Add MS 89270/1

24 letters, chiefly from 1961:

• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, 5 July [1957]. Sending 2 signed book labels as an alternative to signing copies.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 7 July 1957 (carbon copy).
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 1 April 1961]. Thanks for photographs from Prague; invitation to tea.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 8 April 1961 (carbon copy). Thanks for invitation; difficulty of achieving English reserve after 15 years of living here.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 10 April 1961]. Invitation to tea on 20 April.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 21 April 1961 (carbon copy). Effusive thanks for tea, for gift of books and sketches, and laurel branches; impression made on her husband Dr Hodgkiss, as well as herself.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 21 April 1961 [manuscript draft?]. Thanks for tea.
• Letter to Dr and Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 2 June (?) 1961]. Thanks for letter with the two fine ships; Masefield has received a letter from Rohumil Chlumeck and four others, friends of Dr and Mrs Hodgkiss in Prague.
• Letter to Dr and Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 2 August 1961]. Thanks for the morning’s letter and cards from Cowes; invitation to tea on 17 August, particularly to talk about friends at Prague.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 3 August 1961. Memories of first visit to tea on 20 April; strength of feeling for Masefield, deep enthusiasm for sea and ships, despite coming from a land-locked country.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 5 August 1961]. Delighted she can come to tea, which will be provided by his Czech housekeeper; delight in old sailing ships; book, Two Years before the Mast, by Dana. At the end of the letter is a small water-colour of a sailing ship.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 9 August 1961. Thanks for the sketch of a sailing ship, books and authors; request for photographs.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 10 August 1961]. Dana book; he has no old photographs, but sends one small portrait photograph. Housekeeper. Letter includes pen and ink sketch of a sailing boat.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 11 August 1961. Thanks for the photograph.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 24 August 1961]. Thanks for kind letter of appreciation, photographs of her home, clouds and tortoises; promise to look for photographs of old sailing ships; national differences in ships.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 16 September 1961]. Thanks for letter and heather.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated December (?) 1961]. Invitation to tea later.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 21 December 1961. Her letter crossed with one of his; busy Christmas preparations at the hospital (King George’s Sanatorium for Sailors, Bramshott Place, Liphook, where the Dr and Mrs Hodgkiss lived and worked); Masefield may have received something from Prague.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 23 December 1961]. Thanks for the book of ships and the greetings card; encloses printed Christmas poem by himself: ‘Night after night, a great Star blazed’.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 27 December 1961. Thanks for letter; producing ‘identity cards’ for his friends (potted biographies?); sends Masefield a copy of ‘The Bluebells and other verse’ which she has had bound by John Rajman of Rožďalovice, Czechoslovakia; detailed discussion of Rajman’s binding and decorative sea symbols; Czech friends Chlumecky and Victorin.
• Letter to Mrs Hodgkiss from John Masefield, [envelope dated 28 December 1961]. Thanks for the bound copy of the book.
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, 29 December 1961. Urges him not to write; sending separate book, bound by another Czech friend, Joseph Vyskočil, book and manuscript conservator of Prague University; enthusiasts for Masefield’s work in Prague.
• Christmas card to Dr and Mrs Hodgkiss, [envelope dated 14 December 1961].
• Letter to John Masefield from Marta Hodgkiss, [17 December] 1961. Her suffering at the lack of communication from Masefield, her inability to write about his new friends in Czechoslovakia, his significance in her life.