Le Carre, John

Le Carré, John Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, agent's proof copy [London: printed by Scripts Ltd for John Farquharson Ltd, c.1974]. 4to, [2] 492 leaves, printed on rectos only, post-bound in grey card wrappers with section cut away from front wrapper to reveal printed title on first leaf, printer's colophon leaf in orange to rear, manuscript amendments to epigram leaf and ff. 12, 76, 267 268a, 393, 406 and 454, front wrapper stained and nicked Provenance: The Estate of the late Lynette F. H. Cole, Rutherford House, Town Yetholm, Scottish BordersWith manuscript note ‘Given to Jeff by the author, sometime late 1980s’; the recipient Jeff Douglas (d. c.1990), late husband of Lynette Cole, was a friend of John Le Carré's. John Farquharson Ltd was a leading literary agency founded in 1919 and surviving until the 1980s, when it was bought out by Curtis Brown. Le Carré became one of Farquharson's authors following his marriage in 1972 to Jane Eustace, whose first job had been assisting the George Greenfield, the firm's managing director; at the same time Le Carré moved publishers to Hodder and Stoughton, his wife's new employer (The Times, obituary of Jane Cornwell, 9 March 2021).