DRABBLE MARGARET: (1939- ) English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Correspondence ...

DRABBLE MARGARET: (1939- ) English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Correspondence collection of eight A.Ls.S. and three T.Ls.S., Maggie, and one with a full signature, thirteen pages (total), mainly small 4to and several on plain postcards, London and Somerset, 1971-84 and others with n.d., all to Tom Maschler. Drabble writes a series of friendly letters on a variety of subjects, in part, 'Would you mind forwarding the enclosed to Doris Lessing whose recent address I haven't got?' (6th September 1971), 'I thought you might like to see this evidence that your missionary work on behalf of Barthes has not gone quite unnoticed. Indeed at dinner last night various people expressed something approaching dismay at news of his death' (5th April 1980; with an attached newspaper clipping relating to Roland Barthes), 'Thank you for making me read The Sioux. It is a strange & memorable work, & oddly haunting. I long to hear more about it....It really is very odd!' (24th April [1984]), 'I can't use words like 'wonderful' any more, but you could try 'unforgettable' or 'highly original'? Or 'startling'? Anyway, re-arrange any of these as you wish!' (1st May 1984), 'It is quite wonderful here, like a very ancient garden of Eden with drooping cypresses & rooks & primroses & a cooker/Raeburn which will neither go out nor stay in. Could you get someone to forward enclosed to Salman? I loved the book when I'd cracked the first 100 pages' (Nettlecombe, Somerset, 15th April n.y.), 'It was nice to see you on the Martini Terrace....I went on to dinner with (or rather a dinner at which there was) a rabbi and we spent most of the time talking about the different kind of leavening in whisky and brandy, and why one could drink one during passover and not the other. As I wasn't drinking either or observing anything this was only of academic interest' (n.d. 'Sunday'), 'I have been asked by the University Press of New England to give an opinion on a manuscript about Doris's Children of Violence: it's very good and very perceptive, as I shall tell them......All that I wanted to ask you is this: do you know of any new books on Doris that are being written or are about to be published that I ought to know about? The material in this book is new as far as I know, but maybe there's something I've missed' (5th December n.y.). A few of the letters with slight creasing and minor age wear, generally VG, 11

Tom Maschler (1933-2020) British publisher who, from 1960, was head of the publishing company Jonathan Cape for more than three decades. Maschler was also instrumental in establishing the Booker Prize in 1969.