E.M. Forster – A Room With A View – First Edition – With Handwritten Letter from Forster asking for the vet to ‘put our dear old cat away’ 

First edition, first printing of ‘A Room With A View’ by E. M. Forster published by Edward Arnold, London in 1908. A very good copy free from internal inscriptions with blind stamp to the front free end paper, bound in publisher’s original maroon cloth boards, some offsetting to front board, fading to the spine with slight crease, bumping to spine tips, the front hinge repaired, some ghosting to the front free end paper and rough trimmed bottom edge to text block.

Accompanying the book is a poignant single sided hand written letter from E. M. Forster, addressed, West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer, Dorking (Surrey), 18th October 1946, to Miss. Jordan, evidently a veterinary surgeon. In the letter, Forster states, that he should be ‘…glad if you would come over one day in the early half of next week, and put our dear old cat away´. He explains that Wednesday would be the best day, or if not Tuesday (´…but in no case later than Wednesday´) and further remarking that, ´He is quite happy and cheerful, and I don’t want to upset him by a journey to Dorking, so please will you bring the necessary apparatus with you´.

From 1925 until his mother, Alice Clare, died at age 90 on 11th March 1945, Forster lived with her in Abinger Hammer at West Hackhurst, the house designed by his father, the architect Eddie Morgan Forster, and previously occupied by his aunt Laura. Forster left the property for Cambridge in November 1946, the month after the present letter was written, as the landlord refused to renew the lease. The letter is in very good condition and a marvellous accompaniment to Forster’s classic novel.

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