Brooke (Rupert, poet, 1887-1915).- Mallory (George Herbert Leigh, mountaineer, 1886-1924).- Norton (Henry Tertius James, mathematician, Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, 1886-1937) 35 Autograph Letters signed, some initials, and 3 cards from Harry Norton to James Strachey, 6 printed invitation cards to Cambridge Conversazione Society dinners (The Apostles), 90pp., folio et infra, Cambridge, London and elsewhere, December 1905 - May 1914, with numerous references to Rupert Brooke, nicknamed the Rajah, in 1908, including Rupert Brooke's sexual proclivities, "It's astonishing, isn't it, how fond the Rajah is of being buggered, he feels, poor dear fellow, quite uncomfortable if one talks to him without an erection", and James Strachey's waning friendship with Brooke, "You asked me why I thought the Rajah's affection would die with his love. When I look at the past as a whole... it's the regular, organic gravity of his feeling which impresses me... His love is not fortuitous in the way Duncan's [Grant] & Maynard's [Keynes] is; you can see why he fell in love... you can assign, in fact, as Keynes would say, a part cause & not the whole cause", and Brooke's burgeoning interest in girls, "The Rajah is a Heteropath? Well, what did we know about him! He told you a year and a half ago that he was already in love, & that circumstances enforced separation; he displayed the kind of passion for Rugby which implies a love affair... You must remember that his connexion with Newnham is peculiar: for the first time in his life he has met a large number of women; they're all young, they're all in love with him... they act, intrigue, & argue & chatter with him..."; Norton's jealousy of Strachey's friendships, "They tell me, this morning, that you were 'remarkably cheery'... I see clearly to what it's due:- your ridiculous visit to the University Cricket-field; the gentlemen... who talked so much & so foolishly... he's infected you, & you, in turn, have infected Rupert, Maynard, Duncan... Eddy Marsh... Mr. Winston Churchill & his bride..."; and Norton's waspish account of George Mallory, "I fear but a vague figure appears... his appearance when I saw him he was just emerging from the Jaundice... a low forehead, a mottle-white complexion, a faintly pendulous nose... His clothes were, I think, important: He was dressed as an outdoor coquette; in dull, rough horse-dung beige, & dull green wool socks... his hair was not greasy, but faintly greased. His manners were good but second hand... He will probably take a low second class in the History Tripos. I thought him sufficiently clever to despise intelligence... sufficiently good-looking to despise beauty... I should have thought him sufficiently good-looking for the Rajah to note him... ", most letters pasted onto transparent paper guards, folds, some browning, a few small tears to edges (c. 48 pieces).

⁂ An extremely frank series of letters from a young man hopelessly in love with James Strachey and viciously jealous of Rupert Brooke. The letters are not addressed to anyone, presumably to obviate the anti-homosexual laws prevalent at the time.

Rupert Brooke as the "Rajah". Rupert Brooke was known to some of his friends as the "Rajah" because of an erroneous rumour that he was distantly related to the Brooke family, Rajah's of Sarawak. Brooke took to referring to his mother, though not to her face, as the Ranee.

Henry Norton was a brilliant mathematics fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, who became a close friend of Lytton Strachey, who made him the dedicatee of Eminent Victorians. Norton fell deeply in love with James Strachey but his feelings were not returned as James was equally passionate about Rupert Brooke, who did not feel the same way about him. In later years they drifted apart, possibly due to medical reasons, as by 1920 he had been diagnosed with hypomania, which turned into severe depression.

James Beaumont Strachey (1887-1967), psychoanalyst and translator.

Provenance: The Strachey Trust.