by book 4 in the series: 

Paulinyi, Rebecca. The Best Christmas Ever ; a Wedding in Devon Novella / By Rebecca Paulinyi. - Independently published, 2020. - 146 pages. - ISBN: 9798689189642. South West Series Book 4. - 

In fact there are seven in the series, several of them set in Totnes or elsewhere in south Devon, and they are all available on Kindle. I will therefore add them to the Devon bibliography in the New Year. 

Christmas is the time for annuals, and a chat at the bar of the Coaver Club at County Hall revealed to me that a fellow drinker had worked on the accounts of a national publisher whose headquarters were once in the Old Rectory in Matford Lane, which I pass each time I venture into town. It proved to be Pedigree Books, responsible between 1993 and 2016 for numerous annuals, an output that has been continued since by Little Brother Books. They published the Rupert Annual from about 1995 to 2011 with the Daily Express and also reprinted earlier volumes from the 1940s and 1950s as well as the Giles and Andy Capp series of cartoons. The Star Wars Annual (2005-2014) was another long-running title, but they covered many more popular figures: Batman, Bunty, Clone Wars, Kung Fu Panda, Noddy, Old Bibliofool, Pokémon, Shreck, Sindy, Smurfs, South Park, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, World Wrestling Entertainment and many more. BNB insist on listing most of them as "journals" despite the fact that many of them only survived for a year, which makes tracking, identifying and dating them problematic, but I hope to produce a list of these too in the New Year. My thoughts are not entirely in the period of hand printing and these manifestations of today's popular culture which emanate from our City of Literature are worthy of recording. To twist an adage: look after the present and the past will look after itself. 

I leave you at the end of this annus horribilissimus with an annual that was in the Christmas display at the Devon and Exeter Institution: 

 Thomas' "Devonian" Christmas annual, edited by the Practical Hatter [...] by Devonshire contributors only. Exeter : H. Leduc, printer, 32, Waterbeer St. Publishers: Wheaton & Co., Fore Street, Exeter, 1883. 

It is a title that I had not come across before and it serves as a more appropriate greeting card to you than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is the last title I add to the Devon bibliography this year in hope rather than expectation of a better year for us all in 2023.