The Iron Bell

London: Daniel O'Connor, 1921. Cloth. A fan copy with playful correspondence: FIRST EDITION, incl. two ALS and inscribed portrait of author. 8vo. Original green cloth, lettered and ruled in red. Shabby and well-handled (grubby finger prints abound), cloth worn and split, bumped. Hinges and spine cracked, foxed. First ALS, addressed to "My dear Pratt," taped to front pastedown and second ALS, "To Lidgey," taped to ffep, Elizabeth Pratt's short reply taped to rear pastedown, obituary clippings pasted to title page and facing verso, folded print of G L Stampa's 1919 portrait of the author, inscribed by Lawrence "(with blushes)" to Miss Pratt, laid in. A poor, but unique and, nevertheless, charming, copy. Thurston-born Charles Edward Lawrence (1870-1940) was a novelist and Honorary Secretary of the Savage Club, a much-loved and long-standing reader at John Murray and editor of its Quarterly Review. The two holograph letters (along with a matching envelope to rear) are addressed to Pratt and Elizabeth Pratt ("Lidgey"), husband and wife, it seems. Each was written from John Murray's 50A Albermarle Street address. Pratt's two-page letter (8.iii.23), featuring an Urban Club-stamp, is practical and friendly, but insistent in tone � "as I'm a cocky beast now that I am Hon. Sec. my word is law" � following up issues about club memberships and informing Pratt he is one of the Special Committee, which "meets at the Savage Club at the luncheon hour of 1pm" to discuss "the Shakespeare festival". Written in verse, Lawrence's two-page letter to Lidgey (2.ii.22) appears to be a playful response to her own brief lines (taped to rear pastedwon), a correspondence that revolved around her being the namesake of Lawrence's protagonist in The Iron Bell, Elizabeth Pratt. Lawrence hails her as "the Urban Sapho". The artist and Punch cartoonist, George Loraine Stampa (1875�1951) was also member of the Savage Club.