COWARD NOEL: (1899-1973) English actor, playwright and composer, Academy Award winner. A.L.S., Noel Coward, two pages, 8vo, Ebury Street, London, 24^th February n.y. (1920s?), to Martin Secker. Coward states that he has just returned from America and received the book that Secker had kindly sent him, remarking ‘I consider it absolutely brilliant, filled with colour and excellent writing – and added to both it is tremendously exciting’. One very small, extremely minor pinhole to the upper left corner, VG

Martin Secker (1882-1978) British publisher noted for producing the work of a number of distinguished literary authors including D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and George Orwell.

It was at his home in Ebury Street where Noel Coward wrote his play The Vortex in 1924. It was the first play about drug addiction and depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles following World War I. The play premiered in London in November 1924 and subsequently went on tour around Britain, followed by a New York production in 1925-26. Despite (or because of) its scandalous content for the time, The Vortex was Coward’s first great commercial success.