SARAH N. CLEGHORN - AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED 3/14 CO-SIGNED BY: WILLIAM ROSE BENET, WALTER PRICHARD EATON, S. K. RADCLIFFE, ISABEL DE PALENCIA - HFSID 17783

SARAH CLEGHORN, WILLIAM ROSE BENET, WALTER PRICHARD EATON and others
These literary figures sign a guest book - eloquently!
Autograph Quotation signed: "Sarah Cleghorn - Jan. 1941", 1 page, 5½x8½ album leaf. Written in the lower half of a guest ledger. Also signed "S. K. Radcliffe,/Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23, 1929", "Erika Mason, December 21, 1939/(and Thanksgiving without/the day.)", "Isabel de Palencia 4th Nov 1940", "William Rose Benet December 17, 1940/in friendship and/with appreciation of great kindness.", "Walter Prichard Eaton Jan. 1941/Who still remembers the [illegible phrase]". Cleghorn has written, in full: "Snuggling in on this rich page to leave my warm & grateful memories of Mrs. Wainwright & her friends & colleagues. I'll bless it with (in these dark days!) Wordsworth's: If then some natural shadows passed/The inward prospect over,/The soul's deep valley was not slow/Her brightness to recover.(I think it's one of the Yarrow poems, isn't it?)"  The poems and short stories of SARAH NORCLIFFE CLEGHORN (1876-1959) were appearing regularly in American popular magazines before the turn of the century. Her appearances diminished about the time of World War I, however, because of her socialist and pacifist views. Her books of poetry included A Turnpike Lady (1907), Portraits and Protests (1917) and Poems of Peace and Freedom (1945). She was also an early advocate of women's suffrage and Civil Rights, and an opponent of capital punishment. She also wrote an autobiography (1936). S.K. RADCLIFFE was a prominent English atheist. ISABEL De PALENCIA came to the United States in 1936 as part of a 3-member delegation striving to build support in the US and Canada for the Loyalist (anti-fascist) cause in the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, the year she signed this page, she published a book, I Must Have Liberty. WILLIAM ROSE BENET (1886-1950), the brother of poet Stephen Vincent Benet (1898-1943) and husband of poet Elinor Wylie (1885-1928), founded the "Saturday Review of Literature" (1924), editing it until his death. He was also an accomplished poet, winning the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (1942) for "The Dust Which is God." WALTER PRICHARD EATON (1878-1957) was a prominent American drama critic. His books included The American Stage Today (1908) and The Actor's Heritage (1924). He taught theatre at Columbia and elsewhere and wrote a Broadway play, Queen Victoria (1923). No information is available on Erika Mason. The Mrs. Wainwright memorialized here was probably Mrs. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright (III), wife of the New York Congressman - not the World War II general - and a patron of the arts and literature. The Gallery of History's collection includes letters from signer William Rose Benet to Mrs. Wainwright. Binder holes at left edge. Otherwise, fine condition.