POETRY

Autograph Letter Signed "Edward George Lytton Bulwer", to [Barbarina Lady Dacre], about her Poems (published 1821).

Author: 
Edward Bulwer Lytton, novelist
Publication details: 
Knebworth, Saturday morning [n.d. - pre-1844 when he became Bulwer-Lytton].
£120.00

One page, 8vo, laid down on another paper, fold marks and slightly crumpled, trimmed with loss of part of "K" of "Knebworth" only, otherwise text clear and complete. "It is with many thanks that Ireturn your Ladyship's Poems [...] I must differ from your Ladyship in the remark that 'Tragedy is not the field for female powers- I cannot help particualrly admiring the nobleness of the characters you have described, & the sentiments they atter are such as Man should utter.

[Printed Georgian pamphlet of song lyrics, not in ESTC.] The Gentleman's Concert. Being A Choice Collection of Favourite Songs. Containing, [twenty numbered song titles, including '15. I am a poor black, it is true.'

Author: 
[Georgian song book; Cluer Dicey & Co., London publishers; 'George Seghious'; 'The Black's Lamentation'; slavery]
Publication details: 
Publication details and date not give. [London: Cluer Dicey & Co. 1770s?]
£280.00

The full drophead title, beneath a headpiece of three lions in folliage, reads: The Gentleman's CONCERT. | BEING | A Choice Collection of Favourite SONGS. | Containing, | [following 10 lines in left-hand of two columns] 1. Where's my swain so blyth and clever | 2. To an arbour of woodbines. | 3. The flame of love sincere I felt. | 4. When all the Attic fire was fled. | 5. Cupid, god of pleasing anguish. | 6. As I walk'd forth, &c. | 7. O give me leave to love you dearly. | 8. When Fanny I saw as she trip'd, [sic] &c | 9. Bumpers 'Squire Jones. | 10. Sweet Annie.

Holograph Poem (signed 'Henry van Dyke') by the American author and educator Henry Jackson van Dyke, a sonnet titled 'Richard Watson Gilder'.

Author: 
Henry van Dyke [Henry Jackson van Dyke] (1852-1933), American author, educator and clergyman [Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) of New York City, poet and editor of 'The Century Magazine']
Publication details: 
Without place or date [written on Gilder's death in 1909].
£280.00

1p., 4to. A fair copy, on a piece of aged high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to edges (not affecting text). Signed at foot. The poem begins: 'Heart of a hero in a poet's frame, / Soul of a soldier in a body frail, - / Thine was the courage clear that did not quail / Before the giant champions of shame'. Gilder is praised as a 'poet, patriot, friend', the poem concluding: 'Thou leavest two great gifts that will not die, - / Amid the city's noise, thy lyric cry!

Two Typed Letters Signed from the Czech sound and concrete poet Ladislav Nov

Author: 
Ladislav Nov
Publication details: 
Both from 44 Nezvalova, Treb
£350.00

Both items are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Each is in its original envelope, with typed address to Cobbing at 262 Randolph Avenue, London. First Letter: 1p., 8vo. He does not 'object to the publication of "Descartes metamorphosis': 'I am looking forward to the record and some other news. What will be the price of were [sic] not high, I should buy another specimen for my friends from my royalties.' Striking bold 13 x 16 cm design in black at foot of page, somewhat like a melted anthropomorphic letter H. Letter Two: 1p., folio (42 x 21 cm).

ALS, TLS and ACS, all in French, from the Czech writer Ladislav Nov

Author: 
Ladislav Nov
Publication details: 
All from Trebic. TLS: 19 May 1973. ACS: 17 April 1973. ALS: 20 March 1974.
£280.00

All three in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The ALS is accompanied by its stamped and postmarked envelope, addresed by Nov

[Printed Verse] The Welcome to Ilkley

Author: 
Anon.
Welcome to Ilkley. Printed poem.
Publication details: 
Burley, 4th Sept.1834
£180.00
Welcome to Ilkley. Printed poem.

One page, 12mo,green paper, bifiolium (rest blank), 3 verses, 14 lines each (total 42 lines), preceded by the statement "Written for the Charity Bazaar") and 6 line quotation from Cowper ("Here stay thy foot; - how copious and how clear ... from an Eternal source"). Verses start "Welcome to Ikley! Lady fair ... That God hath bless'd the spring!". No other copy traced (none on COPAC etc). See scan on website inventory.

[Printed pamphlet.] An Address to Bachelors. By a Bird at Bromsgrove.

Author: 
'A Bird at Bromsgrove' [pseudonym of John Crane of Bromsgrove] [Grafton & Reddell, printers, Birmingham]
 An Address to Bachelors. By a Bird at Bromsgrove.
Publication details: 
The Seventh Edition, with Additions. Birmingham: Printed by Grafton & Reddell; for the Author. 1801.
£120.00
 An Address to Bachelors. By a Bird at Bromsgrove.

36pp., 18mo. With frontispiece (preceding half-title) of 'I. CRANE / BROMSGROVE', showing a crane and a carriage lamp, within a circular border reading 'To make the Watch go faster turn the Regulator to the right & Slower the Contrary'. Side stitched in original pink printed wraps. In fair condition, in worn and lightly-stained wraps. Nicely printed on wove paper with 'LLOYD 1795' watermark. Poem titled 'Introduction' on p.5, followed by the title poem on pp.7-36. No copy of this attractive edtion on either COPAC or WorldCat, nor of any other printed by Grafton & Reddell.

Printed keepsake, with 'An Old-Time Greeting' and a large swastika on the cover, containing a poem by 'J. S. M.' titled 'The Rune of the Swastika.'

Author: 
'J. S. M.' [swastika; gammadion; Fascism; the Nazis; Nazism]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Early twentieth-century.]
£120.00

On a 12mo bifolium of laid paper with 'DUNEDIN NOTE' watermark. Good, on lightly-aged paper. On the cover are a large black swastika and the words 'An Old-Time Greeting.' The poem, titled 'The Rune of the Swastika.' and signed in type 'J. S. M.', is on the recto of the second leaf.

Autograph Card Signed ('R Bridges') from the Poet Laureate Robert Bridges to the Rev. P. O'Toole.

Author: 
Robert Bridges [Robert Seymour Bridges] (1844-1930), Poet Laureate
Publication details: 
18 Merton Street, Oxford. Postmarked 18 April 1917.
£56.00

On blue card, with stamp and postmark. Bridges's message is complete, but the postcard has been trimmed to 14 x 5 cm, with the lower part of the card, carrying O'Toole's address, missing. Otherwise good, on lightly-aged paper. The message reads: '14. Merton St. | Dear Sir. I am writing to apologise for never having answered your letter of Feb. 29th. I have been too much engaged to be able to attend to my correspondents. I beg that you will excuse me. Yours truly | [signed] R Bridges.'

Leaf from an early edition of John Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Lives, marked up with autograph emendations for a revised edition by the Victorian poet Arthur Hugh Clough, with leaf carrying longer emendation's in Clough's hand.

Author: 
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet, critic, translator and educationalist [John Dryden's translation of Plutarch]
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet
Publication details: 
Undated [early 1850s?]
£1,200.00
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet

The two leaves were evidently disbound from a copy of an edition of Dryden's Plutarch, in which the grey 4to leaf of writing paper following the 12mo printed leaf was one of those that interleaved the volume. In fair conditon, on lightly-aged paper. The two leaves are tipped in onto a larger leaf removed from an album. The printed leaf is 12mo, from volume 5 of Dryden's translation, with the pages numbered 511 and 612 [sic]. The two sides of the leaf carry a total of approximately 25 emendations and deletions.

[Printed handbill poem.] A la Garde Nationale de Honfleur. Choeur des Républicains. Air du Chœur des Girondins.

Author: 
'Achille de Naguet Desportes, Propriétaire à Equemauville, près Honfleur' (d.1879) [La Garde Nationale de Honfleur; E. Dupray, printer]
Publication details: 
'Honfleur. Typographie ve E. Dupray.' Undated [1840s].
£150.00

1p., 8vo. On wove paper. Lightly worn and aged. Text in two columns within ornate decorative border. Author's details at foot, above printer's slug. Thirty-five line poem, in five seven-line stanzas. First stanza: 'O! toi, ma France bien-aimée, | Pour toi, nous faison tous des voeux, | Oh! sois à jamais vénérée, | Élevons nos voix vers les cieux. | Oh! France, ma patrie!

Autograph Letter Signed ('De Tabley') from the poet John Byrne Leicester Warren, Baron De Tabley [Lord De Tabley], to Mrs Kate A. Wright of Birmingham, giving her permission to include five of his poems in an anthology.

Author: 
John Byrne Leicester Warren, 3rd Baron De Tabley [Lord De Tabley] (1835-1895), English poet, numismatist, botanist and authority on bookplates
Publication details: 
62 Elm Park Rd, Chelsea. 20 June 1893.
£80.00

1p., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. In envelope addressed by De Tabley to 'Mrs. Kate. A. Wright. | Monona House | Small Heath | Birmingham.' In reply to her letter of 18 June, he states that he will have pleasure in permitting her to 'insert the five pieces' which she enumerates in her 'forthcoming Collection of Poems and Ballads of the Nineteenth Century'. Kate A. Wright's 'Dainty Poems of the Nineteenth Century' was published in Birmingham in 1895. The titles of the five poems are given in another contemporary hand [Mrs Wright's?] on the reverse of the second leaf.

Autograph Manuscript of the poem 'The Thunder Storm', in the autograph of its author William Bourne Oliver Peabody.

Author: 
Rev. William Bourne Oliver Peabody (1799-1847), pastor of the Unitarian church in Springfield, Massachusetts, educated at Harvard and Cambridge Divinity School
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£235.00

2pp., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper. In pencil at head: 'Autograph of the Rev W. B. O. Peabody'. In ink in a contemporary hand, between the title and body of text: 'Autograph of Mr Peabody '. Twenty-four lines, arranged in three eight-line stanzas. The text presented here differs in certain respects from that printed in A. P. Putnam's 'Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith' (1875). In the present version the first stanza reads: 'Black the heaven is overcast! | Breathless is the sultry blast.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C S. Calverley.') from the poet Charles Stuart Calverley [C. S. Calverley] to 'Mr. Stocker', with a description of the 'Johnian System of Marking' [St John's College, Cambridge?], and his use of it at Cheltenham College.

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley [C. S. Calverley] [born Blayds] (1831-1884), poet and lawyer [St John's College, Cambridge; Cheltenham College]
Publication details: 
17 Devonshire Terrace. 10 January 1884.
£65.00

Both letter and description on the same bifolium. Letter: 1p., 12mo. On recto of first leaf. Description (headed 'Johnian System of Marking'): lengthwise across the verso of the first leaf and recto of the second, and thus making 1p., 8vo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Calverley begins by wondering whether he has 'made the Johnian System [...] intelligible' in his description.

Typed Poem Signed ('Theodosia Garrison') from the American poet Theodosia Pickering Garrison (Mrs. Frederick J. Faulks), titled 'Pessimism'.

Author: 
Theodosia Pickering Garrison [Mrs. Frederick J. Faulks] (1874-1944)
Publication details: 
'Theodosia Pickering Garrison, | 32 Nassau Street, New York City.' Undated [1909 or before].
£125.00

1p., landscape 12mo. Good, on aged paper. Garrison's name and address are typed in the top left-hand corner. Her signature is written boldly beneath the poem, which is eight lines long, in two stanzas. It reads 'Because I snatched a pebble from the way, | And thought it priceless till that day my eyes | Filled with a clearer light, and knew my prize | Was worthless, poorer than the common clay; | Because of this shall I go clamouring, | "Behold, there are no diamonds!" and say, | "Look as ye will, ye find but pebbles"? Nay!

Holograph poem by the Harvard-educated lawyer George Stillman Hillard, Attorney General of Massachusetts, titled 'To the Friday Club'. With engraved portrait of Hillard.

Author: 
George Stillman Hillard (1808-1879), Harvard-educated lawyer, in partnership with Charles Sumner, writer on the law, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts [The Friday Club, Boston]
Publication details: 
Signed 'Geo. S. Hillard | April 1. 1859.'
£200.00

3pp., 12mo. A fair copy. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The twenty-eight-line poem is arranged in seven four-line stanzas, with Hillard's firm signature and the date at the end. The poem begins with unintentional, but no less curious, sexual overtones: 'The rod of Aaron, severed long | From its ancestral bowers, | Felt in its veins the sap of youth, | And shone with buds of flowers. | The rigid staff, smoothworn and dry, | In living green was dressed.

Holograph Latin poem by the Rev. John Keate, Master of Eton College, written while a student at King's College, Cambridge.

Author: 
Rev. John Keate (1773-1852), DD, Headmaster of Eton College [King's College, Cambridge]
Publication details: 
Without date or place [Cambridge. Written between 1791 and 1797.]
£180.00

2pp., 12mo. On a leaf of wove paper with Britannia watermark. In fair condition, on aged paper with slight wear to extremities. In pencil at head 'Rev. J. Keate | Head Master of Eton'. Tipped in at the head is a slip of paper with an entry from a Victorian manuscripts catalogue describing the item, reading: 'KEATE (The Rev. John, D.D.). Head Master of Eton.

Autograph Manuscript Signed, an untitled holograph poem by the Scottish writer and artist James Ballantine, beginning 'Confide ye aye in Providence, for Providence is Kind'.

Author: 
James Ballantine (c.1807-1877), Scottish writer and artist in stained glass
Publication details: 
Edinburgh; 16 August 1856.
£500.00

1p., landscape 8vo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Well presented, with the second blank leaf neatly inserted into a windowpane border. The poem is sixteen lines long, arranged in four stanzas, neatly written out on a piece of wove paper. The first stanza reads 'Confide ye aye in Providence, for Providence is Kind | And bear ye a' lifes changes, wi a calm an' tranquil mind | Though pressed an' hemmed on every side, hae faith, an' ye'll win through | For ilka blade o grass keeps its ain drap o dew'.

Corrected Autograph Manuscript of part of the poem 'A Day at Tivoli', by the Victorian writer John Kenyon.

Author: 
John Kenyon (1784-1856), poet and patron, who encouraged his cousin Elizabeth Barrett's marriage to Robert Browning
Publication details: 
Without date or place [the poem published in 1849].
£450.00

2pp., 4to. 35 lines of verse. On a leaf of laid paper with watermark 'J WHATMAN | TURKEY MILL'. Paginated 13-14. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The first page begins with the line 'The shrouding soil, and give it back to air,' and the second page ends with the line 'Won it's [sic] dark truth, and Gaspar fed on such.' The verses in this manuscript are published on pp.19-21 of 'A Day at Tivoli: with other Verses' (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, Paternoster-row, 1849).

Holograph document by John Roby, consisting of a ballad from his 'forthcoming "Traditions of Lancashire"', beginning with the line 'Maiden, braid those tresses bright', preceded by an Autograph Note Signed ('Jn Roby') by Roby, for Mrs. Thelwall.

Author: 
John Roby (1793-1850), English banker, poet and author, best-known for his 'Traditions of Lancashire' (1829) [Henrietta Cecil Thelwall, wife of the noted radical John Thelwall (1764-1834)]
Publication details: 
The document dated 'Rochdale 11th. December 1828'.
£450.00

4pp., 4to. On two loose leaves of Whatman paper, each watermarked 1827. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The document begins with the following note, dated and signed by Roby: 'The following ballad from my forthcoming "Traditions of Lancashire," though not of much value in itself, may yet acquire some, from its connexion with, and introduction into Mrs. Thelwall's elegant volume of Scraps.' (The implication that the two leaves have been removed from Mrs Thelwall's album is supported by pagination from 12 to 15.) Sixty-four lines, divided into sixteen four-line stanzas.

Anonymous French nineteenth-century handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess, entitled 'Le Jeu d'Échecs.'

Author: 
'Le Jeu d'Échecs' [anonymous French nineteenth-century handbill poem on the game of chess]
Handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess
Publication details: 
Date of publication and name of printer not stated [1840s Paris?].
£650.00
Handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess

4 pp, 16mo. Paginated [1] to 4. On a bifolium of wove paper. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with thin strip of previous mount adhering to inner margin of first page.

[Printed handbill.] Sonnet on the late Dutchess of Gordon. [By Sir Brooke Boothby.]

Author: 
[Sir Brooke Boothby (1744-1824)] [Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon (1748-1812), Scottish Tory political hostess]
Publication details: 
[Circa 1810.]
£280.00

Printed on one side of a 4to leaf, to which a black mourning border has been given by hand. Well printed on wove paper. Fair, on lightly-aged and ruckled paper. The author's name is not given, and the title reads 'SONNET | ON THE LATE | DUTCHESS [sic] OF GORDON.' The poem begins: 'IS then the bright expansive spirit flown, | That wont to animate the admiring throng? | Does the fair theme of many a poet's Song | Exist in pleasing memory alone?' The poem was also printed in 'The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, for 1810-1811' (London: F. C. and J.

Autograph Letter Signed from the writer and suffragist Augusta Webster to 'Mrs Picton'.

Author: 
Augusta Webster [née Julia Augusta Davies] (1837-1894), English poet, novelist and advocate of Women's Suffrage [her husband Thomas Webster (1832-1913), fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge]
Publication details: 
8 November 1867; Cambridge.
£180.00

4 pp, 12mo. Bifolium. 89 lines. Text clear and complete. She begins by apologising for the delay in sending an autograph: 'In atonement I give you Anthony Trollope's signature, which perhaps you have not got.' Reports that they 'went to the Italian lakes this summer. We aimed at Venice but gave it up because of the cholera.' She regrets that the recipient's 'friends book & chart do not prosper. Mr Bowes (the Macmillan of the shop) thought the chart a good plan and likely to succeed, except that the size would be against it'.

Autograph Manuscript of the American actor and poet John Howard Payne, either an original poem or a translation, entitled 'Ode the Sixteenth. | The Herb Rue'.

Author: 
John Howard Payne (1791-1852), American actor and playwright, best-known for his song 'Home, Sweet Home'
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£165.00

2 pp, 4to. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight wear to extremities. On one leaf, with both sides ruled with red borders. In Payne's neat and distinctive hand, and attributed to him in pencil at head.

[Printed poem.] Castlemilk - A Sketch. | November 1867.

Author: 
'H. M. E.' [Anne Helen Margaret Stirling-Stuart, of Castlemilk House, Rutherglen, Lanarkshire; Glasgow, Scotland]
[Printed poem.] Castlemilk - A Sketch. | November 1867.
Publication details: 
With manuscript inscription dated 1871.
£125.00
[Printed poem.] Castlemilk - A Sketch. | November 1867.

4to, 2 pp. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged laid paper with watermark of 'A ANNANDALE & SONS'. Stuck down on the reverse of the blank second leaf of the bifolium is a square of paper from the leaf to which it was attached in an album, and beneath this square, visible when held up to the light, is the inscription: 'Imperfectly printed | Annie Stirling Stuart | Castlemilk | 1871'. The poem is 48 lines long, arranged in twelve stanzas. Signed 'H. M.

The Poetry of Love from the most celebrated authors with Several Original Pieces

Author: 
Anon.
The Poetry of Love from the most celebrated authors with Several Original Pieces
Publication details: 
London: Darton and Clark, Holborn Hill, [1842?]
£350.00
The Poetry of Love from the most celebrated authors with Several Original Pieces

xvi.208pp., 16mo, one foxed plate, very attractive red leather, gilt decorated binding, corners bumped, 2 or 3 small spot, aeg. Conclusion of Preface, "The Editor would take this opportunity of acknowledging the kindness of those of his poet-friends who have furnished him with pieces hitherto unpublished; and forming not the least attractive feature of the present selection. | Bedford | Feb.19th, 1842". Poets include Wordsworth, LEL, Felicia Hemans, etc, etc.ViaLibri site ascribes the one copy (but published by T.

Wayside Musings; or, Poems and Songs.

Author: 
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders
Publication details: 
Published by George Lewis, Printer and Bookseller, Selkirk, 1863
£225.00
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders

138pp., 12mo, blue cover, corner bumped , some damage to spine, worn edges, but attractive, foxing throughout, slight hinge strain. Author's Preface gives the background to the publication including experiences at the Crimea and his daily round as Post Runner to Yair [Postman, I suppose]. Much includes dialect words, and many are based on personal experiences or current events. He includes a Burns' Centenary Song. COPAC lists copies at NLS, Glasgow and BL. WorldCat adds the University of Guelph.

Sabi Legend and Other Poems

Author: 
N.H.D. Spicer and John Spicer, with illustrations by D.J. Avery.
Publication details: 
Published by John Spicer, [Rhodesia, 1947
£125.00

31pp., 12mo, illustrated blue wraps (a warrior), contents crudely joined to wraps with sellotape, wraps sl. chipped and worn, contents mainly good. No copy listed on COPAC; four copies listed on WorldCat (3 in South Africa, and Texas).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Edmund C. Stedman') from the American man of letters Edmund Clarence Stedman to the Blackburn poet John Thomas Baron ('Jack O'Anns')

Author: 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), American poet, critic and essayist [John Thomas Baron (1856-1922), Blackburn dialect poet, writing under the pseudonym 'Jack O'Anns']
Publication details: 
31 January 1883; on letterhead of 71 West 54th Street, New York.
£350.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

[Printed pamphlet.] Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. (An Address read before the Shakespeare Association 18th March, 1927). By T. S. Eliot.

Author: 
T. S. Eliot [The Shakespeare Association, London]
Publication details: 
London: Published for the Shakespeare Association by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, E.C. 1927.
£85.00

8vo, 17 + [i] pp. Stapled. In original grey wraps. Aged and worn copy of a scarce item.

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