Ca. 60 autograph, secretarial or typed letters signed comprising ca. 105 pages, plus a typed manuscript of 6 pages. Mostly 8vo and 4to. A collection of letters by writers, politicians and other figures, the majority responding to invitations from John Henderson (1862-1938) as secretary of the National Liberal Club, a few others addressed to secretaries Samuel James and Charles Geake. The correspondents form a veritable Who Is Who of Liberal society in Edwardian and wartime Britain, including the writers Lewis S. Benjamin (Lewis Melville, 1874-1932) [2], Edmund Gosse (1849-1928), Alexander Ireland (1810-1894), W. W. Jacobs (1863-1943), A. P. Herbert (1890-1971), and Andrew Lang (1844-1912); the poet and government adviser Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938) [2]; the Liberal politicians Sir Arthur Dyke Acland (1847-1926), Christopher (1st Viscount) Addison (1869-1951), Sir Cecil Beck (1876-1932), Norman (1st Baron) Birkett (1883-1962), Augustine Birrell (1850-1933), Thomas (1st Earl) Brassey (1836-1918), James (1st Viscount) Bryce (1838-1922), Sydney (1st Earl) Buxton (1853-1934), George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll (1823-1900), John Clifford (1836-1923), Bernard (2nd Baron) Coleridge (1851-1927), Richard (1st Viscount) Haldane (1856-1928), John Hamilton-Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen (1847-1934), Leonard Henry, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith (1832-1918), Percy Illingworth (1869-1915), David Lloyd George (1863-1945) [a small quantity of autographs], William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp (1872-1938), Robert Reid, 1st Earl Loreburn (1846-1923), John (1st Viscount) Simon (1873-1954) [2], Samuel Smith (1836-1906), Charles Robert (6th Earl) Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1857-1922), Alexander Ure, 1st Baron Strathclyde (1853-1928), Charles Wynn-Carington, 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire (1843-1928); the Labour politicians George Nicoll Barnes (1859-1940) [2], William (1st Baron) Beveridge (1879-1963), Arthur Henderson (1863-1935), and Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield (1850-1947); the classicists Gilbert Murray (1866-1957) and W. H. D. Rouse (1863-1950; not signed); the civil servant Edward Marsh (1872-1953); the shipbroker John Foster Howe; the actress Dorothea Baird Irving (1875-1933); the clergyman Reginald John Campbell (1867-1956); the General Sir Francis Lloyd (1853-1926); the illustrator Will Owen (1869-1957); the costume designer Alice Comyns Carr (1850-1927); as well as the industrialists William Lever (1st Viscount) Leverhulme (1851-1925) and Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919, writing jointly with Margaret Lauder of Inverkeithing). Also, the typescript of an address given by Lord Bryce at the NLC, 29 March 1917. - A few items showing the odd edge flaw, but altogether a well-preserved ensemble.
