LITERATURE

Night and Morning. Poems by Austin Clarke. Being Number One of the Tower Press Booklets. Third Series.

Author: 
Austin Clarke
Publication details: 
Dublin, The Orwell Press, 1938.
£150.00

Original beige wrap, sunned and dusted, worn and chipped edges and spine, small closed tear at top front wrap, contents slightly foxed, mainly good. Enclosure (loose): Blank Order Form for this pamphlet including statement of limitation (300 printed). Scarce.

Mrs. Mulligan's Millions. A Comedy in Three Acts.

Author: 
Edward McNulty, Irish novelist and playwright, Mrs. Mulligan's Millions. A Comedy in Three Acts.Dublin and London, 1918.
Publication details: 
Maunsel and Compnay, Dublin and London, 1918.
£200.00

Based on his novel of the same name. Original green wraps, motif of Maunsel's Irish Plays on front, soiled, one closed tear, titlepage faintly stained, pages of contents dulled through age, sound. From the library of Robert Lynd, author and nationalist. Scarce: COPAC lists copies at NLS, Oxford and NLW (NOT BL).

The Shuiler's Child

Author: 
Seumas O'Kelly
Publication details: 
First Edition, Maunsel & Co., Dublin, 1909
£200.00

Original brown wraps, chipped, dusted and soiled, titlepage partly soiled and dusted, otherwise good. Scarce: COPAC lists copies at BL, NLS, Oxford, and NLW. AddAll only lists the 1971 reprint.

The Twilight People

Author: 
Seumas O'Sullivan
Publication details: 
Dublin: Whaley & Co.; London: A.H. Bullen, 1905.
£100.00

Original mauve wraps, sunned and creased, endpapers soiled, contents slightly marked but mainly good. INSCRIBED by Robert Lynd, author and nationalist, in Irish, Riobard ua Flynn. Scarce: COPAC lists copies at NLS, Cambridge, BL.

Poems. The Tower Press Booklets Number Four

Author: 
Ella Young
Publication details: 
Dublin, 1906.
£100.00

37pp., [12mo], original illus. printed green wraps, sunned, marked, sl. creased and chipped. Scarce. COPAC lists five copies.

Some Irish Essays

Author: 
A.E. [George William Russell].
Publication details: 
The Tower Press Booklets, No. 1, Dublin, 1906.
£150.00

39pp., 12mo, a fragile pamphlet, lacking back wrap and with damaged front wrap, attractively rebound in green paper wraps with label on front, retaining and supporting the surviving wrap. Scarce. Copac lists copies at CUL, BL, not Trinity.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Laurence W. Meynell') to 'Miss Card'.

Author: 
Laurence Meynell [Laurence Walter Meynell] (1899-1989), English children's writer
Publication details: 
19 April 1937; on letterhead of Lime Tree Cottage, Great Kingshill, Buckinghamshire.
£35.00

12mo, 2 pp. Creased, and with an unobtrusive 1 cm closed tear. He thanks her for her 'charming letter of appreciation'. He is delighted that she 'so enjoyed' 'The Door' ['The Door in the Wall' (1937)]: 'a similar story (or rather one dealing with Phillip Markham & Baikie) will be appearing in the autumn probably in early October'. 'It always cheers an author up to know that he has pleased his readers - & if they do him the good turn of recommending his book to their friends he is vastly obliged!'

Autograph Letter Signed to 'R. Steggall' [perhaps the organist Reginald Steggall].

Author: 
James Orton, English Victorian poet
Publication details: 
12 May 1875; 86 Usher Road, Old Ford, London.
£56.00

12mo, 4 pp. Good, with spotting to second leaf of bifolium. Steggall and Orton's 'mutual friend (our very dear friend)' Mrs. Kent has written to tell Orton that Steggall 'will be happy to see my son on Saturday evening at 6'. Orton is grateful to Steggall for thinking 'of my anxiety to retain him with me after our long & to me at least terrible separation'. He is very grateful to Steggall, who is joined to Orton by a 'link of friendship which passes through to my two dear friends Mrs. Kent and Mrs. Atherstone'.

BRICRIU'S FEAST | A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS | WITH AN EPILOGUE, with typewritten letter to the author's daughter Ita O'Duffy.

Author: 
Eimar O'Duffy
Publication details: 
Martin Lester, Ltd, 44 Dawson Street, Dublin; [1919?].
£30.00

52 pages, 8vo. In original blue printed wraps, which are folded around endpapers, the rear of which bears publisher's advertisements. In poor condition: paper browning and spotting with age, binding loose and wraps frayed and worn, especially at spine. The front wrap has a long closed tear at head, and the indentation of a paper-clip, which attaches the typewritten letter (1 page, 8vo, discoloured and worn at extremities), headed 'Room 102, | Surrey Street. | 7.4.52', from 'Christine' to 'Ita'.

Printed postcard, signed.

Author: 
Alfred Perceval Graves
Publication details: 
c.1901
£45.00

Irish Author (1846-1931). The postcard indicates his willingness to act as a steward at the Annual Dinner of the Incorporated Society of Authors, with his name in full , address, and a note questioning whetehr he can make it, all in Graves's hand. Small hole marginally affects handwritten text.

Typed Letter Signed ('J B. Priestley') to 'My dear Minney'.

Author: 
J. B. Priestley
Publication details: 
7 Dec. 1939; on letterhead of Billingham Manor, Isle of Wight.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Very good. He hopes she will bring her paper out soon, 'as there is room' for it, 'especially if you are careful to steer clear of mere nonsense'. Asks her to ask her 'paper' to send the cheque to him, 'and not to Peters, as he had no hand in the transaction'. He 'travelled 2,500 miles doing those articles on our war-time effort', and is 'now very glad to be back home, picking up the threads of my own work again'. He has just finished 'a comedy', and hopes 'to start another soon'.

Autograph Signature ('H. Martineau') on fragment of letter.

Author: 
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), English writer and journalist
Publication details: 
26 December [no year]; Ambleside.
£45.00

Irregularly-shaped (like an 'L') piece of paper, cut from the head of a letter with a mourning border. Dimensions (very roughly) 4 and 3 cm high and 7 cm wide. Good, with minor traces of two tissue mounts adhering to reverse. The following written vertically across three lines of writing: 'to all your family, & I am, dear Sir, truly yours | [signed] H. Martineau'. The remains of the three lines acoss which the above is written read: '<...> dear Sir | <...> I am | <....> ur sister <...>'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('M. F. T.') to his printer Thomas Brettell, 25 Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.

Author: 
Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889), English poet [P. T. Barnum; John Leech; Thomas Brettell; Henry William Pickersgill]
Publication details: 
Undated, but docketed 'Jan. 31 1851'.
£75.00

12mo: 2 pp. 28 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper, with unobtrusive small spike hole and traces of mounts adhering to four corners. Interesting animated letter between a Victorian author and his printer. Relates to Tupper's 'A hymn for All Nations; translated into thirty languages; nearly fifty versions; the music composed expressly by S. Sebastian Wesley.' (1851). Asks his printer to 'Attend to Hymn as within' (not present). 'We cannot help all this trouble'. Tupper has written to Dr Gavassi, but has had no answer: 'get Rossetti's as soon as you can.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Freeman'), with envelope, to Hodgson at 20 Bromley Common, Bromley, Kent.

Author: 
John Freeman [John Frederick Freeman] (1880-1929), English Georgian poet [Sidney Hodgson, book auctioneer of Hodgson's, Chancery Lane, London]
Publication details: 
7 April [no year]; on embossed letterhead of 29 Weighton Road, Anerley, [London,] S.E.
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. 7 lines. Good, but with some foxing, and with a corner of the blank reverse tipped in onto a card mount on which the envelope is laid down. He thanks him 'for the catalogue containing the Moore item'. Would be 'very glad' if Hodgson 'could call here on Thursday next & join us in a meal at 7 o'clock [...] I suggest Thursday because then we shall not be alone, nor dull'. Hodgson was the author, in 1927, of 'Brief notes on the history of the hamlet of Penge with Anerley'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (two 'Eric Broad. | Frederic E Wright.' and one 'Frederic E Wright | Eric Broad.') to W. Kineton Parkes (1865-1938), assistant editor of the journal of the Ruskin Reading Guild, 'Igdrasil'

Author: 
Eric Broad' (Frederic E. Wright), English poet [W. Kineton Parkes; John Ruskin; William Marwick; the Ruskin Reading Guild]
Publication details: 
20 and 22 January and 3 March 1890; all from Scarsdale, Great Malvern.
£100.00

All three items in very good condition. Interesting series of letters by an obscure 1890s poet. Letter One (12mo, 7 pp): Although he realises that some are 'rather poor', he is sending, through his brother (possibly the artist Alan Wright, 1864-1959), 'all the lyrics I have by me': 'I have not had time to "weed" yet, being veryy busily engaged writing lyrics for a Comedy-Opera ['Ethelinda, or a Philanthropic Fad' (1890), on which he collaborated with Hamilton O. Wylde] - & a libretto for Operetta; also been trying my hand at very sensational prose'.

Autograph Note Signed ('John Oxenham') to 'Master M. Bull'.

Author: 
John Oxenham' (William Arthur Dunkerley, 1852-1941), British journalist, poet and novelist
Publication details: 
London; 28 July 1913.
£10.00

One page, 12mo. Very good, on lightly aged paper mounted on piece of card. Reads 'London | July 28/13 | Master M. Bull | I append autograph as requested | Yours truly | John Oxenham'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Mary W. Findlater') to unnamed female autograph hunter.

Author: 
Mary Williamina Findlater (1865-1963), Scottish novelist and poet
Publication details: 
27 October 1901; Mount Stuart, Torquay, England.
£10.00

One page, 16mo. Good, on lightly aged grey paper, with previous paper mount adhering to reverse. Reads 'I have pleasure in sending you the Autograph you desire'.

Autograph Note Signed (' "Winifred Graham" | (Mrs. Theodore Cory)') accompanying Typed Letter Signed ('Winifred Cory') to the Rev. E. J. F. Davies.

Author: 
Winifred Graham (Matilda Winifred Muriel Graham Cory, 1873-1950), author of more than eighty books, and opponent of the Mormon religion
Publication details: 
Both on letterhead 'ST. ALANS, | HAMPTON-ON-THAMES'; both dated 7 January 1931.
£50.00

Both items one page, 12mo. Both on creased, aged paper, with some paperclip spotting. In the typed letter (which is in slightly worse condition than the other item) she explains that she is enclosing her autograph on a separate sheet. '[I]n case you care to have it My Mother, Mrs. Graham, (I write under my maiden name) thought you might like to have Sir Philip Gibbs' autograph, [^the celebrated author,] so she has asked me to send you a card she received from him the other day. [not present] You certainly have a wonderful collection!' The autograph reads 'Jan: 7th.

Autograph Note Signed (' "Allen Raine" ') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Allen Raine' (Ann Adaliza Puddicombe, nee Evans, 1836-1908), British novelist, known as 'the Welsh Catherine Cookson'
Publication details: 
Traethsaith | Cardiganshire | Aug 30th/06'.
£30.00

One page, 12mo, on mourning paper. Aged and cropped at foot. Dusty, and with minor paperclip stains to edges, and traces of previous mount on reverse. Reads 'Dear Sir, | I have much pleasure in sending you my Autograph. | Yours truly | "Allen Raine" '. Four-line cutting giving printed biography neatly laid down in bottom right-hand corner.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Theodore Martin') [to an autograph dealer?].

Author: 
Sir Theodore Martin (1816-1909), Scottish poet, biographer and translator.
Publication details: 
27 February 1888; on letterhead '31, Onslow Square, S. W.' [London].
£50.00

One page, 12mo. Good, though a little grubby at the right-hand margin, and with the name of the recipient neatly torn away at foot. 'Dear Sir | Neither Lady Martin nor myself feel any interest in any letters of ours, which may have come into your hands.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. P. Drury') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
Major William Price Drury (1861-1928), Royal Marines, English author
Publication details: 
3 September 1907; East Lavington, Petworth, Sussex.
£25.00

One page, 12mo. Good, on aged paper with a little paperclip spotting. Laid down on piece of card. 'It is with considerable misgiving that I thrust my autograph upon the distinguished company you cite in your letter. Since, however, it is unthinkable to refuse the request of a lady, I have the honour to subscribe myself, | Yours faithfully, | W. P. Drury.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Horace') and fragment of Autograph Letter Signed ('Horace Annesley Vachell.').

Author: 
Horace Annesley Vachell (1861-1955), English novelist and playwright
Publication details: 
The letter: 24 September 1899, on letterhead 'PEVERELL, HURSLEY, WINCHESTER.' The fragment: undated and with place not stated.
£30.00

The letter: one page, 12mo. Good, but with removal from mount having thinned the paper in places, and with traces of brown paper mount still adhering. He is sending the autographs of 'Henry Seton Merriman (Hugh Scott); Gertrude Atherton; Miss Fowler; and Douglas Sladen. Also a photo from Ted (not a good one, but the only one I have left).' He enjoyed himself 'so much' at Langford. 'It was a week of real enjoyment to me.' The fragment: one page, four inches by four and a half wide.

Autograph Letter signed ('B. W. Proctor') to 'Mr C Schofield'.

Author: 
Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874), English poet writing under pseudonym 'Barry Cornwall'
Publication details: 
32 Weymouth Street | 16 August 1863'.
£80.00

One page, 12mo. Very good. Docketed in pencil at head. 'I have no knowledge of Mr Tupper [presumably the poetaster Martin Farquhar Tupper, 1810-89] or of his address. I was in hopes that the madness of collecting autographs had subsided - but I am sorry to perceive, from your letter, that this is not yet the Case.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Sarath Kumar Ghosh') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sarath Kumar Ghosh (born 1883), Indian writer
Publication details: 
26 March 1906; on letterhead '28 Elgin Avenue, [London] W.'
£60.00

One page, 12mo. Grubby, and with traces of previous mount adhering to reverse. Small circle containing '170' in red in top left-hand corner. He is sending his autograph, 'which I could not do while at . I am glad you have read some of my stories; I presume those now in book form as "1001 Indian Nights." '

Autograph Card Signed ('Agnes Castle' and 'Egerton Castle').

Author: 
Egerton Castle (1858-1920) and his wife Agnes Castle, nee Sweetman (1860-1922), British historical novelists
Publication details: 
6 December 1901; place not stated [Brighton].
£30.00

Printed Post Card, dimensions three and a half inches by five and a half. Good, on aged paper, but with the reverse (showing the remains of a photograph of Brighton) damaged by its removal from an autograph album. Unobtrusive vertical crease. Reads (apparently in Egerton Castle's hand) 'Dear Miss Gray | Your letter has been forwarded to us here. We have much pleasure in sending you the autographs you desire'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Clunie') to an unnamed male autograph collector.

Author: 
John Clunie (1784-1858), Principal of Leaf Square and Seedley Grove Academies, 1812 to 1837
Publication details: 
20 June 1836; Seedley Grove, near Manchester.
£50.00

One page, on piece of lightly aged paper, roughly six and a half inches by seven. Strip neatly torn away at head (not affecting text, but perhaps bearing recipient's address). Good, with a little damage from breaking of wafer and slight evidence of previous mounting on revese. Thirteen lines. He is sending the selected autographs, and will 'be happy to receive, at your leisure, those of Currie, Daubeny, Mc.Culloch, Flowers, Woodville & Phillips & Jones - or such 5 of them as you can best spare'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Thomas Thompson of Liverpool.

Author: 
Catherine Hutton (1756-1846), English novelist and miscellaneous writer [AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING]
Publication details: 
Bennett's Hill June 1832'.
£600.00

Two pages, quarto. Well preserved, on good lightly-aged paper, but with the original piece of paper (which was roughly nine inches by seven and a half wide) now neatly cut into three strips (the top and bottom of which are two and three-quarter inches high, and the middle three and a half inches high). The text is extremely neatly written and entirely legible, and the whole easily repairable with archival tape. The whole of this long, interesting letter (thirty-five lines and a two-line postscript) is given over to the current craze for autograph collecting (for which see A. N. L.

Autograph Note Signed ('F. C. Burnand') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (1836-1917), English writer, editor of the magazine 'Punch' from 1880 to 1906
Publication details: 
10 December 1901; place not stated.
£30.00

One page. Dimensions of paper roughly four inches by seven. On piece of aged, stained paper, mounted on piece of card. Remains of biographical cutting in bottom right-hand corner. Reads 'Here you are Sir | Autographs cheap today | F. C. Burnand | F. C. B. | 10 Dec 1901'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Henry Newbolt') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Henry John Newbolt (1862-1938), English poet and novelist
Publication details: 
16 July 1907; on letterhead 'ST. GILES'S MOUNT, WINCHESTER.'
£30.00

One page, 12mo. Neatly mounted on card. Nine-line biographical newspaper cutting neatly laid down at foot. Ten lines from another newspaper cutting, relating to Madame Patti, at head. Reads 'Dear madam | I thank you for your flattering letter and subscribe myself, as you wish, | Yours truly | Henry Newbolt'.

Autograph Note Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Edmund Yates (1831-94), British novelist, dramatist and editor of the 'World' magazine
Publication details: 
28 August 1886; on letterhead 1 York Street, Covent Garden, London.
£40.00

One page, 12mo. Very good on lightly-aged grey paper. Reads 'Dear Sir. | Here is the autograph you require. | Faithfully your's | [signed] Edmund Yates'. The words 'Here' and 'to' are slightly smudged.

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