A caustic five-page literary critique sent by the celebrated espionage novelist to Hollywood columnist George Christy, preserved with Ambler's accompanying signed note and original postmarked envelope.
Bibliographic Details
Author: AMBLER (Eric, influential English novelist and screenwriter whose psychologically realistic thrillers transformed modern espionage fiction, 1909–1998).
Title: Original typescript review of Thomas Hoving's King of the Confessors, accompanied by a Typed Letter Signed to George Christy.
Recipient: CHRISTY (George, American Hollywood society columnist and author of “A Good Life” in The Hollywood Reporter, 1927–2020).
Place of Writing: London.
Date: 26 October 1981.
Review: Original corrected typescript, not a photocopy, written on the versos of five numbered folio sheets, rectos blank. Headed “From Eric Ambler” and dated and named at foot “Eric Ambler / 10.26.81”.
Book Reviewed: Thomas Hoving, King of the Confessors (Simon & Schuster, 1981; price stated as $16.95).
Letter: Short typed letter on one side of grey writing paper, addressed “Dear George” and signed by Eric Ambler. Ambler's printed name and London address appear at the head.
Envelope: Original mailing envelope addressed to George Christy in Los Angeles, with Ambler's return address and postmark dated 26 October 1981.
Sizes: Review sheets approximately 30 × 21.2 cm; letter approximately 17.7 × 14 cm.
Condition
Near Fine. Review and letter folded for mailing. Light oxidation to the original paper clip, with a small corresponding residue mark and indentation at the head of the letter. Otherwise clean, crisp and exceptionally well preserved.
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Description
A remarkable original literary manuscript by Eric Ambler, the pioneering thriller writer whose sophisticated tales of political intrigue introduced a new realism to modern espionage fiction. Written for the Hollywood columnist George Christy, this substantial five-page review turns Ambler's famously sharp intelligence upon Thomas Hoving's controversial memoir King of the Confessors.
Hoving's book concerned the celebrated medieval ivory known as the Bury St Edmunds Cross and the circumstances surrounding its acquisition by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ambler responds with little restraint, dissecting the personalities, pretensions and institutional manoeuvring described in the book with a novelist's eye for vanity, absurdity and self-dramatisation.
His verdict reaches a particularly memorable climax:
“ISN'T THERE, THEN, EVEN ONE CHARACTER IN THIS BOOK TO WHOM ONE'S HEART CAN GO OUT IN SYMPATHY? / YES, BY HEAVEN, THERE IS AND HIS NAME IS JAMES MORIMER. AS DIRECTOR OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM AT THE TIME THE CROSS WAS PURCHASED, RORIMER WAS THE ONE WHO HAD TO PUT UP WITH MOST OF THE POSTURINGS AND FOOLISHNESS OF THE YOUNG MR HOVING. HE COMES THROUGH AS A MAN OF INFINITE PATIENCE.”
The review survives as an original corrected typescript, with several authorial amendments, rather than a carbon or photocopy. It is accompanied by Ambler's brief signed covering letter and remains joined to it by the original paper clip, while the presence of the postmarked mailing envelope preserves the complete chain of transmission from Ambler in London to Christy at The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles.
No publication details or editorial markings are present on the sheets. It is therefore possible that the review was never printed, although this cannot presently be confirmed. Its survival intact among Christy's private papers, with letter and envelope still together, strongly suggests that it remained within the recipient's personal archive rather than entering a conventional editorial production file.
Ambler had an extensive connection with cinema as both novelist and screenwriter, while Christy's influential position within Hollywood gave him unusual access to writers, actors, directors and artists. The archive consequently represents an appealing intersection of literary criticism, museum controversy and Hollywood journalism.
Provenance
From the personal archives of George Christy, longtime Hollywood society columnist for The Hollywood Reporter.
Notes
An exceptional Ambler manuscript comprising a complete five-page corrected review, signed covering letter and original envelope, with striking content concerning Thomas Hoving and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Particularly desirable for collectors of Eric Ambler, spy fiction, literary manuscripts, Thomas Hoving, James Rorimer, museum history, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hollywood journalism and unpublished criticism.