776. Published: Four Fugitive Letters

On 13 June, a festive edition of several letters by Charles Ricketts was published in The Hague under the title Four Fugitive Letters. To Cecil French, Martin Birnbaum, Helen Travers Smith & Isabelle Augusta Gregory. 

Copies of Charles Ricketts, Four Fugitive Letters (June 2026)

Whilst working on the publication of The Collected Letters of Charles Ricketts, John Aplin and I realised that once the manuscript would be finalised, previously unknown letters from the artist might come to light. Shortly before that moment, we were able to include a few more letters (these have ‘i’ added after the letter number), but even after the final sequence was established, followed by several rounds of proofreading, some more emerged.

One letter appeared at the auction of the Jeremy Maas collection of Oscar Wilde (Bonhams, 18 February 2026) and another at an auction held by Forum Books (26 March 2026). We also received photographs of a letter in a private collection (thanks are due to Paul Durham) and discovered via the Internet that another one had been auctioned a quarter of a century earlier. 

To celebrate the publication of the collected letters by Brill in Leiden and Boston, we decided to edit these four freshly discovered letters. 

As a special service to the reader, every copy of this booklet contains each of the letters on a separate loose sheet, so that they can be kept in the correct place within the collected edition.

Unassembled copies of Charles Ricketts, Four Fugitive Letters, fresh from the printers
[Photo: Huug Schipper, June 2026]

Charles Ricketts
Four Fugitive Letters. To Cecil French, Martin Birnbaum, Helen Travers Smith & Isabelle Augusta Gregory

The Hague, At the Paulton, June 2026
12 [and 8] pages, 3 illustrations (2 on the covers), 21 x 12 cm
Designed by Huug Schipper | Studio Tint
Set in Petr van Blokland's Presti Display Medium
Printed on Biotop by Van Deventer Printers, 's-Gravezande
Edition limited to 34 numbered copies

Price: €12,50.

Packaging and shipping:
European Union: €4,35; [with track and trace: €12,50].
United Kingdom: €6,33; [with track and trace: €15,00]
USA and Canada: €6,33; [with track and trace: €24,00].

Orders
You can express your interest by sending an email to Paul van Capelleveen [see the address in the right-hand bar]. You will receive a Paypal invoice.