Autograph Letter Signed to "Mr Legge"

Author: 
Hesba Stretton [pseud. for Sarah Smith]
Publication details: 
70 Lansdowne Road, W., London, 3 January 1883.
£125.00
SKU: 4248

Author, see DNB. Two pages, 8vo, good condition, with additional biographical notes by another hand. "Will you please to read the enclosed, & ascertain for [me?] if there is a Polish translation of "Jessica" ["Jessica's First Prayer"]. My cousin, Dr Manning, several times told me it had been translated into every European laguage; but he may not have thought of Polish. /Could you also tell Mr. Stevens for me that I never received the October [no.?]. of the Leisure Hour or Sunday at Home . I omitted to write at the time; & now I find both volumes incomplete." NOTE: Her work attracted little notice until the appearance in the ‘Sunday at Home’ in 1866 of ‘Jessica's First Prayer,’ a touching story, simply written, of a girl waif's awakening to the meaning of religion. Issued in book form in 1867, it won an immediate and lasting popularity. Over a million and a half copies have been sold, and it has been translated into every European language and into most Asiatic and African tongues. The tale shows accurate knowledge of the life of destitute children in large cities, and embodies personal investigations of slum conditions." (DNB)