[Rarebooks] FS: Alan Paton Archive of Letters

[Charles Agvent]

PATON, Alan. ARCHIVE consisting of 4 TYPED LETTERs SIGNED (TLSs). Natal, 
South Africa, 1980 - 1981. Group of 4 Letters, SIGNED in full to Sylvia 
Lyons, comprised of four pale blue airmail letters (7-3/4" x 11-3/4") 
addressed on the versos with canceled RSA stamps. Excellent content 
including the current political situation. Some excerpts: 2 December 
1980: "My house was not 'off limits' and I never experienced house 
arrest. This is the most grievous punishment that this government can 
impose. I suppose you know that it is imposed by a Minister of State and 
the victim has no appeal to the courts. Something which would not happen 
in the United States. Less serious than house arrest is what is called 
'banning,' which means that you are confined to a certain area, that you 
are not allowed to attend any gathering, that nothing you say can be 
published, that you may not enter any court or dock area or school.... I 
did however lose my passport for 10 years.... I was very interested in 
your story that 'We Dutch came here with the bible in one hand and a 
rifle in the other.' There is another equally witty saying, attributed 
to a black man. He said 'when you came here we had the land and you had 
the bible, now we have the bible and you have the land.'" From 20 April 
1981: "I of course follow the American news very closely and am a reader 
of the 'Christian Science Monitor.' I don't take quite such a grim view 
of Reagan's administration as many Democrats must do.... I am very lucky 
to enjoy good health, but at the moment I am in a kind of limbo, which 
always happens when one finishes a book and is waiting for its 
publication." From 22 September 1981: "Thank you for your offer to send 
me something from New York. That is very generous of you, but it is also 
extremely risky to make such an offer.... I shall write 35 words on the 
subject of 'How the Rich and Famous Economise,' and will put them at the 
end of this letter. I am not rich, but I am not poor. I suppose I am 
famous, but not in any high category." From 22 December 1981: "It is not 
in the least risky for you to send me anything, nor is it in the least 
risky for me to receive anything. It might have been so twenty years 
ago. You ask what I would like you to send. Well what I really fancy is 
a brand new Boeing 747 with an Executive Suite!" Edgewear with some 
chipping and a few stains. Very Good.

Alan Paton (1903-1988) was a teacher, author, and activist celebrated 
for his 1946 work CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY, a work published just before 
the rise of the separatist National Party in South Africa. Paton, who 
vehemently opposed apartheid, organized an alternative political party 
called the Liberal Party of South Africa. He was punished for openly 
opposing government policy in various ways; in his 2 December 1980 
letter, for example, he refers to how the government had confiscated his 
passport (this upon his return from New York in 1960). Paton addresses 
his curtailed rights frankly in his correspondence, even going so far as 
to juxtapose South African policy with American. Sylvia Lyons was the 
widow of Leonard Lyons (1906-1976), a popular serial columnist who 
produced 12,000 mostly arts-related newspaper columns over a forty-year 
period published in the NEW YORK POST under the heading "The Lyon's 
Den." Leonard and Sylvia Lyons were a dynamic couple who knew dozens of 
actors, musicians, writers, and Hollywood personalities through 
Leonard's work as a journalist. Paton is thus assured of Sylvia's 
interest in literary topics, commenting on popular books of the early 
80s -- such as the novels of James Michener -- as well as recent book 
review projects. Paton published his third novel, AH, BUT YOUR LAND IS 
BEAUTIFUL in 1981, the same time that most of this correspondence was 
written. (#019479)        $1,000.00

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