LITERATURE

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Lightly aged and worn. With central horizontal and vertical crease for postage, each quarter with double pinholes at the centre (from attachment of an enclosure?). Signature unaffected (it starts close to vertical crease). Reads: 'Dear Mrs. Lord / With the greatest pleasure - and with ten thousand apologies. I thought I had answered long ago. But letters lie in heaps in my tray & on my table - everywhere! and I carry them about in bags labelled carefully Unanswered until I dare no longer look inside.

Reade was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1836 to his death. According to his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘in the years of his fame, and particularly in the early 1860s, he did much of his writing in his rooms at Magdalen, using them as a retreat. His tenure of the fellowship was contingent on his remaining unmarried, a stipulation he complained of bitterly but continued to put up with, even when he was earning thousands a year as a writer’. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly discoloured, on thin wove paper. Folded once.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Lightly aged and worn. With central horizontal and vertical crease for postage, each quarter with double pinholes at the centre (from attachment of an enclosure?). Signature unaffected (it starts close to vertical crease). Reads: 'Dear Mrs. Lord / With the greatest pleasure - and with ten thousand apologies. I thought I had answered long ago. But letters lie in heaps in my tray & on my table - everywhere! and I carry them about in bags labelled carefully Unanswered until I dare no longer look inside.

Of his activities around this time the Oxford DNB writes: 'he 'wrote film scripts in Hollywood in 1934–5 for classics such as David Copperfield (MGM, 1935), in which he played a bit part, and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)'. The subject of the letter may be his novel 'The Inquisitor', published by Macmillan in 1935. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. Reads: ‘Dear Mr. Hunt / Here is a proof. The quotations are from the [?] Version. to me the only [last word underlined] version. / Yours sincerely / Hugh Walpole’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Miss Jennings / Thank you for your letter. There was however no half crown in the envelope. I searched carefully. / Yours sincerely / Hugh Walpole’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 6 x 3.5 cm slip of paper, cut from letter. Reads ‘Yours very truly, / David Masson.’ Laid down on piece of 16mo paper, beneath oval photographic portrait of Masson cut from magazine. Biographical details typed at head of page. In good condition, lightly aged. Seee Image

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, with slight wear at top left-hand corner of second leaf (not affecting text). Biographical details added in small type at head of first page. Addressed to ‘The Honbl Spencer Ponsonby’ and signed ‘Alaric A. Watts.’ Begins: ‘Dear Sir / May I trespass so far upon your kindness as to ask you to place the enclosed letter [not present] to Lord Clarendon. It is on the subject of the London Library of which his Lordship is the President’.

An apparent forgery of a letter the text of which is quoted in Hallam Tennyson’s 1897 memoir of his father. 1p, 12mo. On discoloured wove paper. Aged, and with repair with archival tape at extremities on reverse. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Aldworth / Oct 25 - 76 / My dear Mrs Gladstone / On Monday then - if all be well. As you are good enough to say that you will manage everything rather than lose my visit - you must manage that I may have my pipe in my own room whenever I like? / Yours ever / A Tennyson/’.

An interesting item occupying the zone in which French connoisseurship and literature overlap. In 1880 - three years before the present item - Maurice Mauris (Marchese di Calenzano) described a visit to Dumas fils’s Paris house in Rue de Villers. ‘The walls above the library are enriched with a priceless collection of paintings, modern and antique. Diaz, Fortuny, Marchal, Vernet, Delacroix are there seen at their best. Dumas generally presents himself with a new painting after he has presented a new book to the public.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 10 x 7 cm piece of paper, cut down from letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin holes at top left. Clearly sent in response to a request for an autograph. Reads: 'Yours very truly / W. W. Jacobs'. See scan

On 14 x 9 cm plain printed postcard, addressed (by the recipient) to ‘Norman Wetton / 7 Claremont Road / Forest Gate / Essex’. On the plain side of the card she writes: ‘With pleasure here is the sign-manual of your’s [sic] faithfully / John Strange Winter. / (Henrietta. E. V. Stannard.) / Aug 24. 1905 -’.

The three items in good condition, lightly aged. Each folded. ONE: Lithographed copperplate funeral announcement. 1p, 4to. Black bordered. At foot: ‘Administration spéciale des Funerailles, 70, rue des Saints Pères, Henri de Borniol, Directeur.’ Headed ‘M’. Begins: ‘Vous êtes prié d’assister aux Convoi, Service et Enterrement, de Monsieur Charles-Rene-Forbes Conte de Montalembert, ancien Pair de France, Membre de l’Académie Française, décédé le 13 Mars 1870, muni des Sacraments de l’Eglise, en sa demeure, rue du Bac, No.

Letter One: [No envelope; undated] One page, 8vo, good condition. Text: Forgive me for not having written before to thank you for your very kind letter, but I have had something like five hundred letters & telegrams of congratulation & they have been a job to deal with. It was very kind of you to write. I am just off to England to receive the insignia. [Maugham was made a Companion of Honour in 1954 if that indicates the date of the letter(?)]; Letter Two: Postmark 24 Oct. 1934 and dated Oct. 34 (though the '3' looks like a '2'), Two pages, 8vo, good condition.

One page, 12mo, fold mark, good condition. Text in Lowell's hand: 22 April, 1882 | Faithfully yours | J.R. Lowell. Docketed with pencilled note at base with biographical details. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On 12.5 x 3 cm slip of paper cut from letter. Aged and worn, with nick lost from left side, and remains of mount on reverse. Reads: ‘I remain / Yours very truly & affectionately / Sarah Trimmer’. See Image.

Two pages,12mo, bifolium, good condition. Embossed heading Perseverantia et Fortitudo. My dear Kenney | In acknowledgment of Mrs Kenney's note Wednesday that between two and four [each] day except Saturdays & Mondays I am to be found here Wednesday I have most leisure & shall be happy to see you here tomorrow between 2 & 4 o'clock if convenient to you [...].

Four pages,16mo, bifolium, good condition. Dear Mr Ireland, | I will gladly be the means of transmitting your handsome volume [see Note b.] to the London Library. | I thank you for enabling me thus, even before my return, to glance over its pages. Such are my engagements here - that for the present I can do little more; but it has shown me for how much more I shall be indebted to you than I at first supposed.

See his entry in the Encylopedia of New Zealand, and those of Muggeridge and Kingsmill in the Oxford DNB. Each item 1p, foolscap 8vo. Both addressed to ‘Dear Mr Muggeridge’. ONE (12 September 1955): In good condition, on air mail paper, lightly aged and creased. Signed in pencil with calligraphic squiggle. Begins: ‘I want to write something about Hugh Kingsmill. About 20 years ago we exchanged a few letters during a flare up in the Wilde-Douglas business at a time when Robert Sherard was busy fanning the flames and G. B. S.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The first letter, and probably the second, were written around the time when his ‘Down the Garden Path’ (1932) and its two sequels had made Nichols wildly popular, eliciting several parodies. ONE (TLS to ‘Mr. Bryon’): 1p, 12mo. Discoloration along top part of outer edge, otherwise in good condition. Folded once. Good clear signature ‘Beverley Nichols’. He thanks him for sending the interview. ‘I think it is admirably written, and expresses my views very clearly.’ TWO (conclusion of TLS): 1p, 12mo. Twenty-nine lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Fifty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Begins: Dear M. Van de Weyer / Altho' I had been prudent enough to preserve the appeal of M. Derôme to the Times in its original form, not the less welcome was the glorified text which I found on my table yesterday on our return from a short visit to Brighton. That charming appeal acted as a mental Conserve alimentaire to me, when it first appeared, and it shall be placed with certain other valued opuscules, where I can offen turn it to the like account.

See the two men's entries, with that of Helena Faucit, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Addressed to 'Shirley Brooks Esq' and signed 'Theodore Martin'. Brooks has evidently asked for autographs and photographs of Martin and his wife, the celebrated actres Helena Faucit (1817-1898). The letter begins: 'My dear Brooks / Here are the autographs you wish. There is not in all The Lady of Lyons one line to which any reasonable being could wish to attach his name. It is only the situations which are good for anything.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The poem, one of Watkins’ best, is printed under the heading ‘VERNON WATKINS | Poet and Goldsmith’ on both sides of a 12mo leaf, paginated 13-14. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. On the lower part of the second page is a reproduction of an attractive pen drawing of Richmond Bridge by Eleanor Poore. After the end of the poem and above the illustration is Watkins’ assured signature, good and clear: ‘Vernon Watkins’.

An characteristic letter by the author of 'Our Village', written in the year of her move from Three Mile Cross, Berkshire, to nearby Swallowfield, itself eight miles from Pearson's home in Sonning. See the entries on Mitford and Pearson in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium which has been unfolded with the fore-edge of the second leaf attached to a nineteenth-century stub. In good condition, lightly aged.

See his entry by his grandson Anthony Rota in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a piece of paper cut from the end of a letter. Refers to the first privately-printed collection of Dobell's poetry, 'Rosemary and Pansies' (1901). Reads: ‘Yours faithfully / Bertram Dobell. / I have printed only 75 copies of my booklet, so that it may have at least the recommendation of being scarce - the only one, I am afraid, that it can claim.’

An interesting letter regarding the man who was regarded as Ireland's national poet before the appearance of William Butler Yeats. See Croker’s entry, and that of Thomas Moore, in the Oxford DNB. The former contains a paragraph discussing the association between the two men, the conclusion of which explains the context of the present item: ‘At the end of his life Croker (by his own account) was working on a biography of Moore, whom he termed 'an actor—a hypocrite—a swindler—a sensualist and a habitual liar' (Irish Book Lover, 50).

1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Dear Paul Furness’ and signed ‘Roger McGough’. On the subject of Furness’s ‘fascinating pub study’, he names ‘the ones I was associated with during those poetry-reading days’: ‘O’Connors Tavern in Hardman Street (Liverpool all), The Philharmonic (corner of Hope St. & Hardman Street), The Grapes, Pilgrim Street’. In addition there were ‘clubs which we took over on quiet nights i.e. Monday at Chauffeurs Club, Hope Street’.

Weyman was, as his entry in the Oxford DNB states, ?one of the most popular and skilled of the historical romance novelists of the cloak and dagger school?. Oscar Wilde recommended (in all seriousness) Weyman's novels as reading for convicts. 1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly creased and worn. Folded for postage. From the collection of Rosemary Barron, autograph collector. Reads: 'Dear Miss Barron / I am sorry that your letter has remained unanswered so long but I have been laid aside by illness.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Addressed to 'Alfred Miles Esqre.' and with good bold signature 'Gerald Massey'. Begins: 'Dear Sir / You are quite at liberty to quote from my poems - but I shd. like to have a hand in the selection. / In a collection so large as you contemplate there ought to be nothing but one's best.' If he were to edit such a work he would 'make all living authors so choose their own poems. Sir Richard Grenville is the only one of those you mention that I shd.