Four autograph letters signed by H.G. Wells dated 1924-1932
WELLS, H. G. (1866-1946) Four autograph letters signed to Joseph and Daisy Hobman. Easton Glebe, Dunmow, and Chiltern Court, Clarence Gate, London, 19 August 1924 - 23 September 1932.
Four autograph letters signed, totalling 6 pages, each on printed letterhead. Three letters from Easton Glebe, Dunmow (19 August 1924, 21 August 1924, and 27 March 1926), the last from 47 Chiltern Court, Clarence Gate, London (23 September 1932). Approx. 180 x 230 mm, the final letter 180 x 140 mm. Folded for posting, occasional creasing and light handling wear, the first letter with splits along the folds, the second letter with loss to the edges. A very good group.
A group of letters from H. G. Wells to the journalist, editor, and Liberal politician Joseph Burton Hobman (1874-1962), editor of the Westminster Gazette between 1921 and 1928.
The first two letters, written within days of one another in August 1924 and addressed to "Westminster", concern publication in the Westminster Gazette. He opens the letter "Why do you suddenly begin to say silly things about me, your constant weekend guest?". The content is about the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools that Wells seems concerned to be misquoted. He states to his friend "Is there any reason for attributing to me an insane hostility to respectable texts?" The second letter directly addresses Hobman and points again to the earlier exchange in the first letter.
The most substantial letter, dated 27 March 1926, is written by Wells over 2 sides. Wells and his wife invite Daisy Hobman to dinner before turning to contemporary debates surrounding The Outline of History. Referring to an article by Hilaire Belloc, Wells discusses evolution, Darwin, human origins, and what he describes as the "nonsense" surrounding contemporary attacks on Darwinian theory. The letter is an example of Wells's evolutionary and secular interpretation of history and the Catholic critiques advanced by Belloc and others. Wells points to Belloc's essays published in catholic periodicals and mentions natural selection as well as "nonsense about Darwin being exploited and so forth".
The final letter, written from Chiltern Court in 1932, shows the friendship continuing after Hobman's Westminster Gazette years. Wells responds with characteristic self-deprecating humour, remarking that at sixty-six he cannot make an adequate effort to take himself out of his own study, before sending his best wishes to Hobman and his wife.
A content rich group of letters between H. G. Wells with one of a leading Liberal newspaper editor, containing discussion on education, Belloc and Darwinism.