LETTERS.
Allingham, Margery (1904-1966), mystery writer and creator of "Albert Campion," D'Arcy House, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Near Maldon, Essex, 3 June 1949 to 12 August 1965 to James Keddie of Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts (Scottish born American editor and publisher, 1907- 1983, known as "Cheetah" by The Speckled Band Of Boston, the Sherlockian society of which he was a lifetime member).
Superb collection of ten letters (7 TLsS, 3 AlsS, some aerogrammes) and two press photos, some mailing envelopes still present. The lifelong friendship between Allingham and Keddie is revealed in this warm and enthusiastic correspondence with letters that contain a splendid mix of literary content and personal revelation, with discussions of Allingham's books, characters, and famous colleagues. Her first letter to Keddie in 1949 is charmingly written as if it were a page of a novel with character dialogue between a police constable and a cockney underworld criminal. A sampling of the letters includes: "I am more than delighted to hear Tiger In The Smoke has pleased you." "Last week I went to the annual meeting of the Detective Club. It seemed different without Miss Sayers but we inducted Mrs. Christie and I had the honour of carrying the skull on a cushion." "Blankerchief Dick [her first novel] was written by me at 16 and published when I was 17 with a pompous preface by Wm. McFee." "Mrs. Christie is a dear. Georgette Heyer is my favorite woman. And of course there was no greater charmer than Chesterton." "I have come by some old bound copies of the Strand [but] not the Holmes stories, alas." "It is high time I got hold of Mr. Campion again!." Margery Allingham, along with Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Agatha Christie were dubbed "The Four Queens of the Golden Age British Detective Novel" with Allingham perhaps taking the prize for her skill at creating atmospheric physical landscapes and deeper psychological portraits, with a focus on character often taking the foreground pushing the details of the crimes more toward the back; this caused some of her thirty-three novels to transcend the genre to a distinguishable degree.
A film version of TIGER IN THE SMOKE was made in 1956; a tremendously popular series of Campion adaptations was shown by the BBC in 1989-90, starring Peter Davison as the gentleman sleuth Campion (available on DVD). The letters and photographs have a few minor blemishes, light folds and their like, but generally are in NEAR FINE condition.
Print Inquire
