LITERATURE

[Jane Aiken Hodge, American-born British writer.] Typed Letter Signed to autograph collector Eileen Cond, describing her writing plans: ‘Such hard work; such fun.’

Author: 
Jane Aiken Hodge (1917-2009), prolific American-born British writer, daughter of poet Conrad Aiken, sister of Joan Aiken
Publication details: 
17 September [1969]. 6 Lancaster Road, Wimbledon, SW19 [London].
£100.00

Jane Aiken Hodge was author of many works, mainly romantic fiction. Her most popular book was a study of Georgette Heyer, and she was also responsible for a biography of Jane Austen. 1p, landscape 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. Signed in type ‘Jane Hodge’, with the following in type: ‘Mrs. Alan Hodge’.

[‘King of Redonda’: John Gawsworth, English poet.] Galley proof of his poem ‘Rest’ (‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie’) with one minor emendation.

Author: 
John Gawsworth [pseudonym of Terence Ian Fitton Armstrong (1912-1970)], English poet, author and ‘King of Redonda’ [New English Weekly, founded in 1932 by A. R. Orage]
Redonda
Publication details: 
No date [1940s]. Stamped ‘FOR & ON BEHALF OF / THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY. / 15 REGENT’S PARK TERRACE / GULiver 3875’.
£120.00
Redonda

On one side of a 12mo a piece of grey-green paper; creased, worn and torn at the bottom. A fifteen-line poem in five three-line stanzas, titled ‘REST’. At end: ‘JOHN GAWSWORTH’. Proof directions in pencil to convert a full-stop at the end of the fourth stanza to a comma. While the poet's attempt at direct simplicity verges on triteness, one should recall that he served manfully in the RAF: ‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie / Staring at the open sky / Drowsily, lazily. / Like England is this plot of green / But in the mountains all unseen / The guns’ complaint affects the scene.

[Compton Mackenzie and Christina Foyle.] Seven items relating to a ‘Foyles Literary Lunch’ for . Macqueen-Pope: Two Typed Letters Signed from CM to MP, TLS from Foyle to MP, and carbons of three letters from MP, and four related carbons.

Author: 
Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972), novelist; Christina Foyle (1911-1999), owner of Foyles bookshop, London, who put on the ‘Foyles Literary Lunches’ [W. Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian]
Publication details: 
Dating from between 26 February and 15 May 1951. Mackenzie’s two letters on Denchworth Manor letterhead; Foyle’s letter on letterhead of W. & G. Foyle Ltd., Booksellers, 119-125 Charing Cross Road, London.
£120.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry, and those of Foyle and Mackenzie, in the Oxford DNB.) Apart from damage and rust staining from paperclips, the seven items are in good condition. The correspondence mainly concerns a Foyles Literary Lunch for Macqueen-Pope, which Mackenzie was unable to chair because of an attack of bronchitis. All items 1p, 8vo. Mackenzie’s two letters signed ‘Compton Mackenzie’ and Foyle’s signed ‘Christina Foyle’. ONE: Foyle to MP, 26 February 1951. She is forwarding a letter from Mackenzie.

[Peteris Cedrins [Peteris Cedrinš], Latvian-American poet and translator.] Collection of English language poetry typescripts, most apparently unpublished, including ‘A Working’ (8pp, in 20 sections) and ‘Aphrodite Weaning’.

Author: 
Peteris Cedrins [Peteris Cedrinš] (1964-2022), Latvian-American poet and translator
Publication details: 
Dating from between 1990 and 1992. From Latvia (Riga, Vilnius), Germany (Berlin), and US (Boston, Cambridge, Cruger Island, Glasco Turnpike Saugerties New York).
£1,500.00

Peteris Cedrins possessed an interesting dual heritage: born in the US to exiles from communism, he grew up in Chicago, was educated at Bard College (NYS), and settled in Latvia on the fall of the Soviet Union. He published in English and Lavian in the US, UK and Latvia. See the appreciative obituary by Jeffrey Sommers, posted on the ‘Counterpunch’ website on 11 August 2022: ‘Memoriam: Latvia’s Peteris Cedrins, Last of the National Poets’.

[Marie Belloc Lowndes, novelist, sister of Hilaire Belloc, author of Jack the Ripper novel ‘The Lodger’.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding ‘ our delightful stay with you and the Great Effendi’.

Author: 
Marie Belloc Lowndes [Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes; Mrs Belloc Lowndes] (1868-1947), novelist, sister of Hilaire Belloc, author of Jack the Ripper novel 'The Lodger', filmed by Hitchcock
Publication details: 
‘Sunday’ [no date]. On letterhead of 9 Barton Street, Westminster, S.W.
£50.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Marie Belloc Lowndes’ and addressed to ‘My dear Mrs Doubleday’. Begins: ‘This is only a line of very very grateful thanks for our delightful stay with you and the Great Effendi!’ They ‘enjoyed every minute’ of their visit, and she wants the recipient to have their ‘London address and telephone no. so that we may meet at once when next you are in England!’ She will write if she has ‘any authentic news as to Lord Grays book’.

[Edward Garrard Marsh, poet and clergyman.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding communications to the Maidstone Clerical Society.

Author: 
Edward Garrard Marsh (1783-1862), English poet and Anglican clergyman, son of the composer John Marsh, and associate of William Blake and William Hayley [Maidstone Clerical Society]
Publication details: 
9 February 1853; Aylesford.
£75.00

See his father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2p, 12mo. Neatly written over 26 lines. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘E. G. Marsh’. Recipient not named (‘My dear Sir’). He explains that, having happened on the previous day to be in the chair ‘at the monthly meeting of our clerical society in Maidstone’, he was present when the recipient’s ‘two letters to Dr. Maitland’ were presented, and is requested to convey the meeting’s gratitude, not only for the letters, but for his history of Rome, ‘received by them on a former occasion’.

[Lady Margaret Sackville, poet and children's author, mistress of Ramsay MacDonald.] Typescript of juvenile novel 'Sylvia Thistledown', with autograph emendations, regarding the advetures in Fairy-land of Amelia Egerton and the fairy of the title.

Author: 
Lady Margaret Sackville (1881-1963), English poet and children’s author, who had an affair with Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, daughter of Earl De La Warr, cousin of Vita Sackville-West
Publication details: 
On front cover: 'Margaret Sackville | 22. Lansdowne Terrace | Cheltenham'. Undated, but date stamped 30 November 1945.
£450.00

According to the Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2006 (see the end of this description), Lady Margaret Sackville was 'a poet who mixed with writers such as W B Yeats and Wilfred Scawen Blunt, was a friend of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a leading member of the Bloomsbury Set'. 167pp., 4to. Each page on the recto of a separate leaf, the whole bound with green thread through punch holes in margins. The first page worn and with label (of literary agent?) removed from head, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged and worn.

[Thomas Hood, English poet.] Autograph Signature on valediction cut from letter.

Author: 
Thomas Hood (1799-1845), English poet, author of 'The Song of the Shirt' and 'The Bridge of Sighs', member of John Scott's 'London Magazine' circle
Hood
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00
Hood

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Rectangle of paper, evidently cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘Yours truly / Tom Hood’. See image.

[William Harrison Ainsworth, Victorian historical novelist and close friend of Charles Dickens.] Autograph Letter Signed, inviting ‘Mrs Barlow’ and her husband ‘Mr. Fred. Barlow’ to dinner on his daughters’ return.

Author: 
W. Harrison Ainsworth [William Harrison Ainsworth] (1805-1882), Victorian historical novelist and close friend of Charles Dickens
Ainsworth
Publication details: 
22 October [no year]. 5 Arundel Terrace [Brighton].
£45.00
Ainsworth

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Signed ‘W Harrison Ainsworth’. Signed ‘W Harrison Ainsworth’ and reads: ‘Dear Mrs Barlow / My Daughters return on the 30th. May[.] I therefore hope to have the pleasure of seeing you and Mr. Barlow at Dinner at a quarter after 9 o’clock on Saturday, 30th?’ See image.

[Rudyard Kipling, Nobel prize winning author and poet.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rudyard Kipling') to Captain [Stowe?], concerning the his recent departure from Rottingdean (to Batemans) and continued interest in the Rottingdean Rifle Club.

Author: 
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), Nobel prize winning author and poet
Kipling
Publication details: 
[Headed] Bateman's Burwash, Sussex, 17 Oct. 1902.
£350.00
Kipling

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, fold marks. Twenty-nine lines of text in Kipling's neat and close hand. Text: Many thanks for your letter & enclosed slip. As you say, your competition is the First step in the right way: next comes the unknown range for the disappearing man. I am afraid you will find [masses?] of opposition from the 'crack' shots &c to whom the solemn ritual of [?] paint-box and all the rest of it has all the dignity of a 'sport'. Also the meagre scores will not 'look well in the papers'.

[Edward Bulwer-Lytton [Lord Lytton], popular Victorian novelist and politician who declined the crown of Greece, friend of Charles Dickens.] Autograph Note Signed (‘E B Lytton’) authorising entry to the Gallery of the House of Commons.

Author: 
Edward Bulwer-Lytton [Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton; Lord Lytton] (1803-1873), Victorian novelist and politician who declined the crown of Greece, friend of Dickens
Bulwer
Publication details: 
8 May 1866. On embossed letterhead of the Carlton Club [London].
£50.00
Bulwer

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In very good condition. Folded twice. Clear and neat signature beneath slightly-smudged text. Written on the verge of his removal from the House of Commons to the House of Lords. Reads ‘[Admiral Buser?] to Gallery of H of C / Tuesday May 8th. 1866 / E B Lytton’. See image.

[T. F. Powys [Theodore Francis Powys], novelist and short-story writer,] Neat Autograph Signature for an autograph hunter.

Author: 
T. F. Powys [Theodore Francis Powys] (1875-1953), novelist and short-story writer, brother of John Cowper Powys and Llewellyn Powys
Powys
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£25.00
Powys

For Powys and his two literary brothers see the Oxford DNB. On 11 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. The paper is discoloured with heavy spotting aroudnd the signature. Clearly a response to a request for an autograph, neatly written and centred on the paper, the only writing is the signature: ‘Theodore Frances Powys’. See image.

[Robina Forrester Hardy, Scottish poet and missionary.] Conclusion of Autograph Letter, with Signature.

Author: 
Robina F. Hardy [Robina Forrester Hardy] (d.1891), Scottish Victorian author, poet and missionary
Robina
Publication details: 
Without date and place.
£35.00
Robina

An 11 x 8.5 cm piece of paper, cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. In fair condition, lightly aged, and laid down on a piece of card which has chipped at the corners. The paper and its backing have a vertical crease through them. Reads ‘Excuse a very hurried letter & believe me / Very truly yours / Robina F. Hardy’.

[Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Cornish man of letters, compiler of the classic ‘Oxford Book of English Verse’.] Autograph Letter Signed, reporting an attack of influenza and expressing ‘sincere pleasure’ at the a comment by the recipient.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch [Arthur Thomas Quiller Couch], Cornish man of letters, compiler of the classic ‘Oxford Book of English Verse’ (1900)
Quiller-Couch
Publication details: 
10 February 1897; on letterhead of The Haven, Fowey, Cornwall.
£45.00
Quiller-Couch

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged with patch of light sunning. Folded once. The recipient is not named. Reads: ‘Dear Madam / Forgive me for my delay in answering your letter. I have been laid up for a week or two with influenza & my correspondence has suffered in consequence. / And please believe that your words have given us sincere pleasure & that I am / Yours very faithfully / A. T. Quiller-Couch’. The hyphen in the signature is almost imperceptible. See image.

[Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, dramatist, judge, and friend of Charles Lamb, dedicatee of Pickwick Papers.] Autograph Letter in the third person to ‘Mrs Walter’, presenting a copy of ‘a little dramatic poem’ (i.e. his celebrated play ‘Ion’).

Author: 
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854), dramatist, judge, Radical politician, friend of Charles Dickens (dedicatee of Pickwick Papers) and Charles Lamb, advocate of copyright reform
Talfourd
Publication details: 
21 October 1835; Reading [Berkshire].
£320.00
Talfourd

It is hard to overestimate the impact of ‘Ion’ on Victorian audiences in Britain and America. According to Talfourd’s entry in the Oxford DNB, the play was ‘first performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London, on his birthday, 26 May 1836.

[Matilda Betham Edwards, English author.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘M Betham-Edwards’) to ‘Miss Birkett’, proposing a four o’clock call, as she does not like ‘climbing the hill in the dark’,

Author: 
M. Betham-Edwards [Matilda Barbara Betham Edwards] (1836-1919), English travel writer poet and author of children's stories
Publication details: 
13 January 1899; on letterhead of Villa Julia, Hastings.
£35.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which does not accord her name a hyphen, although she does in this letter. 2pp, 12mo. On grey-paper bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘M Bethan-Edwards’ and addressed to ‘Dear Miss Birkett’. She apologises for having to decline her kind invitation: ‘I never can lunch out being busy till 1 pm’. Since ‘the afternoons are now so very short’, and she does not like ‘climbing the hill in the dark’, she proposes calling on her at 4pm. ‘It will then give me much pleasure to see you.’

[‘It is now not safe to take a newspaper paragraph report’: Frederic Harrison, English historian and positivist.] Autograph Letter Signed, declining to enter into an argument on property, as his views have been misrepresented.

Author: 
Frederic Harrison (1831-1923), English historian, biographer, essayist and positivist
Publication details: 
4 February [no year]; on letterhead of 38 Westbourne Terrace, W. [London.]
£45.00

See his long but strangely-cagey entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘Frederic Harrison.’ The recipient is not named. The letter begins: ‘Madam, I am obliged to you for your interesting letter[.] I do not enter an argument because it is founded on a few sentences which give a very imperfect idea of what I said on Sunday last.’ He does not dispute many of her assertions and, as for ‘the usefulness of larger landlords’, he has ‘repeatedly urged it in my addresses’.

[Stanley J. Weyman, popular English novelist of the ‘cloak and dagger school’.] Autograph Signature on inscription for collector.

Author: 
Stanley J. Weyman [Stanley John Weyman] (1855-1928), popular English Victorian and Edwardian novelist of historical romance
Weyman
Publication details: 
2 November 1899. Place not stated.
£30.00
Weyman

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 his novels as reading for convicts. The present item is on an 11 x 9 cm piece of watermarked laid paper. In good condition. A neat attractive two-line inscription for an autograph collector, underlined and sloping upwards. Reads: ‘Stanley J. Weyman | Nov. 2. 1899’. See image.

[‘Pray destroy this letter.’ Hall Caine, English novelist, regarding his war work for the B.ritish Government.] Long ‘Strictly Private’ Autograph Letter Signed to Douglas Sladen, also assessing the position of the man of letters in his England.

Author: 
Hall Caine [Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine] (1853-1931), hugely-popular Victorian and Edwardian Isle of Man author [Douglas Sladen [Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen] (1856-1947), author and academic]
Publication details: 
10 April 1917; on letterhead of Heath Brow, Hampstead Heath.
£220.00

An excellent letter, in which Caine evaluates his wartime activities, criticises those of others, and gives his opinion of the the standing of the man of letters in the England of his time. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. A long letter: forty-two lines in Caine’s distinctive close hand, with the first two pages on the rectos of the leaves, and the third page written lengthwise on the verso of the first leaf. Signed ‘Hall Caine’ and addressed to ‘My dear Sladen’.

[Christopher Fry breaks America, 1950-1951.] Fry’s own cuttings, with manuscript captions, largely from English and North American newspapers, many describing the success of John Gielgud’s US touring production of ‘The Lady’s Not For Burning’.

Author: 
Christopher Fry [born Arthur Hammond Harris] (1907-2005), distinguished English playwright, leading exponent of verse drama [John Gielgud]
Publication details: 
Cuttings from North American, English, European and African newspapers and magazines, dating from between 19 July 1950 and 20 July 1951.
£650.00

Long and almost universally-appreciative articles, with photographs and cartoons, reflecting the excitement and energy of the period during which Fry was, as Michael Billington writes in his entry on the playwright in the Oxford DNB, ‘a dominant figure in British drama’. Ranging from three continents, with a few articles in foreign languages (Swedish, German, French). Among the material are John Gielgud’s long statement ‘Mr. Gielgud discovers Mr. Fry’, New York Times, 5 November 1950; and Richard L. Coe, ‘ “Lady” Delights A Packed Gayety’, Washington Post, 21 March 1951.

[L. A. G. Strong, English writer and published.] Typed Letter Signed to ‘Miss Murphy’, expressing delight at her enjoyment of his work, and the hope that it will never ‘disappoint’ her.

Author: 
L. A. G. Strong [Leonard Alfred George Strong] (1896-1958), English writer and publisher
Publication details: 
23 March 1932; on letterhead of 10 Brunswick Gardens W.8. [London.]
£35.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. Sixteen lines of text. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Stylized signature: ‘L A G Strong.’ He replies to her letter by saying that he is ‘delighted’ that she enjoys reading his books, ‘and I very much appreciate your kindness in taking the trouble to write and tell me so’. He hopes that she will continue to read his work, and that it will ‘never disappoint’ her. ‘Nothing is more encouraging to a writer than to know that he has numbers of friends, whom he has never seen, but who are following what he does with interest and pleasure.’

[George Colman the Younger, playwright and theatre manager.] Autograph Signature with date and address for autograph collector.

Author: 
George Colman the Younger (1762-1836), playwright and theatre-manager at the Haymarket, London
Colman
Publication details: 
21 July 1828; Brompton Square [London].
£25.00
Colman

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On watermarked wove paper. In good condition, folded once. Centred on the page, and clearly written for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘with kind regards from / G. Colman / 21st. July. 1828. / Brompton Square.’

[Clifford Bax, playwright and author.] Autograph Letter Signed to Clifford Musgrave (‘Mr Muspratt’), regarding a lecture he gives in Brighton, accompanied by the actress and model Meum Stewart.

Author: 
Clifford Bax [Clifford Lea Bax] (1886-1962), English playwright, poet, journalist and writer, brother of the composer Arnold Bax [Clifford Musgrave, Brighton Borough Librarian; Meum Stewart, actress]
Publication details: 
14 and 24 February 1945. The first on letterhead of D2 Albany, London W1; the second from the same Piccadilly address.
£90.00

See his entry, and that of his brother, in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Clifford Musgrave (d.1993), Borough Librarian, was instrumental in the saving and renovation of the Brighton Pavilion. Both items in good condition, lightly aged. Both written in an elegant close calligraphic hand. The first is misaddressed to ‘Mr Muspratt’, and the second to ‘Mr. Musgrave’. Both signed ‘Clifford Bax’. ONE (14 February 1945): 2pp, 16mo. Nineteen lines. Regarding the arrangements for a lecture he is going to give, he has been asked by ‘Eric’ to communicate with him about his ‘Brighton visit’.

['The most perfect ode in the English language': Charles Wolfe, Irish poet.] Photographic facsimile of Autograph Letter Signed to John Taylor, containing the text of his celebrated poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna’.

Author: 
Charles Wolfe (1791-1823), Irish poet, of the family of General James Wolfe and Wolfe Tone, author of the celebrated poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna’
Moore
Publication details: 
With facsimile of postmark dated 6 September 1816. No place (but from Ireland).
£120.00
Moore

The present item gives the text of the poem described by Byron as 'the most perfect ode in the English language' before its first publication in the Newry Telegraph in April 1817. See Wolfe’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The source of the present item is unclear. It is a photographic facsimile, many decades old, on both sides of a 4to leaf. In fair condition, slightly creased on browned paper, with negligible loss to margin at head. With five creases from folding. Addressed to ‘John Taylor Esqe / at the Revd Mr. Armstrong’s / Clonoully / Cashel’.

[‘The Whig Dr Johnson’: Samuel Parr, author, divine and pedagogue.] Autograph Card in the third person to the Mayor of Warwick, ‘Keeling Greenway’ [Kelynge Greenway]. In envelope with red wax seal.

Author: 
Samuel Parr (1747-1825), author, divine and pedagogue, known as ‘the Whig Dr Johnson’ [Kelynge Greenway, Mayor of Warwick]
Parr
Publication details: 
29 November 1820. Hatton [near Warwick].
£56.00
Parr

An almost miraculously legible example of Parr’s normally atrocious hand. (His entry in the Oxford DNB states that ‘Parr was flogged only once at Harrow, for bad handwriting, and to no effect. His writing remained atrocious all his life, so much so that on an occasion when he wrote to ask for 'two lobsters' his friend read the words as “two eggs”.’) On one side of blank card. In envelope with indistinguishable seal in red wax, addressed by Parr to ‘Keeling Greenway Esqr / Mayor of Warwick’.

[Kenneth Hopkins, poet, critic and crime writer.] ‘Three Sonnets’ by Kenneth Hopkins in ‘The Grasshopper Broadsheets’ series of publications, with Signed Autograph Inscription to London bookseller Andrew Block.

Author: 
Kenneth Hopkins [Hector Kenneth Hopkins] (1914-1988), poet, critic and crime writer [Andrew Block, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
‘Number Three. Third Series. March, 1944.’ ‘Printed by Bacon & Hudson, Ltd., Derby, and published by Kenneth Hopkins, 670, Osmaston Road, Derby.’
£56.00

See Hopkins’s entry in the Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. His papers are in the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. Printed on one side of a foolscap 8vo leaf. A tasteful piece of provincial printing. Worn, creased and dog-eared, with closed tears at head. Inscribed at bottom-right: ‘for Andrew Block / Kenneth Hopkins’. Titled ‘THREE SONNETS’ and signed in type ‘KENNETH HOPKINS’.

[Jane Elizabeth Hornblower, poet and novelist, daughter of Liverpool abolitionist William Roscoe.] Holograph Manuscript of ‘Sonnet / written in a young lady’s album’, signed ‘J E R.’

Author: 
Jane Elizabeth Hornblower [née Jane Elizabeth Roscoe] (1797-1853), poet and novelist, daughter of Liverpool connoisseur and abolitionist William Roscoe (1753-1831)
hornblower
Publication details: 
No date or place, but before her 1838 marriage to Rev. Francis Hornblower.
£100.00
hornblower

1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium of pink patterned paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The sonnet, which does not appear to have been published, begins: ‘Midst the young eyes that on this book shall shine / Kindling with genius or with feeling bright, / Lit up with all youth’s visions of delight, / There yet shall gage no dearer ones than thine!’ Signed at end ‘J E R.’ See image.

[‘Hesba Stretton’ (Sarah Smith), novelist.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Henrietta’, regarding the taking of rooms, and her Christmas at the Royal Hospital (Chelsea?).

Author: 
‘Hesba Stretton’ [Sarah Smith] (1832-1911), English novelist and author
Publication details: 
26 December [no year]; ‘Royal Hospital’.
£38.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, but with slight loss to inner upper corner, caused by removal from mount, and resulting in loss to two words on second page, and closed tear at bottom of gutter. Folded once. Signed ‘Hesba Stretton.’ Begins: ‘My dear Henrietta / It was too cold to get over to see you this morning; but as we hope to be so near to you for sme days that signifies less.’ She asks if the recipient’s maid can ‘kindly take the rooms’, as ‘we’ (i.e.

[Theodore Hook, author and hoaxer.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Theo S Hook’) [to his publishers Whittaker & Co.], reporting missing text in the revises of his ‘Gilbert Gurney’, and requesting the return of ‘the MS of the page in question’.

Author: 
Theodore Hook [Theodore Edward Hook] (1788-1841), author, wit and hoaxer, accountant-general and treasurer of Mauritius, 1813-1817
Publication details: 
No date or place, but on paper with 1834 watermark.
£75.00

Hook’s entry in the Oxford DNB descibes his novel ‘Gilbert Gurney’ (1836) and its sequel ‘Gurney Married’ (1838) as made up of ‘thinly disguised portraits and a string of anecdotes from real life’. 1p, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, folded twice. On wove paper with C. Ansell watermark of 1834. The signature ‘Theo E Hook’ does indeed have a strange ‘hook’ on the end of it, which has led to a pencil note on the blank second leaf: ‘try Thos. E. Boot / Booth / author of “Gilbert Gurney”’.

[John Masefield, Poet Laureate.] Autograph Card, ordering a book from a booksellers’ list.

Author: 
John Masefield (1878-1967), Poet Laureate and author
Masefield
Publication details: 
Pinbury Park, Cirencester. No date.
£80.00
Masefield

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. In the following transcript, the parts in Masefield’s autograph are in square brackets, and the first printed sentence (‘I [...] letter.’) has been scored through: ‘PINBURY PARK, / CIRENCESTER. / Dear [Sirs,] / I thank you for you letter. / [I shall be obliged if you will send me No 98 of your list / Du Maurier. Trilby / London, 1895.] / With all good wishes, / Yours sincerely, / John Masefield.’ (Note that this ‘signature’ is printed.) See image.

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