First Memory - handwritten memory on headed notepaper with signed postcard and accompanying book, First Memories of the Famous
Godden, Rumer and Jill Bernhardi
| Publication Date |
1996 |
| Publisher |
Coalville, |
| Binding |
Paperback |
| Condition |
Near fine, bright copy |
| SKU |
24363 |
| Notes |
The letter is clean and crisp and looks like it has been rarely handled. It has been folded a little askew, presumably by Godden on posting it and has just the hint of a crease to one corner. The postcard is in similar excellent condition. The book, appears unread and has just a hint of rubbing to the very edges but it does have a line of tanning to the back. A really very nice group with this special, hand-written memory from Rumer Godden. |
Description
Three items, the principle being a delightful hand-written note by novelist Rumer Godden on her headed paper; watermarked, laid paper with her Dumfresshire address printed in black ink. Hand-written in blue fountain pen it details a memory from when Godden was a child in India and the life-long sign she took from the gift of a tiny doll sent from England by her elder sister (the novelist Jon Godden) and which she took to represent resilience. The memory was written at the request of Jill Bernhardi who was compiling 'First Memories of the Famous' to raise money for Macmillan. Godden’s note is reproduced in the book alongside memories from writers, actors, politicians etc. With the book and the memory is a postcard (also with Godden’s printed address) to Jill, signed by Rumer Godden. the book is a paperback and was published in 1996 so the undated note presumably originates from the preceding 12-24 months. Rumer Godden was a prolific writer of books for children and adults and is perhaps best know for Black Narcissus about a group of English and Irish nuns attempting to start a school and hospital in the remote Himalayas, later the 1947 film by Powell and Pressburger starring Deborah Kerr and the mesmerising Kathleen Byron. The idea of resilience, Godden’s life-long sign, is a key theme of the book. Rumer Godden died in 1998.
