Autograph Letter Signed from the Baptist Minister and essayist John Foster, to his unnamed London bookseller (J. Cox or James Nisbet, both of Berners Street?), discussing arrangements on the bookseller's retirement.

Author: 
John Foster (1770-1843), Yorkshire-born Baptist minister and essayist
Publication details: 
Stapleton, Gloucestershire. 26 January 1823.
£120.00
SKU: 12246

2pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper. 43 closely-written lines. An interesting letter, in which Foster closes 'a long and amicable communication' with the bookseller, the reason being given in the following passage: 'I am sorry for what you intimated, that your more recent undertakings have not been so advantageous as you had expected. From your hint of the possibility of a continued residence at Hastings I may conclude that you withdraw from business (that of books at least) altogether. | I am not certain whether in directing me to address to Duncan & Malcolm, you meant that I should simply remit to them the money, - or the money enclosed in a letter to you. [...] The idea one cannot get quite rid of, that there is some little hazard in the post-offices, induces me to use the old expedient of cutting the £10 bank note in two; and to wait for one line of acknowledgment of the first being safe before remitting the second.' He asks for the balance to be given 'to any Sunday School'. The first paragraph reads: 'The parcel, contents according to your statement, came duly to hand, - terminating the direct communication, in the way of book-buying, which I have had with London for more than 40 years, - but a slender one during many years past.' Other topics include 'the Reviews' and 'the Bristol bookseller', Humboldt, his health ('hemorrhage from the throat'). He concludes: 'I am much gratified to be so kindly remembered by your ladies, senior and junior; and wish to express to them my very friendly regards and best wishes - Shall never see them again in Berners' St.'