Item 119 - Carbon copy of a letter from Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence to Miles Malleson

1 single sheet

Agrees in deploring the suppression of artistic works. The seizure of Malleson’s plays is evidence of their power to kindle the imagination.

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Transcript

31st. October, 1916.

Dear Mr. Malleson,

Yes alas—when I sent round next morning after writing my letter to you to purchase copies of your Plays to send away to my friends, my messenger was told that it was too late, {1} that the Authorities had descended upon the publisher and seized every copy. I agree with you that there is something very menacing indeed in the fact that even {2} the work of an artist is subject to suppression. I think it is one of the most serious dangers with which any Community could be confronted. I see that a question is to be asked in Parliament to-day. I am of course extremely sorry that I did not read the Play at once and secure additional copies. I congratulate you again on having written them. The very fact that they have been suppressed is in itself an evidence of the power that is in them to kindle the imagination.

You won’t forget your promise to write to me in a day or two to fix an afternoon when you could look in and see me, or ring me up over the telephone.

Yours with all good wishes,
[blank]

Miles Malleson Esq.,
“The Attic”,
43, Bernard Street,
Russell Sqre. W.C.

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{1} Mistyped ‘thateven’.

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.