Bidspirit auction | BLYTON ENID: (1897-1968) ´ Some

BLYTON ENID: (1897-1968) ´ Some children stand out in the memory for years & years, others fade out completely´ - BLYTON ENID: (1897-1968) English children's writer. A good A.L.S., Enid Darrell Waters (her married name, and a scarce form of her signature), two pages, 4to, Swanage, Dorset, 8th July 1968, to Mrs. Graebe, on the illustrated printed stationery of the Grand Hotel. Blyton thanks her correspondent for their kind letter and invitation ( ´the third already this month from your district!´ ) although explains that she is always away in September and October, ´My husband owns a golf course & a farm down here in Dorset....it is our ”second home”´ , further explaining that ´In any case I have practically given up public engagements as I am so busy in many directions - books, T.V. programmes, films, plays & the rest & unfortunately public engagements take up so much time in travelling ! It´s not like popping ”down the road” to open a Bazaar or Garden Fete!´ . Blyton also states that she remembers Marigold Keeble well, ´her brother even better - what was his name now - Tommy, I believe - an enchanting, untidy, imp of a boy in the transition, or the First Form´ and reflects ´Some children stand out in the memory for years & years, others fade out completely. I often wonder what they have all become - or not become! So often the bright ones fade out. The unassuming ones blossom prolifically when they grow up´ . In concluding Blyton again apologises for not being able to help her correspondent ´but I cannot rush here, there & everywhere & when I tell you that so far this year I have had almost ninety requests to prize givings, or to open sales, or make a speech, or attend school concerts, you will see how impossible it is.....´ . Some light overall creasing and a few tears to the right edge (professionally repaired) and a few words a little light, although reasonably legible. G Blyton´s marriage to her first husband Hugh Pollock was troubled, and, in 1939, she began a series of affairs. In 1941 Blyton met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon with whom she began a relationship. Pollock accused her of adultery and of having a lesbian affair with one of her children´s nannies after finding them locked in the bathroom together. During her divorce, Blyton blackmailed Pollock into taking full blame for the failure of the marriage, knowing that exposure of her adultery would ruin her public image. She promised that if he admitted to charges of infedelity, she would allow him unlimited access to their daughters. However, after the divorce, Pollock was forbidden to contact his daughters, and Blyton ensured he was unable to find work in publishing afterwards. He began drinking heavily and was eventually forced to petition for bankruptcy in 1950. Blyton and Darrell Waters married in October 1943, and she subsequently changed the surname of her two daughters to Darrell Waters. Blyton´s second marriage was very happy and, as far as her public image was concerned, she moved smoothly into her role as a devoted doctor´s wife, living with him and her two daughters at Green Hedges.