Defoe

[ George Harris Healy, Professor of English and curator of Rare Books at Cornell University. ] Typed Letter Signed to 'Mr. Duff', discussing the content of two letters by Daniel Defoe, their monetary value, auction houses, Dr. Rosenbach of New York.

Author: 
George Harris Healy (1908-1971), Professor of English and curator of Rare Books at Cornell University
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Department of English, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 22 February 1949.
£50.00

1p., foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased, with some wear to extremities. Healy begins by thanking Duff for his letter, and 'for your generosity in sending me copies of the two letters of Daniel Defoe'. He explains that he has 'searched for their whereabouts for about ten years', and had finally become convinced 'that unless they were in your family they were lost'.

Autograph notebook by the biographer and antiquary Thomas Wright of Olney, containing rough drafts of an apparently-unpublished story or novel ('My Little Lady. A Story without a Moral'), and of a lecture on Daniel Defoe and Stoke Newington.

Author: 
Thomas Wright ['Wright of Olney'] (1859-1936) of Olney, Buckinghamshire, biographer, editor and antiquary, founder of the Cowper, John Payne and Blake Societies
Publication details: 
[Edwardian. Olney, Buckinghamshire.]
£300.00

12mo, 134 pp each on one side of a ring-punched loose leaf, with the leaves attached by green thread within an original worn buckram binder with discoloured endpapers. The leaves themselves in good condition on lightly-aged paper; with those of the draft story ruled in red, and sometimes utilizing scrap paper (for example the blank reverses of prospectuses for Wright's books and scrap pages from Blake Society material).

A collection of material relating to Daniel Defoe, assembled by John Cuming Walters, editor of the Manchester City News, comprising original manuscripts of lectures by him, and newspaper and magazine cuttings of articles by him and others.

Author: 
John Cuming Walters (1863-1933), editor of the Manchester City News [Daniel Defoe]
Publication details: 
Manchester and other English cities. One set of manuscript notes dated 17 July 1931; the cuttings dating from between 1907 and 1932.
£280.00

A notable man by any measure, Walters is a puzzling omission from the Oxford DNB. For many years a central figure in the literary life of the north-west of England, he was an authority on Shakespeare (his extensive papers on whom are now in the Folger), Tennyson and Dickens. Walters was the author of 'about 20 books and [...] 250 lectures', and an 'actual or corresponding member of close upon fifty' literary societies, in addition to his professional work as editor of the Manchester City News (for twenty-five years), and the Manchester Evening Chronicle.

Five (5) Autograph Letters Signed to [John Russell Smith], publisher.

Author: 
William Chadwick.
Publication details: 
Arksey (mainly), 1858/9 and 1862.
£450.00

Author of "The Life and Times of Daniel Defoe, with remarks digressive and discursive" (J.R. Smith, London, 1859).Total 23pp., 8vo, minor damage, texts clear and complete. The letters concern this book about Defoe exclusively. He starts (29 Oct. 1858) "You have the whole manuscript complete now, with the Parcel sent yesterday", adding that entries (giving examples) can be struck out since they were part of library researches.

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