Christopher FRY (1907-2005)

Typed Letter Signed ("Christopher Fry") to "Dear Mr. Sampson" [A.H. Sampson, Vice-President of the Cambridge Union Society], declining an invitation to speak at the Union debate as "I have taken an oath to accept no engagements for a year or two".
1 page 8vo, 27 Blomfield Road, W9, 17 June 1952.

"I am extremely grateful to you for your invitation to speak at your Union debate in November but I have taken an oath to accept no engagements for a year or two: a measure of desperation springing form the past twelve months when not a line has been written.
I appreciate very much the honour you have done me and regret that my answer has to be a refusal."
Fry had enjoyed a very successful phase a few years earlier, which saw three of his most successful plays, The Lady's Not For Burning in 1948 and Venus Observed as well as his translation from the French, Ring Round the Moon, in 1950. His fallow period will have done him little harm, as he enjoyed further success in 1954 with The Dark is Light Enough and The Lark a year later.
Fry's typewriter ribbon appears to have been nearing the end of its useful days, as the letter is slightly faint, but his signature remains very clear and strong.

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