$120.00
Description
Description: We offer a small (6 3/8" x 5 1/4") portfolio containing New Year’s greetings from Dilys and Alexander Laing from 1946 and 1950. The 1946 greetings are titled "Poems for a NEW YEAR in a NEW AGE," and includes two poems: "Maidanek, Dachau, Buchenwald" written by Dilys and "David Today" by Alexander. The little booklet is 8 pages, stapled in the middle, and signed by Dilys on page 2: "’Since the world we have is the world we make’, these memorials of matters not to be forgotten ‘in the world remade’ are sent by Dilys and Alexander Laing at the New Year 1946 to their friends, who will share in the world’s remaking."
The second greetings are "Best Wishes for a new birth of freedom in our world as in our country this New Year 1951 . . . from Dilys and David and Alexander" and takes the form of a cleverly folded 10" x 8 1/2" piece of paper that has printed on verso "Declaration of the FREE MIND" and is sent from Hanover, N.H. It is accompanied by a letter to book binder Marianne Jelinek wishing her a happier New Year than the previous one. It is signed in Dilys’ hand "Alex and Dilys Laing". The original transmittal enevelope is included.
The portfolio may have been created by Jelinek. It has a cloth spine, muti-colored paper over boards with a ribbon tie and a heavy multi-colored folding paper "envelope" inside to hold the New Year’s greetings. There is a leather label on the front that is lettered in gilt: Dilys and Alexander Laing. Item #A00224
Dilys Bennett Laing (1906-1960), a native of Wales, was a prolific poet who published frequently in the New Yorker and other prominent magazines. She was an early feminist. She married Alexander Laing, in 1936 and became an American citizen. Alexander was mainly a writer of historical fiction and books on sailing ships and taught English at Dartmouth College.
Condition: Paper very lightly toned, corners of the 1946 poems bumped, otherwise very good.