ID: 2618
The Magus.
FOWLES, John
Category: First Edition
Place/Publisher/Date:
Boston, Litttle, Brown and Company. 1965.
Description:
First American edition,; 8vo; original green cloth and dust jacket with painting by Tom Adams. Inscribed by the author on the front free end paper to Denys and Monica Sharrocks - 'Denys and Monica much love, John.' From the collection of Denys and Monica Sharrocks, thence by descent. Denys Sharrocks was for half a century John Fowles' closest friend. They first in September 1952 when both were teaching at the Anargyrios and Korgialeneios School in Spetsai. Their time there and their friendship was documented in The Magus, in Fowles' own two-volume Journals and in the biography by Eileen Warburton. Although Denys Sharrocks and his wife Monica were frequently working abroad they often met up with John and Elizabeth Fowles at the at Underhill Farm, Lyme Regis, and at the Sharrocks' home in Shropshire. Monica Sharrocks and Liz Fowles became very close friends and the couples often went on holiday together. These visits and holidays are documented in Fowles' Journals. Meetings and visits between the Fowles and Sharrocks continued until Elizabeth's death in 1990. Denys and Monica were present at Belmont House, Lyme Regis, when Liz Fowles died. Following Liz Fowles' death, the long-standing friendship began to wane, especially after John married Sarah Smith in 1998. The publication of volume 1 of the Journals in 2003, with its controversial content, led to an abrupt end to the friendship. In 2004 Denys donated over 300 letters written by Elizabeth and John Fowles to him and Monica to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. The center already had a major collection of John Fowles material, the bulk of which was acquired direct from the author in 1991. In a long letter of 2004 to Dr Thomas F Staley, Director of the Harry Ransom Center, concerning the letters, Eileen Warburton writes: 'Outside of Fowles' own diaries, their letters are the most valuable John Fowles related documents in existence...The sixty letters written all or in part by John Fowles is the largest intact collection from John Fowles to anyone other than Elizabeth herself'. She further states that the Sharrockses are of tremendous importance to an understanding of who Fowles was, as a writer and person and that the letters completely transformed her understanding of his life and work. Very good, marks to boards and spine faded, in a very good dust jacket, with wear to the extremities.
Price £1750.00
