SULLIVAN, Sir Arthur (1842-1900). Composer.
Autograph Letter Signed to Miss Agnew, 2 pages 8vo (integral blank removed), Albert Mansions, 'Thursday', no date. Apologising for not offering her a lesson the previous week due to working all night, and offering her a lesson the following day.

'I am so very sorry I could not give you a lesson last Friday, but I was thoroughly knocked up, from having written all night. I shall be at home tomorrow at 12 or as nearly to it, as the train from Wimbledon will bring me, & shall be delighted to give you a lesson.'

This letter is likely to have been written between 1871 and 1881 when Sullivan and his widowed mother were recorded as living at 8 Albert Mansions. Operetta was at this time still only a sideline, when he was appointed in 1876 as principal of London's new conservatory, the National Training School of Music (to merge later into the Royal College of Music). He did not have systematic working habits; sometimes assignments would be long neglected despite impending deadlines, while at other times he could be working twenty-hour days.
[No: 26406]