A grouping of letters signed by writer Philip Guedalla to his bookseller 1917-37

GUEDALLA, Philip (1889-1944). Group of seven letters and notes to bookseller J. A. Neuhuys, 1917-1937.
 
Seven items, comprising two typed letters, two typed notes, two autograph postcards and one autograph note on black-bordered mourning stationery. The two principal letters, dated 12 and 15 July 1937, each approximately 200 x 250 mm; two further typed notes dated 15 June 1936 and 8 July 1937, each approximately 200 x 130 mm; autograph mourning note approximately 130 x 170 mm; and two postcards dated 3 December 1917 and 31 December 1918, approximately 110 x 90 mm and 140 x 90 mm respectively. Several items signed by Guedalla, one of the 1937 letters signed by his private secretary. Old folds, handling, occasional annotations and bookseller's markings, with some creasing and light wear. Generally very good.
 
An small grouping of correspondence documenting the historian and biographer Philip Guedalla's long-standing relationship with the bookseller J. A. Neuhuys and his regular acquisition of books and historical source material.
 
The correspondence includes orders and enquiries for works relating to Emile Zola, the correspondence of Wilhelm II and Nicholas II, Bibesco and the letters of the Empress Eugenie. The sequence extends over approximately twenty years and shows Guedalla repeatedly buying from Neuhuys's catalogues for both personal and research purposes.
 
The stand out letter is that of 15 July 1937, signed by Guedalla, in which he encloses payment for the second volume of the Empress Eugenie's letters and warmly praises Neuhuys's catalogues as "by far the most interesting that I receive". More significantly, he adds that "a large lot of books that I bought from you many years ago now was largely responsible for enabling me to write THE SECOND EMPIRE."
 
Guedalla was a British barrister, historian and biographer whose The Second Empire, published in 1922, established his reputation as a popular historical writer.