'The heart-scalding eternal brooding ..' MICHAEL COLLINS A fine and important ALS to his sister Johanna from Stafford Jail, 16.5.16 [some two weeks after the end of the Easter Rising], 3 pp...

'The heart-scalding eternal brooding ..' MICHAEL COLLINS A fine and important ALS to his sister Johanna from Stafford Jail, 16.5.16 [some two weeks after the end of the Easter Rising], 3 pp (single folded sheet, on official paper with embossed coat of arms), closely written in pencil, the first letter he was allowed to write during his detention after the Rising. He says he is 'fairly well in health & not more low-spirited than the circumstances compel .. You have no idea of what it's like - the dreadful motonony, the heart-scalding eternal brooding on all sorts of things, thoughts of friends dead & living, especially those recently dead - but above all the time - the horror of the way in which it refuses to pass. However, I suppose things could be a great deal worse ..' He asks about his aunt Hanna, who was unwell when he last saw her in Dublin, gives details of moneys taken from him which may be delivered to his digs, asks for a few good (& long) novels in cheap editions, and if still at the flat, Heath's Practical French Grammar; also a large copy book, a pencil or two pointed at both ends, a piece of India rubber, a couple of magazines, a few dark coloured handkerchiefs, comb, tooth brush, hairbrush, needle & thread and a few buttons. He may be able to get some clothes from Dublin 'but they're not urgent. The reading matter is.' He asks her to contact various friends, including Miss Killeen [Susan, apparently a girl-friend], and gives details of what can and can not be sent to him - breaking off to say that a parcel of chocolate has just arrived from Pat O'Driscoll. 'All letters will be censored, so it won't be any good to say anything interesting in the way of political news. You, at any rate, won't have any difficulty in avoiding that pitfall.' He says he finds it difficult to concentrate. 'I seem to have lost acquaintance with myself and with the people I knew. Wilde's ''Reading Jail'' keeps on coming up - you remember, ''All that we know who lie in jail ..' [the poem continues: 'Is that the walls are strong ..'] A fine letter, conveying an acute sense of Collins' pent-up energy and frustration, signed 'With fondest love / Michael'. First page a little browned, slightly rubbed at folds. With the official envelope with censor's stamp and his prison number F48, also a plain white envelope, both inscribed by Johanna '1st letter after 1916 Rising'. Provenance: Collins family, by descent.

View more View less