Description:Amongst Duchess Millicent’s papers are a bundle of letters signed ‘Leslie’ which appear to be from the author Leslie Poles Hartley. Like the Duchess, Hartley was the author of both plays and short stories, and the letters indicate that he sent copies of his works to Duchess Millicent seeking her opinion.
In a letter dated 1st September 1954 written from The Arden Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon, Hartley describes a visit to Stratford which appears to have been coloured by his literary interests. He writes ‘Stratford is very nice. Time goes slowly, & people drift about very slowly, too. Last night we saw Othello, which was quite well done, but I would rather see Shakespeare’s comedies than his tragedies. They gain by acting but (to me) the tragedies seem to lose.’ He also notes ‘I shall go out on the river, and try to identify Marie Corelli’s House’.
Leslie writes that ‘The Go-Between’ (Le Messager)’, probably his most famous work was being performed in Paris. He also informs Millie that he was writing ‘a book of short stories which haven’t so far delighted the reviewers’. Could these stories have been The White Wand and other Stories which were published in 1954?
In a notable aside, Hartley comments ‘I spend (and perhaps waste) a lot of time going about giving ‘talks’ to literary societies. It’s very tiring & I don’t really enjoy it’.
Click on the images on the left to see more of Hartley's letter.