Marie Corelli 1855-1924 Victorian Novelist, Signed Letter 11.7.23 To Lady Head

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Marie Corelli 1855-1924 Victorian Novelist, Signed Letter 11.7.23 To Lady Head:
$50.18

Historicaly important original autograph letter from Marie Corelli, signed to Lady Headaddressed as Mason Croft Stratford-On -Avon Warwickshire, and dated July 11th 1923.

This was written in the last year of her life to The Dowager Lady Head staying at the Manor House Hotel in Leamington Spa with whom she corresponded to the end of her life. In January 1924 Marie had a heart attack as a possible result of the \'bad cold\' she contracted in Hove, alluded to inanother letter, which left her incapacitated and brain damaged. She died on April 21st 1924.

In this letter she refers to \"God\'s Summer Time\" as a meeting time, which often caused confusion with the other party, as it was an hour different to British Standard time! The letter comes with the original envelope stamped Stratford on Avon 6.30pm 11 July 1923.

Marie Corelli was a colourful figure in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. The illegitimate daughter of Scottish poet Charles Mackay, Marie adopted the name of Corelli when she started out a career as a pianist, and claimed to be a descendant of Arcangelo Corelli, the Italian composer.

Her first novel, \"A Romance of Two Worlds\" was published in 1884 and had set her on the route to fame and fortune, the height of which was achieved in 1895 with \"The Sorrows of Satan\" which outsold every previous English novel, and established her as the premiere novelist in the country.

Queen Victoria, Edward VII, Randolph Churchill and many others were devoted readers of her novels, but the critics continualy panned her work. She had an ongoing spat with her publishers for many years and managed to fall out with most of the great and the good in Stratford-on-Avon, her adopted town.

An eccentric, Marie purchased a Venetian Gondola and hired a Gondolier to ferry her and her lifetime partner and companion Bertha Vyver up and down the Avon. Marie liked Stratford as it had the mortal remains of a great writer, Shakespeare, with whom she liked to associate herself. She pretended to be able to speak Italian, and went to endless trouble to avoid meeting and speaking to real Italians who would quickly \"find her out\". She was friends with EF Benson the novelist, who used her as the inspiration for his Lucia books, which to this day still have a cult following:- her fiftees, she collaborated with the artist Arthur Severn on the book \"The Devil\'s Motor Car\" which he illustrated.She developed an overwhelming passion for the artist, and wrote embarrissingly child like letters to him daily for many years, which Severn would unkindly read to friends and family.

In 1917 Marie was prosecuted for food hoarding, and thus gave EF Benson inspiration for one of his Lucia plots in \"Mapp and Lucia\".

Marie died on 24th April 1924 at her beloved home \"Mason Croft\" Church Street Stratford-on-Avon and was buried at the Evesham Road Cemetry of that town. bought this some years ago from a registered dealer who guarantees authenticity, all paperwork is provided with this item.

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