GUNN BATTISCOMBE: (1883-1950)

GUNN BATTISCOMBE: (1883-1950) English Egyptologist and philologist who assisted with the translation of ostraca from the tomb of Tutankhamun. At one stage of his life Gunn became involved in the occult and formed a friendship with Aleister Crowley. By 1918 however Gunn lost interest in the occult and focused instead on Freudian psychoanalysis. An excellent A.L.S., Battiscombe, three pages, 8vo, Vienna, 28th December 1922, to [Albert t'Serstevens] ('Mon bien cher'), in French. Gunn wishes his friend good fortune for the New Year and continues 'Il m'etait une grande joie de recevoir ta lettre a Tell el-Amarna l'hiver passe. Deux ou trois jours apres que je t'ai ecrit j'ai acheve la lecture de ton livre et il m'a donne un sentiment bien singulier de trouver mon nom perpetue dans l'Elegie sur la Colline' (Translation: 'It gave me great joy to receive your letter at Tell el-Amarna last winter. Two or three days after I wrote to you I finished reading your book and it gave me a very strange feeling to find my name perpetuated in the Elegy on the Hill') also asking t'Serstevens not to judge him too harshly as a friend and commenting 'J'ai vecu toute me vie dans une prison psychologique, et je ne commence a me comprendre un peu que maintenant seulement. Je t'expliquerai un peu de cela - qui t'interessera peut-etre - quand ous nous reverrons. Qu'il suffise pour le moment de dire que justement parce que tu m'es un ami tres proche, il m'est tres difficile de t'ecrire. Chose paradoxale!' (Translation: 'I've lived my whole life in a psychological prison, and I'm only beginning to understand myself a little now. I'll explain a little about this to you - which may interest you - when we meet again. Suffice it for the moment to say that precisely because you are a very close friend to me, it is very difficult for me to write to you. Paradoxically!'), further writing 'Apres que les fouilles de Tell el-Armana se sont achevees, nous sommes alles passer deux semaines chez un ami anglais a Assiout, au Moyen-Egypte, et ensuite nous sommes alles a Thebes, ou j'ai passe plus de deux mois chez des amis, travaillant tout le temps. J'ai fait des fouilles pour Lord Carnarvon, duquel tu auras peut-etre entendu le nom tout recemment: J'ai copie 175 ostraka que le meme noble lord a trouve dans la Vallee des Rois; et j'ai etudie, copie et traduit des papyrus remarquables. Les lettres d'un fermier de 2300 av J.C. - trouve par les americains dans un autre endroit de Thebes. En toute, je suis reste en Egypte 7 mois, en travaillant tout le temps' (Translation: 'After the Tell el-Armana excavations were completed, we went to spend two weeks with an English friend in Asyut, in Middle Egypt, and then we went to Thebes, where I spent more than two months with friends, working all the time. I have excavated for Lord Carnarvon, whose name you may have heard lately: I have copied 175 ostraca which the same noble Lord found in the Valley of the Kings; and I have studied, copied and translated remarkable papyri. Letters of a farmer from 2300 B.C. - found by Americans in another place in Thebes. In all, I stayed in Egypt for 7 months, working all the time'), and informing his friend that when he left Egypt he was reunited with his wife in Rome and they then rented a small farmhouse with wonderful views over Florence, although as it was June and becoming hot they travelled to Vienna and spent six weeks there before returning to England, but now find themselves back in Vienna where they plan to stay for a good part of the next year, reflecting 'Aussi notre rencontre - toi et moi - est encore renvoye, et commence a devenir presque legendaire. Je ne peux pas te dire combien fut grande la deception de ne pas te vois en passant par Paris en octobre 1921' (Translation: 'Also our meeting - you and me - is postponed again, and begins to become almost legendary. I cannot tell you how great the disappointment was at not seeing you passing through Paris in October 1921'). Gunn concludes his letter writing 'Je ne travaille pas effrenement, mais tous les jours. J'ai acheve mon gros bouquin sur la grammaire egyptienne, et maintenant j'edite les inscriptions provenant des fouilles de Tell el-Amarna l'hiver passe. Ma femme etudie beaucoup la psychologie de l'ecole de Freud, sujet qui m'interesse beaucoup aussi' (Translation: 'I don't work frantically, but every day. I've finished my big book on Egyptian grammar, and now I'm editing the inscriptions from the excavations at Tell el-Amarna last winter. My wife studies the psychology of Freud's school a lot, a subject that interests me a lot too'). A rare letter of wonderful content and good association. VG Albert t'Serstevens (1886-1974) Belgian novelist. George Herbert (1866-1923) 5th Earl of Carnarvon. English aristocrat who financed the search for and excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, which was discovered by Howard Carter in November 1922. Gunn's first wife was Lillian 'Meena' Hughes who, during the 1920s, studied psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud in Vienna and Sandor Ferenczi in Budapest. At around this time Freud invited Gunn to see his collection of Egyptian antiquities and, whilst he never said anything to Freud, Gunn was of the opinion that most were fakes.