LITERARY GUILD.

£3,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

RSVP cards signed and completed by 31 prominent authors. Invitation cards to the 50th anniversary party of the Literary Guild, signed by 31 invitees, including Graham Greene, E. B. White, Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Adams, Margaret Drabble, and many more. The event saw some 600 writers gather for a star-studded evening at the Waldorf Astoria on 26 October 1977. While the party attracted many famous faces, the present RSVPs are almost entirely comprised of apologies from those unable (or unwilling) to attend. The only two writers in this collection who accepted the invitation were Brendan Gill and Jerzy Kosinski. Authors who shied away from the glitzy affair include John le Carré ("But all good wishes, and thank you for the invitation, and what beautiful stationary!"), Julia Childe ( "Very sorry!"), Joan Didion ("With regret"), Iris Murdoch ("Thank you very much for asking me!"), Vance Bourjaily ("Sorry, it sounds like a splendid party"), and an awkward message from the widow of H. E. Bates: "Thank you for your kind invitation for my husband, so sorry to have to tell you he died three years ago. My best wishes for your anniversary". The party was nonetheless a success, attracting the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, Gore Vial, and Joseph Heller. "Some of the leading lights of the literary world did two things last night they don't normally do: they donned evening clothes, and they gathered under the same roof", noted an article in the New York Times. It commented on the absence of sever

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