Lot 131 , Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946). An Autograph letter, 17th November 1948

Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946). An Autograph letter, 17th November 1948 to "My dear Tuck, I'm sending you these copies of the Rights of Man pamphlets inscribed as you will see. Can I trouble to hand them to the people to whom they are inscribed ..."

In Dave Smith's editions of Wells's letters, there are references on 12th & 29th July 1943 to the School of African and Oriental Studies working on a translation, and a request to a Miss NW Angus there on 11th October to produce versions in Ganda, Hausa, Swahili, Yoruba and Zulu, though a letter of 19th November refers to "discussions about putting the Natural Rights into East and west African languages. There are so many ambiguous words ... ," which suggests that the project may have run into difficulties. On 16th October Wells thanks ES Daniell for willingness to undertake a Ganda translation and he thanks AT Bryant on 19th October for translation into Zulu. Dave Smith's biography claims on p.444 that all the translations mentioned in the Angus letter were in fact published by small presses, often funded by Wells himself, and that he had seen copies of them.
Estimate £50-100


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