Mary Renault (1905-1983)
Series of 49 typed letters and one autograph letter signed ('Mary') to Julian Orde, Durban, Cape [Town] and Athens, 1954-1964
Together more than 300 pages, various sizes (253 x 164mm to 282 x 215mm), many with envelopes including enclosed photographs and newspaper cuttings. Provenance: Sotheby's, 23 July 1987, lot 175.

Renault's ideas about literature and art sent to her admirer, the poet, writer, and actress Julian Orde. Topics include Ancient Greece, and Renault’s pleasure that Orde has been inspired to learn Greek from reading her work, 'I do admire you most sincerely for getting straight down to the solid discipline of learning Greek … I have the cake-before-bread and butter temperament … In other words, I don’t know Greek’; also on the application of Freud and Jung to Renault’s work ‘analysis to me is what Gray’s Anatomy used to be to a visual artist’. Other topics include their thoughts on literature that they have both read, including Auden, on which they fiercely disagree, and The Catcher in the Rye and Gone with the Wind, which they both appreciate. Sculpture, both antique and modern, especially Alcibiades, is also discussed, with Renault later stating her preference for Rodin over Moore. South African politics, the topic which brought an end to their correspondence, is also covered, ‘it seems to knock you for six when I express any opinion which doesn’t coincide exactly with that of Munnings or Col. Blimp’.

Julian Orde (1917-1974) was a female English poet and actor.