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Author: Irving, Sir Henry >>
Address: Romford, Essex
Recipient: Wilkins, Mary Ann >>
Address: [Warminster]
Date: 1856, Aug., 18 
Document Type: Letter (5 p.)
Content Summary: He has left his office in Newgate Street with the well wishes of his employers, and is staying with friends in Romford away from smoke and dirt. He looks quite ruddy and robust from the change. He can get to London by train in half an hour. He would have liked to come to Warminster and dirty Bristol to visit her but had not sufficient time. His mother would like to visit her but has workmen in the house. Explains that before he left Thacker & Co's he had decided to try his fortunes in something more intellectual, "the Dramatic profession". He has weighed all the difficulties and temptations. He has £20 [70?] and has bought the necessary wardrobe. His elocution teacher [Henry Thomas] at Sussex Hall, Leadenhall St, has sent a letter of introduction to the theatre manager at Newcastle. He leaves London next month for the "coaly Tyne". Describes playing Romeo at the Soho Theatre. Writes in detail about the great actors Shakespeare, Garrick, Kemble, Macready - a person may be as moral and good as an actor as in any other walk of life, etc.
Published: L. Irving, p.65-67; The Times, 1 Feb., 1938.
Notes: The letter is crossed. A digitised image of this letter is at http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/phl
Document Holder: HLC (Reference: Box 7, Folder 14)
Ref.No: 4976    
Author: Irving, Sir Henry >>
Address: [London]
Recipient: Ford, Charles Richard >>
Address: Thacker & Co., 87 Newgate Street
Date: 1856, Sept., 3 Wednesday
Document Type: Letter (2 p.)
Content Summary: Has decided on taking Irving as name not Baringtone. Has ordered fifty cards from Cross which he will send to 87 (Newgate Street) the next day. Please receive them for him. Asks for an ink-stand with screw top, specifying dimensions. Mordham are the best. Blackwell has one on his desk. Leaves there next Monday week; the theatre opens the following Monday. Kind regards to Ford's mother. Look in at first opportunity.
Published: L. Irving, p.62.
Notes: Signed: J.H.B.I. Negative photocopy with envelope in THM/37/7/2. Typewritten copy in THM/37/7/7; another copy in THM/37/1/51.
Document Holder: HTC (Reference: Brereton Scrapbook)
Ref.No: 1496    
Author: Irving, Sir Henry >>
Address: 14, Vine Place, Burrough Road, Sunderland
Recipient: Ford, Charles Richard >>
Address: -
Date: 1856, Nov. 24 
Document Type: Letter (8 p.)
Content Summary: Ford's patience must be exhausted in having no reply to his interesting letters. Answers imagined questions about how Irving likes the actor's life. Includes plus factors - no governor to stop your mouth, no restraint on laughs and jokes, no petty subjection. Actors work for a prize free for all. Macready, Phelps and Kean were novices once. Analyses in detail his idea of actors in general. Their one great fault - jealousy. Leading ladies are superior to average standard of their sex but minor ones inferior. Describes Sunderland Green Room where they gossip by a roaring fire. Saw advert for an Elocutionary class; how does Ford's class go on? Irving does everything in bachelor style and enjoys himself alone. Ford has asked him if Miss Glyn is pretty; he describes her in detail. Nothing is so annoying as a pretty face without expression ; like a wax strawberry. Has read George's sermons... Thanks Ford for specimen of Routledge's Shakespeare. Irving may take it because of costume illustration. He spends 4d a week on 'The Era' and 'The National Magazine' with good portrait of Dickens. Was surprised to see Fanny Stirling was performing...
Published: L. Irving, p.74-75.
Notes: George is probably Henry George the American sociologist. L. Irving does not reproduce all the letter; there is a part negative photograph in THM/37/7/6. Another copy is in the Brereton Scrapbook at HTC. A digital image of a typewritten transcript of this letter is at http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/phl bearing a note by Edward Gordon Craig that it was given him in 1948 by Laurence Irving, and with a note by the latter that he was using it in full in his biography.
Document Holder: HLC (Reference: Box 7, Folder 22 )
Ref.No: 4980    
Author: Irving, Sir Henry >>
Address: 30, St. James's Square, Edinburgh
Recipient: Ford, Charles Richard >>
Address: -
Date: 1857, Feb., 11 
Document Type: Letter (2 p.)
Content Summary: Has sent to Ford all the bits he possesses defending the stage (which please preserve) and advises Ford to go and see and judge for himself. If he condemns Irving will listen but not before. Doing so without proof is anti-English jurisprudence. His small experience tells Irving that it is an innocent, intellectual and moral recreation. He will answer his letter soon but Ford should not wait before writing again. Regards to Ford and his mother.
Published: L. Irving, p.78.
Notes: Negative photocopy in THM/37/7/2; typewritten transcript in THM/37/1/3.
Document Holder: HTC (Reference: Brereton Scrapbook)
Ref.No: 1497    
Author: Irving, Sir Henry >>
Address: (Mrs Robarts', 17 Elder St) Edinburgh
Recipient: Wilkins, Mary Ann >>
Address: [Warminster]
Date: 1857, Feb., 23 
Document Type: Letter (8 p.)
Content Summary: As usual he has mislaid her letter. Thanks her for her reasonable and unprejudiced view of his acting desires. Outlines the start of his theatrical career. He is acting under the name of Henry Irving and opened in Sunderland's Lyceum Theatre on 29th September 1856 and then Durham. Has engagement with Theatre Royal, Edinburgh as first walking gentleman. Miss Glyn was with them a fortnight - he thought of the days when he first heard her. Sunderland is a very large ship-building town; Edinboro' [sic] is a city of poetry. He describes the great sites in detail. His health is excellent - he walks and drinks water. She had invited him to give a reading at her Institution - he is sorry his change of life prevents it; perhaps some future day. He hears continuously from his mother and father. The devotion of parents and kindness of true friends are never known until separated. P.S. When she replies direct to : Mr H. Irving, Mrs Robart's, 17, Elder Street, Edinboro [sic] Excuse disjointed scrawl.
Published: L. Irving, p.79-80; The Times, 1 Feb., 1938.
Notes: Still signed John Brodribb. A digitised image of this letter is at http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/phl
Document Holder: HLC (Reference: Box 7, Folder 32)
Ref.No: 4977    
Records - 6 to 10 of 9215

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