STAFFORDIENSIS

Autograph Letter Signed from the Victorian novelist Ethel Bourne [to Rupert Simms, author of the 'Bibliotheca Staffordiensis'] explaining her reasons for publishing under the pseudonym 'Evelyn Burne'.

Author: 
Ethel Bourne, Victorian novelist under the pseudonym 'Evelyn Burne' [Rupert Simms (1853-1937), bookseller and author of the 'Bibliotheca Staffordiensis']
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Hilderstone Hall, Stone, Staffordshire. 18 May 1892.
£38.00

1p., 12mo. 10 lines. On bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She explains that her only publications up to that point are 'Stormbeaten and Weary' and 'Spectre Stricken' ('a Christmas Story'). 'I wish to remain unknown until I can write a book I consider sufficiently good to have my own name - for this reason I have called myself "Evelyn Burne".'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Edward A Freeman') from the historian and politician Edward Augustus Freeman to the Staffordshire antiquary Rupert Simms, correcting his list of Freeman's books for Simms's 'Bibliotheca Staffordiensis'.

Author: 
Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-1892), English historian and Liberal politician [Rupert Simms (1853-1937), bookseller and Staffordshire antiquary
Publication details: 
Somerlease, Wells. 23 February 1884.
£130.00

Freeman's letter is on the last of five folio pages, each on a separate leaf, sent to him by Simms, giving, for correction, the proposed entry on Freeman in the future 'Bibliotheca Staffordiensis'. In fair condition, on aged paper. On the first page Simms has given a brief biographical description of Freeman; the middle three pages comprise a numbered list of twenty-three of Freeman's books, with dates, and the last page carries a rather optimistic request by Simms for information regarding 'Contribution to Periodicals, Magazines, &c. Giving Number a year of Serial - Pages occuppied - &c'.

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