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77 JOSEPH MARY PLUNKETT [1887-1916]A very good collection of four autograph letters (three signed) to ‘My dear Mums’ [Countess Plunkett], November-December 1911, from Algiers, as follows:
1. ALS, 1 pp, 11.11.’11. ‘This is going to be a very short letter as I want to catch the post .. There is nothing particular doing .. Perhaps I ought to remind you that next Friday week 24th inst. my lia-
bilities will exceed my assets by £3 if nothing unforeseen occurs. I am writing a little but so far there is nothing marketable. Could you send me ‘Ceol Sidhe’ which costs 6d. .. and George Moore’s
new book ‘Ave’ which costs 5/- .. it is all about the literary people - Yeats etc...’ Signed ‘Love, Joe’.
2. ALS, 3 pp, 9th Dec. 1911, from 2 Galerie Duchassaing, Place du Gouvernement, with date also in Arabic. ‘Thanks very much for the money - two £5 notes and a half. The first came just in time to
pay the hotel bill when we moved and I will pay my lodging since out of the second. Moya [his sister] and I get our board for a month for 4 frcs per day “vin compris” .. and as we are well fed for
that it is very reasonable .. It costs less altogether for the two of us than I was paying for myself at the Hotel Régence. On the 26th we will have to pay our month’s bill at the Club (where we feed)
so could you send some more cash .. Before that I must give fcs. 50 to M. Stackler (from Alsace) who is teaching me Arabic. He is a decent man and has taken me all through the Arab quarter,
and has brought the three of us to see a native family that he knows, where they showed us everything and gave us real coffee (!) in which the lady of the house joined us .. I had a long letter
from Tomás [MacDonagh] thanking me for my book and telling me about his approaching marriage .. What are you going to give Tomás for a wedding present? Only for his encouragement and
criticism my book wouldn’t be what it is - if indeed it would have been written at all.
Of course I am keeping on writing but have written no journalese so far [except an article about Shaw] .. I am learning all I can about this place from the inside and will be able to make much
better user of the knowledge than to write scrappy superficial “touristic” articles .. This is my name in Arabic ..’
3. Christmas Eve 1911 [and later], date also in Arabic, 2 pp, from 2 Galerie Duchassaing, unsigned (final page perhaps missing) but in his hand throughout. ‘For some reason I am finding it ex-
tremely difficult to write letters - perhaps it is laziness - perhaps sausages.
Glad you liked “The silly hot hands of Sahara” - it is highly gaseous but not explosive .. We went to midnight Mass in the Cathedral for Christmas morning. It was crowded .. The Cathedral was
built by Nap. III and cost him a million and a half pounds sterling. A soft job for the African officials - I could build three or four like it for the same money. Talking of money -- just at present I
have £5 with which to pay £10 for a Patron and £5 for lodging - so I am keeping it until I get some more ..
Thanks for Eleanor Cox’s poems. I hope the Irish Review won’t review it - because it is rotten - only one who had the misfortune to live out of her country could have written it. It’s full of plagia-
risms and shows a most complete ignorance of the art of writing ..’
4. Last day of 1911, from 2 Galerie Duchassaing, Alger, 2 pp, signed ‘ Joe’.
‘Thank you. Also for the Irish Monthly. The review was lovely. I’m delighted that Fr. Russell said that the poems couldn’t be written in prose. What lyrics could? Anything that could be written in
prose should be. Verse is for higher things. Especially, my verse. “He that is sweet in words shall attain to greater things”. Prov. XVI. 21.
I’m trying my hand at translating French verse, I did eleven verses of a thing of Victor Hugo, which is scarcely fit for publication - “La Legende de la Nonne”, and (of course) the translation is
better than the original .. Is anyone watching the literary papers for me? Pappy could see most of them at the R.D.S, and Tomás (if he is at home) or Gerry might find out whether “Sinn Fein” has
reviewed me yet ..
There is no news here. Things are a bit dull and the winter (which sometimes lasts a month) has begun ..
P.S. Wed Jan. 3rd 1912. No money yet. Joe.’
A splendid collection, full of life and energy in spite of his ill-health.
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€ 3,000 - 5,000