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Newspaper clipping from the Times ‘Law Report’;
Items from Bennett’s estate – namely manuscripts and the copyright thereof – were contested after his death by Marguerite and the court case reported in the Times legal column. Bennett’s loyal friend and executor, writer Frank Swinnerton, gave evidence for the defence and the court ruled in Dorothy’s favour. Once this matter was settled Dorothy could proceed to a sale of various items, listed here in the Sotheby’s Catalogue. The Foreword labours the unusual integrity of the sale, the happy fact that Bennett ‘scorned the typewriter’ and the sale’s contents as exhibiting ‘the frank intercourse’ of ‘the best literary minds’ of his time. ‘The Sale Room’ column, however, reports ‘A Disappointing Total’, with reserves not even met for some items including his magnum opus, The Old Wives’ Tale. The report suggests that waning public interest in the novelist since his death was to blame.
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