LITERATURE

[ Edward Hogg, doctor and travel writer. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Edwd. Hogg') to 'Dear Dyer' [ George Dyer ], written while en route to 'Mr. Fry's'.

Author: 
Edward Hogg (1783-1848), English doctor and travel writer, a friend of poet laureate Robert Southey [ George Dyer (1755-1841), author and political reformer ]
Publication details: 
'Hendon, Saturday.' No date.
£45.00

16mo. 1p. In fair condition, with slight traces of glue from mount. He has received Dyer's 'parcel p[er] Coach', and informs him that his party is 'expected at Mr. Fry's' on the following day. He is returning with the letter 'all the Books you first forwarded for Mrs Jacksons inspection'.

[Elizabeth Rundle Charles, Victorian author and hymn-writer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Bessie Charles') to 'Mrs Leader'

Author: 
Bessie Charles [ Elizabeth Rundle Charles ] (1828-1896), author of 'The Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family' (1862)
Publication details: 
7 Victoria Street, Westminster. 'Sunday' [no date].
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. With mourning border. In fair condition, on lightly aged and ruckled paper. Declining a dinner invitation and expressing regret at not being able to call, being 'very much occupied'.

[Presentation copy from the author.] Selected Verses by Virginia Graham 1939-1945.

Author: 
Virginia Graham [best friend of the comedienne Joyce Grenfell]
Publication details: 
Printed by the Broadwater Press Ltd, Welwyn Garden City, Herefordshire. [1945.]
£56.00

[2] + 44pp., 8vo. In lilac paper wraps with title in silver on front cover. Internally in good condition on lightly-aged paper; in worn wraps with creased corner at rear and small square of staining from label on front cover. Inscribed on front pastedown: 'With best wishes | from | Virginia Graham. | 1946.' A charming collection in Grenfell mode, with poems including 'Café Triste' (beginning: 'Miss Tomkinson, do you suppose | That you and I | On this same day next year | Will still be sitting here, | Eating this vegetable pie | Covered white glucose?') and 'V J Day' (beginning: 'Hurray!

[Charlotte Mary Yonge, English writer.] Autograph Card Signed ('C M Yonge') to 'My dear Anna [Macirone]', making an arrangement to 'look up' a State Trial (at the British Museum Reading Room?).

Author: 
Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901), English Victorian novelist
Publication details: 
In envelope with Winchester postmark dagted 1 August 1892.
£56.00

Written out by Yonge on both sides of a card, and placed in an envelope with penny lilac stamp and postmarks, addressed by Yonge to 'Miss Marcironi [sic] | 126 Adelaide Road | London | NW'. In fair condition, lightly-aged, the card with central horizontal and vertical folds.

[Alfred Noyes, English poet.] Autograph Card Signed to 'Miss Meugens', granting permission to make a version for the blind of his 'Torch-Bearers'.

Author: 
Alfred Noyes (1880-1958), English poet
Publication details: 
85 Cadogan Gardens, S.W. [London postmark, 8 June 1925.]
£35.00

In good condition, lightly-aged, with thin strip from stub to one edge of address side of card. Message reads: 'It will give me great pleasure for you to copy the 2nd. volume of the Torch-Bearers, as you suggest, for the Blind. | With my best wishes, | Alfred Noyes.'

[Anne Manning, Victorian novelist.] Autograph Letter Signed to her 'cousin and friend' 'Mr. Maleson', regarding his efforts to obtain a Civil List pension for her.

Author: 
Anne Manning (1807-1879), Victorian novelist [Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co., London publishers]
Publication details: 
Reigate Hill, Surrey. 18 July 1872.
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. 25 lines of text. In fair conditon, on aged and worn paper. Her sister Frances is 'overjoyed at your benevolent efforts for me', and 'Mr Arthur Hall is very glad indeed to hear what you are trying to do, and is quite ready if you and I approve to send a set of my books, with a notification to Mr Gladstone, and also of privately interesting the Archbishop, who will, he has no doubt send an autograph letter privately to the Prirme Minister'. The letter ends with a prayer for her 'kind friends', concluding 'The Lord will provide'.

[Thomas Mayne Reid, Victorian novelist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mayne Reid') to 'Captain Bond'

Author: 
Thomas Mayne Reid ['Charles Beach'] (1818-1883), Irish-born novelist and children's writer
Publication details: 
Chasewood, Ross [Chasewood and Frogmore House, Ross, Herefordshire]. No date.
£56.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with light offsetting from another letter. Written in a difficult hand. Concerns 'the Club meeting' at 'Macdougall's Hall'. The recipient is addressed as 'My dear Capt Bond', and at the foot of the letter as 'Capt <?> Bond | &c. &c.'

[Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Al. de Lamartine'), in French, recommending a selected edition of his 'faibles écrits'. Written on the reverse of a printed 'Prospectus des Œuvres choisies de M. Lamartine'.

Author: 
Alphonse de Lamartine [Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine] (1790-1869), French poet and politician
Publication details: 
Letter: Paris. 1 February 1849. Prospectus: Paris, February 1849. 'Typ. Benard et Comp., pass. de Caire, 2.'
£280.00

Lamartine's letter, of 1p., 12mo, on a blank page on the reverse of the prospectus, which is 2pp., 8vo, on a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter is addressed to an unnamed individual ('Monsieur'), and consists of twenty lines of text. He has been encouraged by 'Les rapports de bienveillance intellectuelle', he is sending the prospectus for his selected works, which he has himself revised, augmented, annotated and edited.

[James Shergold Boone, cleric and author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. S. Boone') to John Silk Buckingham, praising him and his 'undertakings', with reference to his own 'letter to Mr Raikes Currie'.

Author: 
J. S. Boone [James Shergold Boone] (1799-1859), English cleric and author [James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855), Cornish author, orientalist, and Member of Parliament; Raikes Currie (1801-1881), MP]
Publication details: 
2 Stanhope Street, Hyde Park Garden [London]. 31 March 1849.
£35.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Having just received Buckingham's letter, he writes that he 'cannot but feel much gratified that my letter to Mr Raikes Currie should have in any way attracted the notice of a Gentleman like yourself whose name is so well known in connexion with our literature and our social progress.' He concludes by expressing an interest in the 'undertakings which have engaged, and now engage' Buckingham's attention, and by wishing him every success.

[Eighteenth-century ballad.] Manuscript of untitled poem beginning 'Ere ye. read ys. ye. may suppose. | That some new listed Lover. | By means of Poetry has chose. | His Passion to discover.'

Author: 
[Eighteenth-century English manuscript ballad; Georgian popular poetry]
Publication details: 
Early eightheenth century. [Another (later?) version published in the Gentleman's Magazine, London, May 1744.]
£180.00

2pp., on both sides of a strip of 35.5 x 11.5 cm laid paper with fleur-de-lys watermark. In a secretary hand employing the thorn and long s. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. An untitled forty-line poem, divided into five numbered eight-line stanzas. The narrator is an older married woman, advising a younger woman not to marry, with observations on the frailties of the male sex. The first stanza reads: 'Ere ye. read ys. ye. may suppose. | That some new listed Lover. | By means of Poetry has chose. | His Passion to discover.

[Charles Elkin Mathews, London publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('C. Elkin Mathews') to Lawrence W. Hodson, quoting an account by Richard Aldington of '10 years [...] of almost unrelieved opposition'. With a copy of Aldington's 'Images of Desire'.

Author: 
Charles Elkin Mathews (1851-1921), London publisher; Richard Aldington [Edward Godfree Aldington] (1892-1962), poet [Lawrence W. Hodson (1864-1933), Midlands brewer and Arts and Crafts patron]
Publication details: 
Letter: 4a Cork Street, Mayfair, W.C. [London] 26 March 1920. Book: London: Elkin Mathews, Cork Street. 1919.
£180.00

Letter: 2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Closely-written with 40 lines of text. In very good condition, lightly-aged, and attached to the book by a thin strip of gummed paper. Mathews writes that it gave him great pleasure to receive Hodson's letter 'a month or two ago', and that he has only delayed replying because it has 'taken some time to get into touch with Rd. Aldington'. He gives a quotation of 24 lines from a letter he has received from Aldington after passing on Hodson's 'kind appreciation'.

[Wilfred Meynell (1852-1948), newspaper publisher and editor.] Autograph Letter Signed to Anglo-Irish poet Sylvia Lynd, thanking her for a review of his 'Memoirs', and urging her and her family to visit him in Sussex.

Author: 
Wilfred Meynell ['John Oldcastle'] (1852-1948), newspaper publisher and editor [Sylvia Lynd (1888-1952), Anglo-Irish poet, wife of the essayist Robert Lynd (1879-1949)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Greatham, Pulborough, Sussex. 'Friday' [no date],
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks her 'for the Daily News review. Such touching appreciation, and from you, repays us for the anxiety attending the publication of the Memoir [...] This part of Sussex seems very forsaken since you & your husband left it. If you are ever near, what a pleasure a call from you would be - or a visit, if your freedom allowed it.

[Ernest Rhys, author.] Three Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to Anglo-Irish poet Sylvia Lynd, regarding both their poetry and a literary proposal for her.

Author: 
Ernest Rhys (1859-1946), writer and founding editor of Everyman's Library [Sylvia Lynd (1888-1952), Anglo-Irish poet, wife of the essayist Robert Lynd (1879-1949)]
Publication details: 
The ALsS from Whiteleaf, Princes Risborough (1); and The Bell House, Askett, Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire (2). The TLS on J. M. Dent letterhead of 'Everyman's Library | Edited by Ernest Rhys'. Between 1930 and 1934.
£120.00

The three items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Totalling 7pp., 8vo. ONE: ALS. From Whiteleaf, Princes Risborough; 11 Nov. 1930. Begins 'I heard the other day of a poem of yours, that a young soldier carried about in the war, till he was killed. It was sent home with his papers, & some day I hope to have it - his own copy of it - from a friend, & to send it to you | Why tell you of this now? Because the news of your mother's death has been weighing on my mind, & I wanted to say a word, yet knew how unconsoling words can be.' TWO: ALS.

[Eden Phillpotts, novelist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Eden Phill<...>') [to A. G. Gardiner, editor of the Daily News], complaining of a review of his book 'Green Alleys', 'the great cause of the natural born child' and the 'Bastardy Laws'.

Author: 
Eden Phillpotts (1862-1960), English novelist, often writing on Dartmoor [Alfred George Gardiner ['Alpha of the Plough'] (1865-1946), editor of the Daily News; Robert Lynd (1879-1949), Irish essayist]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. [1916.]
£56.00

In poor condition, on aged and brittle paper, with significant chipping to edges involving loss of text, including the end of Philpott's signature. Undated, but written in 1916, the year of publication of Phillpotts' 'The Green Alleys'. Headed in blue pencil 'Mr Lynd' (i.e for the attention of Daily News columnist Robert Lynd).

[Andrew Soutar, novelist.] To an unnamed recipient, informing him that he will be sending him a copy of his new novel, 'Some Fell Among Thorns'.

Author: 
Andrew Soutar (1879-1941), English author of approximately 50 novels
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Brooklyn, Ifield, Crawley, Sussex. 15 January 1931.
£45.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Written in purple ink. The letter reads: 'My dear Sir, | Here it is, for what it is worth. To-morrow, Jan 16, a new novel of mine, "Some Fell Among Thorns", should be published. I shall send you a copy & ask your acceptance of it. | Yours Sincerely | Andrew Soutar'. Soutar received a brief obituary in The Times, 25 November 1941.

[Samuel Rogers, the 'Banker Poet'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Saml Rogers') to Lady Charlemont, regarding his 'many blunders', a debate in the House of Lords having 'confused' his 'understanding'.

Author: 
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), the 'Banker Poet', an associate of the Romantics lampooned by Lord Byron [Anne Caulfeild [Caulfield], Lady Charlemont (1780-1876), celebrated beauty and society figure]
Publication details: 
'Sunday' [no date].
£60.00

3pp., 16mo. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper, with closed tears to both leaves along fold lines, and glue from mount along inner margin of first page. He apologises for having to decline an invitation, having 'just told Lady Grey that I would call upon her to-night'. He would have liked to see her 'to ask your forgiveness for the many blunders I have committed to-day, tho' how to appear before you I really don't know'. He will attempt to 'throw' himself on her 'Good-nature' in a day or two, and concludes: 'I believe the debate in the Lords has confused my understanding'.

[Privately printed item.] Oxford. A Satire.

Author: 
[Sir Andrew Caldecott (1884-1951) of Exeter College, Oxford, Governor of Ceylon and Hong Kong]
Publication details: 
Edinburgh: Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited. [1907.]
£250.00

15 + [1]pp., 8vo. In grey printed card wraps. In fair condition, lightly aged, with rusted staples. The author describes his work in an introductory note as 'an elegant and ingenious poem in heroic verse; suggested by the third Satire of Juvenal; wherein the foolishness of the institutions of this University, and the dullness and dishonesty of its inhabitants are for the first time properly exposed'. The influence of Samuel Johnson (another adapter of Juvenal and also an Oxford man) is strong, as the opening indicates: 'Though on my brow there rose an angry frown | When B - ll - l's [i.e.

Thre Autograph Letters Signed "J.M. Murry" and "j. Middleton Murry", critic and editor, to Robert Lynd, essayist.

Author: 
John Middleton Murry (1889-1957), critic.
Publication details: 
one dayted 1919.
£140.00

3 ALsS, on letterhead of The Athenaeum journal, 12 March 1919; 102 Edith Grove, Chelsea, 16 July [no year]; on letterhead of 5 Acacia Road, St John's Wood, 'Sunday' [no date], total 5pp., 8vo and 12mo.First, he begins: 'You know I've been put in charge of this. Probably you were responsible for the job being offered me - at least I don't know who was, if it wasn't you. | I hope you will be able to write for us.' Postscript reads: 'As for Bertrand Russell, I haven't read the book. But I warn you that it is difficult for me to be humourous at any time, and impossible in this case. B. R.

Autograph Letter Signed "Dorothy Brooke", her maiden name, to Robert Lynd, essayist

Author: 
Lady Dorothy Lamb Brooke Nicholson (1887-1967), archaeologist,
Publication details: 
London, [1937].
£56.00

ALS, signed in her maiden name of Dorothy Brooke, on letterhead of 3 Arkwright Road, Hampstead; 8 April [1937], 2pp., 8vo. She expresses grief on the death of her first husband Sir John Reeve Brooke (1880-1937). '[...] of you in particular he often talked, when we had seen you, with admiration and joy - it was a particular pleasure to him when he had seen a person or heard them talk, to go over again what had been said, and your talk particularly charmed him. [...] | Don't forget me dear Robert, though I have no charming Reeve to bring you, love me a little for his sake'.

Autograph Leytter Signed "Max Plowman" to Robert Lynd, essayist anfd Irish Nationlist.

Author: 
Max Plowman (1883-1941), author.
Publication details: 
Letterhead of Lochnagar, Bycullah Park, Enfield; 17 December 191
£75.00

ALS, on letterhead of Lochnagar, Bycullah Park, Enfield; 17 December 1912, 3pp., 12mo. He thanks him for the 'letter & all its encouragement [...] The book represents rather under a year's work at verse & I only hope I shall not someday have to wish it had never been other than firelight.

Keywords:

Autograph Letter Signed "Frank Rutter", art critic, to Robert Lynd, essayist.

Author: 
Frank Rutter (187-1937), art critic of the Sunday Times.
Publication details: 
Leeds, 1916.
£45.00

ALS, on letterhead of the City Art Gallery, Leeds; 10 March 1916. He offers to review 'Rebecca West's forthcoming little book on "Henry James"', being 'particularly interested in both author & subject'. Asks for contact details of a relative of Walter Riddall's: 'I lent him before his death one of my "To-Day" volumes which I can't replace & don't want to lose.'

Autograph Letter Signed to Sylvia Lynd, poet and novelist.

Author: 
Jane Wells [born Amy Catherine Robbins] (1872-1927), wife of H. G. Wells.
Publication details: 
4 Whitehall Court, London; 'Tuesday' [1924].
£150.00

ALS, on letterhead of 4 Whitehall Court, London; 'Tuesday' [1924], in envelope, 2pp., 8vo. 'You know all sorts of useful things - can you tell me of any way of getting in touch with Mary Ansell - Mary Barrie - Mary Cannan - Mary? here my knowledge stops. [...] Are you "sitting under" Bernard Shaw evening after evening - as I believe is said of preachers? I am going to begin my course on Friday.'

4 AlsS, 3pp., 8vo; and 1p., 12mo, three signed 'E Blunden' and one 'Edmund Blunden' to Robert Lynd, essayist.

Author: 
Edmund Blunden (1896-1974), poet.
Publication details: 
1922. 1930
£165.00

One, Stansfield; 3 May 1922. Thanking RL for his praise of his new poetry book. 'I have as you may know been away on a tramp steamer [...] I am as yet a barbarian, unregenerate in literary matters, or I feel I should have much else from your pen to thank you for'. Two, Stansfield nr Clare, Suffolk; 1 July 'not 1916!' [i.e. 1922] Referring to 'the award & its lucky receiver' (i.e. Blunden). Three, Stansfield; 5 July 1922. Announcing the completion of a 'paper on Shelley' mentioned in the first letter. Four, Hawstead nr Bury St Edmunds; 19 June 1930.

[Felicia Hemans, poet.] Autograph inscription to 'Miss Chorley' [daughter of her biographer Henry Fothergill Chorley?].

Author: 
Felicia Hemans [Hemans Felicia Dorothea, née Browne (1793-1835)], English poet [Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872), author]
Hemans
Publication details: 
Without place or date [c.1828?].
£50.00
Hemans

On the reverse of the half-title leaf (only) of her book 'Records of Woman: with other Poems'. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Reads: 'Miss Chorley. With | Felicia Heman's kindest regards.' A nice association: Henry Fothergill Chorley edited the 'Memorials of Mrs Hemans' (1836).

[Isabella Knox (Mrs. Craig-Knox), Scottish poet ('Isa') and women's rights campaigner.] Autograph Signature on part of letter.

Author: 
Isabella Knox [née Craig] [ Isa Craig ; Mrs. Craig-Knox] (1831-1903), poet under the pseudonym 'Isa', and campaigner for women's rights,
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00

On one side of the lower part of a leaf, measuring 10 x 12.5 cm. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper. Reads: '[...] have much pleasure in seeing you on Thursday Evening | Yours Very Truly | Isa Craig'.

[Presentation copy, in leather binding by A. Thom & Co., Dublin.] Étude sur William Dunbar par Cécile Steinberger.

Author: 
Cécile Steinberger [William Dunbar, Scottish poet; A. Thom & Co., Dublin bookbinders]
Publication details: 
Dublin: Imprimérie de l'Université. Ponsonby & Gibbs, 1908.
£200.00

[2] + 187pp., 8vo. With errata slip. In fair condition internally, on aged and lightly-spotted paper, in a somewhat worn and aged decorative green leather binding, with subtle floral design in gilt on cover, dentelles, all edges gilt, and green decorative endpapers. Stamp of 'A. THOM & CO. LTD. | BINDERS' on rear free endpaper. The book is inscribed at the head of the title page: 'With kindest regards from | Cécile Steinberger'. Uncommon: no copy in the British Library, and only three copies on COPAC.

[Lauren R. Stevens.] Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Letter Signed (both 'Lauren') to English literary critic A. Alvarez ('Al'), discussing his decision to leave Harvard and his first novel, 'The Double Axe', an inscribed copy of which is included.

Author: 
Lauren R. Stevens (b.1938) [A. Alvarez [Al Alvarez] (b.1929), English literary critic; H. C. Baker [Herschel Clay Baker] (1914-1990), Professor of English Literature at Harvard University]
Publication details: 
TLS: 430 W. Allen's Lane, Philadelphia 19, Pennsylvania. 5 October 1960. ALS: on his (cancelled) letterhead 1717 Cambridge Street, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts. 31 January 1961. Book: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961.
£250.00

TLS: 2pp., 12mo. In good condition. The letter begins: 'Dear Al: | Last Thursday morning, while sitting in a barbar chair, I asked myself a question which a number of people have been asking me recently, namely, What are you doing at Harvard? I couldn't come up with a very satisfactory answer, so I went to a friend's house on Cape Cod for the weekend. Monday I saw the head of the English Department at Harvard, H. C. Baker. He said, "Follow your star," which seemed to me a little romantic, but all the same good advice.

[Catherine Hutton, novelist.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to Birmingham bookseller James Belcher, discussing in moving terms her nursing of her elderly parents, her plans for a future book ('my incipient Queens') and 'Dr. Hutton's bust'.

Author: 
Catherine Hutton (1756-1846), English novelist and letter-writer, daughter of the Birmingham bookseller and local historian William Hutton (1723-1815) [James Belcher, junior, Birmingham bookseller]
Publication details: 
ONE: No place; 4 December 1821. TWO: Bennett's Hill; 21 January 1827. THREE: 'Saturday Morn.'
£1,350.00

All three items in good condition, on lightly aged paper. ONE: 4 December 1821. 3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. The letter, which concerns her plans for a book, begins: 'My dear Sir | In consequence of your opinion, I send a prospectus for Mr. Dawes [the critic Manassah Dawes (d.1829)?], which you will have the goodness to forward at a proper opportunity. But for this opinion, I should not have had the courage to apply to him, though the refusal of two persons ought not to prevent the application to a third. Nothing in my opinion could have been more certain than the subscriptions of Mr.

[Vance Palmer, Australian poet and critic.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Vance Palmer') to an unnamed correspondent, discussing his political work, and praising writing by Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and J. M. Synge.

Author: 
Vance Palmer [Edward Vivian Palmer] (1885-1959), Australian poet and critic, who collaborated with his wife Nettie Palmer [Janet Gertrude Palmer, née Higgins] (1885-1964)
Publication details: 
A<?>, <Chelsea?>. [1907.]
£220.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. 72 lines of text. For more about Palmer, see his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. The start of the letter indicates its tone: 'Dear old man, | I was exceedingly glad to get your interesting newsy letter last week - more glad than I can say. The "New Age" did not turn up, for which I was sorry as I was looking forward to seeing the good old paper again, but this writing of Bernard Shaw for the "Pall Mall Gazette" delighted me. What a splendid dialectician he is!

[Thomas Haynes Bayly, English poet.] Holograph Poem (signed 'Thomas Haynes Bayly') titled 'A ditty!', with note explaining that it has been 'written in the shortest minute of the longest day'.

Author: 
Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), English poet and dramatist [Isaac Watts]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. 22 June 1835.
£150.00

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged paper. An unpublished jeux d'esprit on the well-known poem by Isaac Watts (also parodied by Lewis Carroll), the poem consists of twenty-four lines arranged in six four-line stanzas, followed by: 'written in the shortest minute of the longest day by | Thomas Haynes Bayly | June 22nd. 1835.' The first two stanzas read: 'As "doth the little busy Bee | "Improve each shining hour, | "And gather honey all the day | "From every opening flower." | So doth the busy T. H. B.

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