Manuscript

Watts, Edward

Letter: To Sir Julian Hall, 15th April 1973

London, 1973

[4] p. ; 17.5cm

ALs in ink: Garrick Club letterhead: 'Dear Sir Julian / We have left the little letter from the actor McCready with the hall porter. It was written to one of two sisters who lived on Washington Square. They // were the prototypes for the girl in Henry James' novel "The Heiress". There was a little green & gold cross that came with the letter, since lost. Their names were Harriett and Grace Wilkes. We /// don't know which one was '"Little Pickle". They often came to London. Their father was a friend of Charles Dickens / Most sincerely Edward & Isabella Watts / Basil Street Hotel / 15 April 1973'. - Sir Julian Hall was Chairman of the Library Committee. - It would appear that the Watts have garbled the relationship of the Wilkes girls to the background of James's novel 'Washington Square' whose source came to him as an anecdote told him by Fanny Kemble (and with reference to her brother).

Watts, Isabella, Hall, Sir Julian