2 FEBRUARY 1962, Page 13

SIR,—In his 'Body and Soul' Mr. William Golding says that

at the William Andrews Clarke Memorial Library in Hollywood is held the MS of The Importance of Being Earnest. When I visited the Manuscript Room of the British Museum in 1960 1 saw what purported to be the original manuscript of Wilde's immortal work written in a large lined black-covered exercise book.

Are there two copies of this MS or has the British 'Museum either sold or lent it to the State of California, or vice versa so to speak—was it lent to the BM in 1960?

DJAG's Office, BAOR and 2 TA F, British Forces Post Of 34

J. E. M. GUNNING