Reilly 258.

Served as Captain in the Royal Engineers

Inscribed by author to Capt. Alan Rook.

Includes inserts: article, "Captain Alan Rook -- A Soldier-Poet" by Vivian de Sola Pinto from Nottingham Journal, dated 9 July 1942 and letter from Vivian de Sola Pinto to Alan Rook. Letter reads: "Dear Sir, I am sending to Mssrs Routledge a review of your recently published book of verse (Soldiers This Solitude). In this short notice I have tried-- very inadequately, I am afraid-- to express some part of the pleasure which your poems have given me. Will you, please, accept the enclosed copy of some verses which I published recently? I am afraid it is a poor return for your book. When you are in Nottingham, I should be very glad to see you either at my home or at University College (where I am Professor of English). Yours very truly, Vide S. Pinto."

Vivian de Sola Pinto: Born December 9, 1895, in Hampstead, London, England; died July 27, 1969; son of Jose de Sola and Hannah (Lawrence) Pinto; married Irene Adeline Pittet, 1922; children: Vivian de Sola, Jr., Oliver de Sola. Education: Christ Church, Oxford, B.A. (first class honors), 1921, M.A., 1922, D.Phil., 1927. Avocational Interests: Sketching in pastels and water colors, walking over the Sussex downs. Military/Wartime Service: British Army, Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1915-19; became lieutenant; Intelligence Corps and Royal Engineers, 1940-43; became captain. Memberships: Royal Society of Literature (fellow), English Association (life member), Association of University Teachers (honorary life member), Savile Club (London). University of Paris, Sorbonne, Paris, France, lecturer in English, 1922-23; University College, Nottingham, England, lecturer in English literature, 1924-26; University College, Southampton, England, professor, 1926-38; University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England, professor of English, 1938-61, professor emeritus, 1961-69, served as head of the department and first dean of the faculty of arts. Visiting professor, University of California, Davis, 1965-66. Lecturer for British Council, British Broadcasting Corp. Third Program, and Royal Society of Literature; also lecturer at Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State University, and other universities in continental Europe and India. -- "Vivian de Sola Pinto." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Gale.

Vivian de Sola Pinto (1895–1969) was a British poet, literary critic and historian. He was a leading scholarly authority on D. H. Lawrence, and appeared for the defence (Penguin Books) in the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover trial.

He was a close friend of Siegfried Sassoon, having fought in World War I alongside him, as his second-in-command, in France. He appears in the 'Sherston' books (Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man etc.) written by Sassoon as Velmore.

After the war he was at the University of Oxford. Later he was Professor in the Department of English at the University of Nottingham, from 1938 until 1961.

He is also known as the translator of France Prešeren's poetry into the English language.
-- Wikipedia