Dynastie

Sir Geoffrey Harmsworth journalist nephew of Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere. Three Typed Letters Signed to theatre historian W. J. Maqueen-Pope discussing his family and asking for information for a biography he is writing of Northcliffe.

24537 — 9 August 3 October and 31 December 1951. The first on letterhead of the Harmsworth Press Limited 8 Stratton Street London W1; the other two on letterhead of 8 Stratton Street with second cancelled in favour of Thorpe Hall Louth Lincolnshire. From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See MP’s entry and those of various members of the Harmsworth family in the Oxford DNB. The three items are in good condition lightly aged with the first with rust staining from paperclip and all three folded twice. Each signed ‘Geoffrey Harmsworth’. ONE: 9 August 1951. 1p 8v. He doubts whether MP will remember their previous meeting. He is ‘engaged on a full-length Life of Northcliffe’ written with Reginald Pound and appearing in 1959 and is having to do ‘much digging to find out information about the early days’. Since MP is ‘the acknowledged historian of the London theatres’ he wonders whether he can tell him anything about ‘a certain Colonel Mapleson who was associated with Drury Lane in the 1880’s’. Harmsworth’s grandfather Alfred Harmsworth senior ‘was apparently on friendly terms with him and my Uncle the late Cecil Lord Harmsworth told me that the Colonel often presented tickets to the family thus enabling the children - Northcliffe Rothermere and the younger brothers and sisters - to have an outing to the theatre such as their father could not have afforded to provide’. TWO: 3 October 1951; Thorpe Hall. 2pp 4to. In the light of MP’s ‘prompt and most helpful reply’ he is tempted to seek his ‘assistance and guidance in two or three further matters’. The three ‘teasers’ each with underlining in red concern Edward Morton Henry Klein and the popular song ‘If I had but a sixpence’. Postscript reads: ‘Did you know that I “ghosted†Jose Collins’s memoirs - “The Maid of the Mountains: Her Story†- the sequel to a schoolboy infatuation!’ THREE: 31 December 1951. 1p 4to. He asks if MP has been ‘able to delve into your archives regarding the three queries’. He is ‘revising the early chapters of the Northcliffe book’ and is ‘endeavouring to tidy up all the loose ends. It may he that you are unable to shed any light on the three queries but if you cant I am satisfied that nobody else can’. On the subject of MP’s recently-published biography of Ivor Novello Harmsworth ‘cannot let this opportunity pass of telling you how greatly I enjoyed the book. It made me feel that Ivor himself was in the room’. 9 August, 3 October and 31 December 1951. The first on letterhead of the Harmsworth Press Limited, 8 Stratton Street, London, W1 unknown