STEPHEN LEACOCK - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 02/09/1931 - HFSID 73031

STEPHEN LEACOCK
Stephen Leacock writes a letter of thanks and to inform the recipient of his plans.
Autograph Letter signed: "Stephen Leacock", 1p, 8½x11. Montreal, Canada, 1931 February 9. On McGill University letterhead to "Dear Mrs Wainwright". In full: "Ever so many thanks for such a nice letter. I am so sorry to say that my visit will be an angel's visit, in point of brevity. I don't arrive till the six thirty train from New York (Del. Lach). (I can dress in 5 minutes) and I have to leave the next morning for New York on the 8 AM train. Within which limits, however, I look forward very much to visiting your house again. Photograph. Yes, a photographer just took a few large ones of me (for his own sake) & kindly sent me up some for nothing (a man with a real soul). I'll be delighted to pass one on to you. Best regards & the [1 word illegible] yourself." Lightly creased. Vertical fold crosses signature. Otherwise, fine condition. Accompanied by 6x3½ envelope with printed return address of McGill's Department of Economics and Political Science, addressed in Leacock's hand to "Mrs Wainwright/912 Clay St/Scranton/Pa/US". Lightly soiled. Irregularly torn top edge. Block formerly bearing stamp has been removed from upper right corner (1¾x1¼ inches). British-born Canadian educator and humorist Stephen Butler Leacock (1869-1944) chaired the Department of Economics and Political Science at McGill University for 30 years. His early writings were in those disciplines. However, he won greater success as a humorist noted for his essays, parodies and short stories. His best known works include his masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), Literary Lapses (1910), Nonsense Novels (1911) and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich (1914). He wrote biographies of Samuel L. Clemens (1932) and Charles Dickens (1933). McGill's only child, Stephen L. Leacock, was born in 1915. His wife Trix had died in 1925. Two items.