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Anne Douglas Sedgwick Letters, Accession #8459-b , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
This collection was purchased by the Library from Charles Apfelbaum, Rare Books and Collections, Valley Stream, New York, on September 17, 1986.
In this series of letters Anne Douglas Sedgwick (Anne de Selincourt) writes to Henry Chester Tracy discussing his impending visit; several manuscripts he has given her to read; the illness of her father; stories and books she has read; his visit to Chartres; the writing of several of her books and those of her husband Basil de Selincourt; her declining health; and her life in the English countryside.
This collection is arranged chronologically.
She writes after having read his letter and wishing to have him visit.
Inviting him to lunch and tea on Friday and giving information on train schedules
Expressing her pleasure at his plans to visit
After having read "the last batch of mss you left --" and admiring his style, while indicating her inability at expressing things
Expecting him on "Friday next, the 3rd," and writing how she expresses herself in her books "sheltered behind the personalities of my characters"
Saying she thought he was in France, and explaining her delay in writing about his manuscript
Sending his letters and manuscripts, asking about his going to Chartres, and apologizing for "a rather rambling note"
Mentioning his apparent pleasure in Chartres, Marcel Proust's death, and a volume of Henry James
Concerning her "burdened time" with her father and his uncle, expressing her pleasure at the publication of his book and giving news of her husband's publication of collected essays
Thanking him for the copy of his book and expressing her delight in seeing it in print, and telling him of a visiting niece
Thanking him and his wife, for the charming things they said about her book
Telling him that she has written a novel of "sheer self-indulgence and dissipation!" and that she is having one of her short stories sent to him, and inquiring of several general literary topics
Expressing pride at having his book dedicated to her
re having an American publisher send him a reprint of "The Religion of the Spirit" and beginning a new novel
re a review by Mary Ross of her book, [ Dark Hester ], and giving some thoughts on this novel