MS#333: Frank L. Lucas and de Vincheles Payen-Payne., 01/01/1937-12/31/1937

Manuscript #333: Correspondence between writers Frank L. Lucas (1894-1967) and de Vincheles Payen-Payne (1866-1945), who was the son of publisher James Bertrand Payne (1833-1898). 1. AL in pencil, undated (c. 1937, 5 pages) from Payen-Payne to Frank Lucas with reference to the circumstances of the suppression by publisher James Bertrand Payne of the sale of "Poems and Ballads" by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1866). Payne was the manager for Edward Moxon's publishing company. Payen-Payne refers to Lucas' statement about the Swinburne volume in his book, "Eight Victorian Poets,"(1930): "...You say (p.118) that in sudden panic he [James Bertrand Payne] dropped it ["Poems and Ballads"] like a hot coal. There was no panic. You must recollect that my father was not the proprietor of the business. He was the manager and had his duty to Mrs. Moxon..." The letter continues with a further explanation that as publisher of works by the Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson, Moxon could not issue "...what was then thought to be grossly immoral verse..." Reference also to the character of Edmund Gosse and his biography, "The Life of Algernon Charles Swinburne," (1917). 2. ALS dated August 29, 1937 (2 pages + postmarked envelope), from Frank Lucas to de Vincheles Payen-Payne. Reference to Payen-Payne's comments on Edmund Gosse (in preceding correspondence). 3. ALS dated October 7, 1937 (2 pages + postmarked envelope). 4. ALS dated October 17, 1937 (1 page). See also Curatorial file and Index Card #333.