Verlag: Pencil note gives date of transmission on the BBC Third Programme as 29 January, 1949
Anbieter: Richard M. Ford Ltd, London, Vereinigtes Königreich
Manuskript / Papierantiquität
Folio, [ii] + 16 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and spotted paper. First page headed in pencil 'Mr. John Keir Cross' and with the following, also in pencil, at foot: 'Transmission: Sat. 29th January, 1949. | 7.45-8.25 p.m. Third Prog.' First two pages give details of the production, including the names of the producer Noel Iliff and of the seven 'Speakers': Alan Wheatley, Laidman Browne, Valentine Dyall, Patricia Jessel, Anthony Jacob, Robert Marsden and Raf de la Torre. Second page includes instructions regarding the characters of the 'Voices' and a 'Production Suggestion'. The text of the piece is on the following sixteen paginated pages. The script is original (in both senses of the word) and not merely a selection from the poet. The characters include 'The Beddoes Voice: not a characterisation - a stylised reading voice, capable of considerable range of feeling', 'Thomas Forbes Kelsall: quiet, attractive', and 'Encyclopaedia Voice: academic and detached'.
Verlag: Script of 'The Balloon' c Letters dating from between 1948 and 1966; the first three from Muswell Hill London; the last three from South Brent Devon, 1946
Anbieter: Richard M. Ford Ltd, London, Vereinigtes Königreich
Manuskript / Papierantiquität Signiert
Typescript of 'The Balloon': landscape 8vo, 24 pp. Text clear and complete. On aged paper. With pencil emendations (including the deletion of a number of passages) on practically every page. Described by Cross as a 'radio composition' and a 'fantasy for broadcasting', 'The Balloon' presents an absurd take on T. S. Eliot's verse plays. It was transmitted on the Scottish Home Service of the BBC in 1946, with music by Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983). There is no record of it having been published. The five typed letters total seven 4to pages. The autograph letter is landscape 12mo, 1 p. All six letters (all signed 'John') are clear, complete and good, on aged paper. Energetic and entertaining correspondence. Topics include: the Edinburgh Festival ('I'm soaked with music, conversation, drama, ballet, opera - just soaked (the beer is wonderful too)'), an entertaining account of a coincidence in a Dublin bookshop; Shaw's wedding; and Cross's 'strange desire', in his 'ever-increasing old age', to 'start collecting pornographic books'. Also included is a cutting of Cross's brief Daily Telegraph obituary (24 January 1967): 'At Diptford, near Totnes, Devon, aged 52. Farmer, novelist, scriptwriter; joined scriptwriting team, BBC radio series "The Archers," October, 1962; books included "The Man in Moonlight," "The Dancing Tree" and "The Sixpenny Year."' From the papers of the Faber & Faber production manager Montague Shaw.