Vincent Price Estate: Signed Letters from Max Beerbohm

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As a young man living in England while studying art history at the Courtauld Institute, Vincent Price was an avid collector of autographs and famous letters. are two handwritten letters in pen from Max Beerbohmn on his personal stationary, with the heading 48, Upper Berkeley Street, W. January 13, 1919 My dear Frederic I was so sorry you didn't turn up, but I guessed that by some mischance my letter hadn't reached you. Please thank Mrs. Fowler for her very kind invitation. I shall have very much pleasure in coming to luncheon next Thursday at 1:30. Till when (x), yours ever (}) Max Beerbohm x} Excuse contradiction in terms. Sunday My dear Manning I had so hoped I could come and meet your friend next Wednesday; but I shall, alas, be out of town. Please give me another chance--week after next, or rather next week: I never realize that weeks begin on Sundays--Sundays seeming so essentially death-like. "Max" be it, by all means, and of course: we have surely known each other long enough for that. Twenty years or so hence I shall manage to return the compliment by addressing you as Frederic. One has to have known a Frederic for at least thirty years before his named become imbued with any sort of personal significance. "Manning" mean you well enough; but Frederic, for the present, means Tom, Dick, and Harry. Yours ever Max Beerbohm Frederic Manning was an Australian poet and novelist (more information below). Max Beerbohm was a famed British parodist and friend to George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde (more information below). What wonderful, historic and truly one-of-a-kind letters for any fan of one or both! About Max Beerbohm: Max Beerbohm From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia * Ten things you may not know about images on Wikipedia * Jump to: navigation, search Max Beerbohm by William Rothenstein, 1893 Max Beerbohm by William Rothenstein, 1893 Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (August 24, 1872 - May 20, 1956) was an English parodist and caricaturist. He was born in London, England, the younger half-brother of actor and producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. He was educated at Charterhouse School and Merton College, Oxford, w he was Secretary of the Myrmidon Club. At Oxford he became part of the Oscar Wilde set, although George Bernard Shaw declared that Beerbohm was incomparable to anyone else. At this early age, he was also in much demand as a guest at the great dinner parties of Mayfair, w he was considered by many to be the greatest wit in town, and spent much of his time burning up the Oxford-London railway. His early brilliance faded all too soon, and by thirty-five he was viewed as a prematurely dull, heavy, middle-aged man. It was at school that he began writing. His "Defence of Cosmetics" appeared in the first edition of the The Yellow Book, Aubrey Beardsley being art editor at the time. Beerbohm toured the United States while a young man as a press agent for his brother's theatrical company. His first book, The Works of Max Beerbohm, was published in 1896. Having been interviewed by George Bernard Shaw himself, in 1898 he followed Shaw as drama critic for the Saturday Review,[1] on whose staff he remained until 1910. From 1935 onwards, he was an occasional if popular radio broadcaster, talking on cars and carriages and music halls for the BBC. His wit is shown often enough in his caricatures but his letters contain a carefully blended humor--a gentle admonishing of the excesses of the day--whilst remaining firmly tongue in cheek. His lifelong friend Reginald Turner, who was also an aesthete and a somewhat witty companion, saved many of Max's letters. Beerbohm's best known works are A Christmas Garland (1912), a parody of literary styles, and Seven Men (1919), which includes "Enoch Soames", the tale of a poet who makes a deal with the Devil to find out how posterity will remember him, is also well known. In 1911 he wrote Zuleika Dobson, his only novel. Other works include The Happy Hypocrite (1897). Beerbohm married the actress Florence Kahn in 1910. He was knighted in 1939. He died in Rapallo, Italy aged 83,... read more

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