Lot 526
Nicholson, Harold. Diaries and Letters 1930-1962, 3 volumes, first editions, portrait frontispieces, plates, original cloth, bookplate of Alan Lascelles, 8vo, London: Collins, 1966-1968; and 5 others.
PRESENTATION COPIES. Front free-endpapers inscribed, 'Tommy from Harold' (volume 1), 'To Tommy, from Harold, September 1967' (volume 2) and 'To Tommy from Nigel, with many thanks, Sissinghurst, July 1968' (volume 3).
In January 1967, Nigel Nicolson sent Alan Lascelles pages from his father's diaries, covering the period when Harold was writing his life of King George V and enquiring, 'Has sufficient time elapsed for part of the truth to be publicly told?'. As a lifelong friend of Harold Nicolson, Lascelles' reply was candid, 'So if I advise you to cut out all the remaining references to KG V and his family, please believe that I do so primarily in Harold's own interest and only secondarily in that of his victims. King George V: His Life and Reign is unquestionably Harold's magnum opus… But a premature revelation of H's inner distaste for the personality of the King (…) might well give people the idea that the book was a false, put-up job…'. On 16 May 1968, Lascelles was sent by the Queen as her representative to the memorial service for Harold Nicholson at St. James's, Piccadilly.
