PRIESTLEY, John Boynton (1894-1984). Novelist, critic and playwright.
Three Typewritten Letters Signed and an Autograph Letter Signed ('Jack' & 'JBP', one in pencil) to 'Peter' (his agent?), 5 pages 4to and 3 pages 8vo (some wear), September and October [1931]. Written while temporarily estranged from his second wife, as from Borrowdale, Keswick and the George Hotel, Grantham, discussing his marital problems and his work-in-progress.
Priestley's affair with Peggy Ashcroft nearly precipitated the end of his marriage to Jane Wyndham Lewis. The marriage was, however, to last another twenty years.

'... There's obviously nothing to be done at the moment about Jane and me. I had a note from Bullett yesterday and he said he thought we ought to get divorced, that being the fairest thing for Jane, in the long run. I love this brisk advice from a man who's been bored with his own wife for eight years at least, to my knowledge, and has never done a thing about it. ...'
I haven't hear from Peggy [Ashcroft] since the first night, which suggests to me she's down in the mouth about it. It'll be the fourth flop in succession she will have been in, if this does flop, and it's a damn shame, because she's getting a durned nice reputation. Hugh was saying the other day that everywhere he heard people talk of Diana Wynyard and Peggy as the two most promising of all the young actresses. I shall have to hurry up and write Peggy a play myself. ...'

Provenance: Sothebys, 17 December 1996, Lot 208, sold on behalf of the Royal Society of Literature.
[No: 21469]