'St.Petroc',
Cadogan Road,
Camborne,
Cornwall.

27.12.58.

Dear Sir,

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter of the 23rd December last. I had previously read your letter in the T.L.S. of November 21st last, but, as my letter (which was sent in for publication some weeks previous to this) dealt also with two other novelists, and, moreover, as I imagine my interests to be quite different from yours, I did not consider it necessary to withdraw it. I did not, however, see your earlier advertisement in the 'Times'.

I presume, from the facts which you have given me, that you are engaged on a 'straight' biography of Mrs Lynn Linton. I do not think that my plans need impinge on yours in any relevant way. You have obviously accumulated a greater amount of biographical material than I, and your plans are certainly further advanced (I have not yet settled a publisher's contract). But I am interested in this author mainly from a critical and sociological point of view, principally from the angle of her importance to the 'Woman Question'; and, while I see your point that there is not room for two biographies of Mrs Linton, particularly if they appeared within a short time of each other, I do not think that any one study would exhaust her interest from this angle. I imagine that you are concerned with her as an interesting and relevant figure of the period; I am interested in her writings and in their historical and social importance. Moreover, I do not intend to write a study of her work as the sole theme of a book, but to include such a study in a work I am preparing on the feminist movement of the late 19th century.

I hope that these particulars may be of some use to you.

H. van Ehal Esq.,
c/o.Arthur Barker Ltd,
30 Museum Street,
London W.C.I.

'St. Petroc',
Cadogan Road,
Camborne,
Cornwall.

18.1.59.

Ref:HVT/PJ.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter of the 31st Dec. last, concerning my interest
from a critical point of view, in the work of Mrs Lynn Linton. You asked who is
going to publish the book I am working on; I have not yet begun any negotiation
as I did not consider my work in a sufficiently advanced state.

H. van Thal Esq.,
C/O Arthur Barker Ltd.,
30, Museum Street,
London W.C.1.