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The Mystery of Maata - From the Library of Siegfried Sassoon. Inscribed by the Author to Sassoon. - Patrick Anthony Lawler SIGNED
£150.00
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1st Edition 1946.From the library of Siegfried Sassoon, by Patrick Anthony Lawlor OBE 1893-1979, published in 1946 by The Beltane Book Bureau and limited to 1,000 copies. No dust jacket. Lawlor inscribed the book to Sassoon on the front endpaper: ‘For Siegfried Sassoon from an admirer P.A. Lawlor, Wellington, New Zealand, 19-1-50’. From the Library of Siegfried Sassoon and Sold by Sotheby’s in 1991. It carries the Sotheby’s monogram sticker inside the front cover to show it is from Sassoon’s own library. Lawlor was a New Zealand journalist, editor, bibliophile, writer and Catholic layman. He was born and died in Wellington, New Zealand. Lawlor was rejected for military service during the First World War, but in 1915 he joined the army stores staff. In 1916 he became chief reporter on the Hawke’s Bay Herald in Napier. He returned to Wellington in 1917 to become a reporter in the parliamentary press gallery and an assistant sub-editor on the New Zealand Times. He became chief sub-editor of New Zealand Truth in 1920, also editing Aussie, an Australasian soldiers' magazine, and founding the New Zealand Artists' Annual in 1926 and the Ex Libris Society in 1930.
The 1930s saw his most serious attempts to achieve literary recognition, with his two 'Templemore' novels, The House of Templemore (1938) and Daniel Mahoney's Secret: being a new chapter in the House of Templemore (1939). His only other novel, The Mystery of Maata (1946), is based on the early life of Katherine Mansfield. In 1934 Lawlor was the driving force behind the foundation of PEN in New Zealand, a society that focuses largely on freedom of expression work, becoming its president in 1948-9.
Lawlor’s strong sense of the importance of his Catholic faith was reflected in his lifelong prominence in church activities and devotions. He was active in parish affairs at St Mary of the Angels Church and was a member of the Holy Family Confraternity of the Redemptorist community which met at St Gerard's Monastery. He worked for the Catholic Writers’ Movement of New Zealand from its foundation in 1940 and was elected to the Gallery of Living Catholic Authors (USA). Perhaps his most important lay service to the church was his work as honorary organiser of the fund-raising street appeals for Our Lady’s Homes of Compassion, which were to raise almost £200,000 over the 20 years after the Second World War. Book is very good++ and bright. Contents good. Part of a large library of Sassoon's books
The Mystery of Maata - From the Library of Siegfried Sassoon. Inscribed by the Author to Sassoon. - Patrick Anthony Lawler SIGNED
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