
GOSSE (EDMUND) Manuscript of his "Introduction" to "Further Memories... by Lord Redesdale", [August 1917]
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GOSSE (EDMUND)
Footnotes
"JOHN DRINKWATER, IN MEMORY OF HIS FRIEND & MINE; EDMUND GOSSE, XMAS 1917" - A 22-page manuscript essay on Algernon B.F. Mitford, first Baron Redesdale by Gosse, "one of the most prolific and powerful writers of his time" (ODNB). Headed "Introduction" with "from Edmund Gosse C.B., 17 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, NW" the manuscript has many corrections and revisions. It was published as the introduction to Lord Redesdale's Further Memories (1917), released the year after Redesdale's death. Gosse, author of Fathers and Sons (1907), later contributed the article on Redesdale for the ODNB. Perhaps best remembered today as the grandfather of the "Mitford Girls", Redesdale was in his lifetime a diplomat and successful author, notably for his classic Tales of Old Japan (1871), but "far from being the pillar of the establishment Bloomsbury abhorred, [he] had in fact been involved in the Wise forgeries and had been a secret homosexual" (ODNB). A copy of his Life of Swinburne (1912) inscribed to Drinkwater is held at Princeton University.
Provenance: John Drinkwater (1882-1937), given to him by Edmund Gosse, with the latter's inscription "John Drinkwater in memory of his friend & mine; Edmund Gosse, Xmas 1917"; Drinkwater's bookplate and pencil note; his daughter Penelope Ann and thence by descent.