Description
Object description
An important collection of 5 ms letters (total 7pp), July - October 1917, written to his friend, the literary journalist Robbie Ross by Sassoon while in Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, where he had been sent to be treated for neurasthenia in response to his public protest against continuation of the war, describing his doctor W H R Rivers as "a fine man" and commenting on Robert Graves' new poetry and his own writing, the opportunity to play golf, and his theosophist room-mate (cf. "Sherston's Progress"); together with an ms letter (3pp) to Sassoon from Rivers, 1 February 1918, in which he talks of "seeing plenty of Craiglockhart patients" and refers to Sassoon's "war-neurosis" and service in Palestine, while in an interesting postscript describes a new patient, Max Plowman (author of "A Subaltern on the Somme" under the nom-de-plume Mark Seven); plus Sassoon's medical case sheet (2pp) from Craiglockhart written by Rivers and detailing the patient's early career and mental attitude to war, 23 July 1917. The collection also includes an extensive series of letters written during and after the First World War by fellow officers and men, most of them having served with Sassoon in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and many appearing under different names in "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man" and "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer", including Joe Cottrell, Julian Dadd, Geoffrey Harbord, Gordon Harbord, and Vivian De Sola Pinto; together with photographs and published works by Rivers, obituaries of Rivers and fellow neurologist Sir Henry Head, plus 8 very interesting ms letters (28pp) to Lady Head and Sassoon from Katherine and Bertha Rivers, September - November 1936.
Content description
An important collection of 5 ms letters (total 7pp), July - October 1917, written to his friend, the literary journalist Robbie Ross by Sassoon while in Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, where he had been sent to be treated for neurasthenia in response to his public protest against continuation of the war, describing his doctor W H R Rivers as "a fine man" and commenting on Robert Graves' new poetry and his own writing, the opportunity to play golf, and his theosophist room-mate (cf. "Sherston's Progress"); together with an ms letter (3pp) to Sassoon from Rivers, 1 February 1918, in which he talks of "seeing plenty of Craiglockhart patients" and refers to Sassoon's "war-neurosis" and service in Palestine, while in an interesting postscript describes a new patient, Max Plowman (author of "A Subaltern on the Somme" under the nom-de-plume Mark Seven); plus Sassoon's medical case sheet (2pp) from Craiglockhart written by Rivers and detailing the patient's early career and mental attitude to war, 23 July 1917. The collection also includes an extensive series of letters written during and after the First World War by fellow officers and men, most of them having served with Sassoon in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and many appearing under different names in "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man" and "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer", including Joe Cottrell, Julian Dadd, Geoffrey Harbord, Gordon Harbord, and Vivian De Sola Pinto; together with photographs and published works by Rivers, obituaries of Rivers and fellow neurologist Sir Henry Head, plus 8 very interesting ms letters (28pp) to Lady Head and Sassoon from Katherine and Bertha Rivers, September - November 1936.
History note
Cataloguer APR
History note
Catalogue date 2000-06-07