Steven Runciman – SIGNED LETTER 1970
£75.00
A fine autograph letter from Sir Steven Runciman to E. Stanley Jones, dated 24th October 1970, typed on light grey personalised ‘Basildon Bond’ paper, headed – ‘From The Hon. Sir Steven Runciman, Elshieshields, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire’ – with signature in blue ink, a central vertical fold and two vertical fold.
In full: ‘Dear Mr Jones, Thank you for your kind letter of 12th September, which I have been very slow in answering. As my secretary will have told you, I have been abroad, lecturing in Australasia. I am very glad that you managed to get some pleasure out of my Last Byzantine Renaissance. I don’t quite know what to recommend as a reliable and readable one-volume history of the Crusades. Perhaps the most suitable book is The Story of the Crusadesby Alfred Duggan, published by faber in 1963. Alfred Duggan, who died about five years ago, was an ex-playboy who in middle life took to writing historical novels, chiefly about the Dark Ages, which were very vivid and based on a lot of sound research. He also wrote a few history books, ‘popular’ in the best sense., which are less vivid but still very readable. Alternatively you might try The Crusades by Regine Pernoud, translated by Enid Macleod, and published by Seckerin 1962. It is good in that it quotes a lot from the original sources; but I thought it rather heavy-going when I tried to read it; and the authoress, being French, cannot ever quite forget her French patriotism. Yours sincerely, Steven Runciman.’
The Hon Sir Steven Runciman (1903–2000), second son of Viscount Runciman of Doxford, was one of the great historians of Byzantium and the Crusades. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he wrote the celebrated three-volume A History of the Crusades with literary elegance and moral force. After years in London, he lived at Elshieshields, Lockerbie, where his tower library reflected a life of scholarship, travel, conversation and cosmopolitan friendship until late in his life.
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- Description
Description
A fine autograph letter from Sir Steven Runciman to E. Stanley Jones, dated 24th October 1970, typed on light grey personalised ‘Basildon Bond’ paper, headed – ‘From The Hon. Sir Steven Runciman, Elshieshields, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire’ – with signature in blue ink, a central vertical fold and two vertical fold.
In full: ‘Dear Mr Jones, Thank you for your kind letter of 12th September, which I have been very slow in answering. As my secretary will have told you, I have been abroad, lecturing in Australasia. I am very glad that you managed to get some pleasure out of my Last Byzantine Renaissance. I don’t quite know what to recommend as a reliable and readable one-volume history of the Crusades. Perhaps the most suitable book is The Story of the Crusadesby Alfred Duggan, published by faber in 1963. Alfred Duggan, who died about five years ago, was an ex-playboy who in middle life took to writing historical novels, chiefly about the Dark Ages, which were very vivid and based on a lot of sound research. He also wrote a few history books, ‘popular’ in the best sense., which are less vivid but still very readable. Alternatively you might try The Crusades by Regine Pernoud, translated by Enid Macleod, and published by Seckerin 1962. It is good in that it quotes a lot from the original sources; but I thought it rather heavy-going when I tried to read it; and the authoress, being French, cannot ever quite forget her French patriotism. Yours sincerely, Steven Runciman.’
The Hon Sir Steven Runciman (1903–2000), second son of Viscount Runciman of Doxford, was one of the great historians of Byzantium and the Crusades. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he wrote the celebrated three-volume A History of the Crusades with literary elegance and moral force. After years in London, he lived at Elshieshields, Lockerbie, where his tower library reflected a life of scholarship, travel, conversation and cosmopolitan friendship until late in his life.
