£303
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 792
Auction: 19 June 2024 from 10:00 BST
The Gladiators; Arrival and Departure; Thieves in the Night; Dialogue with Death; The Yogi and the Commissar; The Lotus and the Robot. London: Hutchinson, 1965-6. 6 works, 8vo, original black cloth, with the dust jackets, each volume inscribed by the author 'To Stevie from Arthur in red ink' either on the title-page, half-title or dedication leaf (6)
The recipient is believed to be Margaret Helen Stephens (1902-1993), known as ‘Stevie’. Stephens worked for, and eventually in partnership with, the literary agent A. D. Peters (1892-1973), assembling an extraordinary client list of mid-century talent including Evelyn and Alec Waugh, V. S. Pritchett, C. S. Forester, Rebecca West, Nancy Mitford and Arthur Koestler. Michael Sissons, Peters' successor, recalled in his obituary of Stephens that 'she was particularly close to Koestler, surviving his periodic bursts of anger and legendary bites from his dog, to take frequent and innocent holidays with him and his wives' (Independent, 24th February 1993). In the 1980s the firm merged with Fraser and Dunlop to become Peters Fraser Dunlop, which still thrives today.