GILBERT THOMAS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/05/1927 - HFSID 73636

GILBERT THOMAS. ALS: "Gilbert Thomas.", 1¼p, 7x9, front and verso. Avenue House, Gidea Park, Essex, 1927 May 5. On imprinted letterhead to Mr. Wilson. In full: "Very many thanks for your letter. In reply to your kind invitation to me to send a message to your students, I should like to say with what genuine interest and pleasure I have read the first issue of their magazine. It shows that your students have attained considerable power of self-expression and that they are alive to those inner joys of mind that money cannot buy and that nothing take away. It seems to me that the great need of our age is for a wider cultivation of the imagination and the spirit. Much of the trouble and warfare of our modern world arises from the [illegible] that men and women have as resources within themselves: hence the vulgar competition for material things. Your students reveal a range of vision, sympathy, and interest that is delightful in itself and very encouraging for the future. I should like most warmly to congratulate them not only upon their literary compositions as such, but upon the fine spirit that lies behind them. I wish them, and yourself, all possible happiness and success in the continuation of this excellent work." The works of English author Gilbert Oliver Thomas (1891-1978) include poems such as "The Unseen Bridge" and biographies, including William Cowper and the Eighteenth Century (1935). Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. Lower right blank corner chipped away. Slightly soiled, touching writing. Light show through of ink at upper margin. ½-inch tear at left margin touching "m" in mind, ½-inch tear at right margin touching "ents" in students, and ½-inch tear at top margin touching "i" in itself and "d" in should. Overall, fine condition.