Autograph Letter to A.G. Stephens 2pp n.d.

Component identifier:

Item 6

Content Summary:

A letter from Brennan to A.G.S. after he had sent the critic a copy of XXI Poems, in which he wrote that no other copies were to be sent for review "in this country". A.G.S. has noted that he received this letter 28.7.97.

Brennan does not mention that he is sending a copy of his XXI Poems to Mallarmé. We know that he did so because in a letter to Mallarmé, 9 August 1897 [one of three letters to the French poet] Brennan wrote: "...in sending you this slight book, Sir, I would if I might, at least mark my gratitude - to you, especially, as the poet whose works have been to me the greatest renewal, the greatest revelation. If my verse fails of being the homage I had intended, at least regard me, Sir, as the most faithful of your readers - that pride I shall always guard..."

Copies of these three letters, the first dated 3 October 1896, are included. They were published by Randolph Hughes in the Australian Quarterly, June 1947. I am not aware of the number of letters written by Mallarmé to Brennan; of the dates upon which they were written, nor of their contents. They were, at one time, in the possession of Geoffrey Bennett. I wrote to the custodian of Brennan's letters, at Valvins, for information as to whether there were copies of Mallarmé's replies, but my letter remains unanswered.

A.G.S. replied to Brennan's letter, and the latter wrote again, 1.9.97.

Typed copy of the above letter is included, together with copies of three other letters from Brennan to A.G.S. All are of Mallarmé interest.

All the items together in quarter-leather folder.

Names:

Christopher Brennan

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