Literature

Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
Marie Corelli (1855-1924), British novelist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00

On a piece of paper roughly 5.5 x 13 cm. Good firm signature (8 cm long) on lightly aged and creased paper. Reads 'Faithfully yours | [signed] Marie Corelli'. Fragment on reverse reads '<...> education nowadays <...> hope you <...> induced to <...> estimable'.

Holograph Poem signed "J.S.B." with quotations from Browning and "Goethe's Werther" in Blackie's hand, with signature "John S. Blackie 1st October 1883".

Author: 
John Stuart Blackie, Greek Professor (Edinburgh).
Publication details: 
01/10/83
£100.00

Piece of paper, c.17.5 x 11cm, fold mark down middle, good condition. The initialled poem, four lines, is headed "Love" ("Poor is the man who in self-hardened shell . . . . And grows to great estate by loving great and small." The next heading is "Life" folowed by the line "Why stay us on the earth, unless to grow. | Browning", followed by the heading "Evil", with the line, "I gulp down the devil, without looking at him. | Goethe's Werther".

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ernest Havet'), in French [to someone living in Sainte-Beuve's old house].

Author: 
Eugène Auguste Ernest Havet (1813-1889), French scholar.
Publication details: 
21 February 1872; Vitry.
£56.00

16mo: 1 p. 14 lines of text. Close hand. He is touched that Sainte-Beuve has found time, in the midst of his labours, to write a letter expressing his 'adhésion'. 'Je suis heureux de penser, en vous écrivant rue Montparnasse [Sainte-Beuve lived at no. 11], que la philosophie et l'esprit d'indépendence ont toujours un ami dans la maison de Sainte-Beuve'.

Autograph Signature on piece of paper.

Author: 
Llewelyn Powys (1884-1939), writer
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£18.00

On a piece of wove paper, roughly 5 x 14.5 cm. Rough lower edge. Good, on lightly aged paper. 0.5 cm closed tear at left (not affecting signature). Paper folded once vertically. Good clear signature.

Invitation card "Mrs George Lillie Craik. | At Home") to "Mrs Mackinlay".

Author: 
Mrs Craik [Dinah Mulock; Mrs George Lillie Craik], author
Craik
Publication details: 
The Corner House, Shortlands. | RSVP
£56.00
Craik

Printed Card, c.4 x 2.5", with manuscript additions in Mrs Craik's hand. She gives the day and month, and time, then adds details about trains and Cabs.

Typed Letter Signed ('Walter Besant') to Mrs [Alice] Westlake.

Author: 
Sir Walter Besant (1836-1901), novelist and historian of London [Alice Westlake (nee Hare); Adam and Charles Black, publishers; The Survey of London; Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; Frognal]
Publication details: 
13 February 1897; on Adam and Charles Black 'Survey of London' letterhead.
£45.00

12mo, 2 pp. Seventeen lines of text. On lightly aged and creased paper. Attractive arts and crafts letterhead. Sending his 'mosts profound sympathy in the danger which threatens Chelsea'. He will sign 'the paper [...] with the greatest of pleasure', although he anticipates 'very little good as a possible result'. Suggests a time at which the paper can be sent to him.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Frederick Whelen], Fabian writer and lecturer (1867-1955), founder of the Stage Society.

Author: 
Arnold Bennett, novelst.
Publication details: 
14 St. Simon's Avenue, Putney, [London] S.W., 5 May 1909.
£220.00

One page, 4to, slightly chipped and with folds at corners, good condition, text clear and complete. " . . . I am not a brilliant orator, nor even an orator; but neither am I the sort of person to refuse your request to orate, & therefore I will speak for the guests. I wish you would let me know whom the chief invited stars are, so that I can say for them what I think they ought to say. . . . "

Autograph Letter Signed "D. Rogers" with poem initialled "D.R." to "Bromley"

Author: 
Daniel Rogers, Gentleman and Scholar, elder brother of Samuel Rogers, the poet.
Publication details: 
No place [Cambridge?], 3 May 1775.
£450.00

Three pages, 8vo, fold marks, chipped, pinholes and spikehole in centre, but mainly good with text clear and complete. He apologises for not writing sooner and discusses a book he has sent, firstly the binding, then the content in which the lives and deaths of the debauched Callistus and the virtuous Sophronius are contrasted, illustrated with a quotation from Young's "Night Thoughts".[viz. the scarce [Mulso, Thomas]. "Callistus: or, the man of fashion. And Sophronius: or, the country gentleman". In three dialogues.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Miss Zeman'.

Author: 
Francis Lambert McCrudden (1872-1958), editor of The Raven Anthology ('Issued Monthly by the Raven Poetry Circle of Greenwich Village')
Publication details: 
Undated; on letterhead of the Raven Anthology.
£85.00

Octavo, 2 pp. 23 lines of text. Lightly discoloured and slightly creased. The letterhead gives the names of seven of the Anthology's staff, and features an illustration of a raven. Regarding a line missed (beginning 'O fool') in the printing of a poem of Zeman's, he is pleased that Zeman has been able to 'see the matter from my side', and doesn't think 'an explanatory note in our next issue would be adequate'. Zeman's poem is 'beautiful' and 'well worth reprinting'. 'As to the Soiree, in your honor, think no more about it.

Handbill poem, with illustration, entitled 'A Parody on Mr. Clarke.'

Author: 
John Pitts, ballad seller of Seven Dials [Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany; Mary Anne Clarke (1776-1852)]
Clarke
Publication details: 
[circa 1809] 'printed and sold by J. Pitts, No. 14, Gre<at> St. Andrew-street, Seven-Dials.
£100.00
Clarke

Printed on one side of a piece of rough wove paper, 25 x 9 cm. At the head is a crude woodcut of lady playing keyboard, dimensions 2 x 3 cm. On aged, creased paper with wear to extremities. Text clear and entire, but not properly centred, with the result that the last two letters of the word 'Gre' in the address cropped. The poem consists of six stanzas of six lines each. First stanza 'YOU have heard of Mrs.

Handbill, advertising 'Messrs. Raphael Tuck & Sons' next Amateurs' "Literary" and "Painting" Prize Competition, (A Special Section being reserved for Children of varying ages), in May 1895.', judged by 'Walter Besant and Marcus Stone, R.A.'

Author: 
Raphael Tuck & Sons, Fine Art Publishers, London [Walter Besant; Marcus Stone]
Publication details: 
London: Messrs. Raphael Tuck & Sons, Fine Art Publishers, 72/73 Coleman Street, City. [1895]
£100.00

On one side of a piece of paper roughly 24 x 14.5 cm. With card backing. Good, though lightly aged. Headed by the Royal warrant, the top-half of the handbill features, in a variety of types and point sizes, the announcement of Tuck and Sons' intention to award 'Upwards of 4,000 prizes, of the value of 3,000 guineas, and a number of judges' diplomas', with Besant and Stone as judges. The lower part has two columns featuring fifteen testimonials, by newspapers ranging from 'Windsor and Eton Gazette' to the 'Sheffield Telegraph'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all three 'W. Elwin') to historian Alexander William Kinglake (1809-1891).

Author: 
Whitwell Elwin (1816-1900), English journalist, editor of the 'Quarterly Review'
Publication details: 
1875, 1883, 1887; all three from Booton Rectory, Norwich.
£250.00

All three letters 12mo, and closely written. All three with rusted pinholes at head. A valuable correspondence, in which one of Victorian England's leading critics describes his response to the work of one of the age's foremost historians. LETTER ONE (1 page, 26 lines, good): He thanks Kinglake for sending his 'new volume' [of 'The Invasion of the Crimea']. 'I am reading it with great delight. The work to me is unique both in military & literary history.

The Struggle.

Author: 
Joseph Livesey, Preston [William Strange, Paternoster Row; Free Trade; repeal of the Corn Laws]
Publication details: 
No. 75. 'Printed and Published by J. LIVESEY, Preston. Sold by W. Strange, Paternoster-row, London [...]. [between 1842 and 1846]
£56.00

4to: 4 pp. Unbound. Good. Half-page illustration on first page of 'The Emigrant's Farewell'. Small vignette on p.3 of 'Sancho Panza flogging himself, or the Landlords laying peculiar burthens on themselves!' Includes articles entitled 'Onward Still!', 'The Sugar Monopoly' and 'The Working Man his Own Capitalist'. Ends with 'A HINT. - Every newspaper containing debates on the corn laws, should be sent through the post from one hand to another while it will hold together.'

Verses on the Monumental Effigy of Alice-Evelyn, The Infant-Daughter of Martin Farquhar Tupper, Esq. Sculptured as a Sleeping Child, by J. Durham, Esq. Written by R. T. for W. H. [...]'.

Author: 
R. T. [Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889); Joseph Durham (1814-1877); Thomas De La Rue & Co.]
Publication details: 
London: Imprinted by Thomas De La Rue & Co. Dwelling in Bunhill Row. For Presentation to Private Friends. 1854. Not Published.'
£100.00

Printed on all four pages of a bifolium, with each leaf roughly 17.5 x 13.5 cm. Lightly creased, and with the outer pages a little grubby, but good overall. A self-consciously well-printed production, with each page encased in a black ruled border, and with an engraving of the sculpture on the front page, beneath which, 'A. C. CHISHOLM. DEL. J. DURHAM. NV.' Possibly complete in itself, but in view of the elaborate title probably a taster for a volume which, considering the fact that there is no record of this item on COPAC, was probably never printed.

Handbill poem, entitled 'The Regency, A New Song in Honour of His Majesty and the Prince of Wales. Tune - "Hearts of Oak." '

Author: 
G. M'Ardell, printer, Newcastle-street, Strand [the madness of King George III; King George IV; the Prince Regent]
Publication details: 
[Undated, but between 1810 and 1820.] London: Printed by G. M'Ardell, Newcastle-street, Strand.
£120.00

Printed on one side of a piece of rough wove paper, approximately 24 x 10.5 cm. Text clear and entire on aged, creased paper. A production in favour of the Prince Regent, with no trace of sarcasm apparent. Consists of six four-line stanzas, each followed by the chorus 'Hearts of Oak, &c.' First stanza reads 'Come cheer up my lads, we'll no longer repine, | United, we'll triumph - OUR CAUSE is divine!

Offprint of article entitled 'Thomas Randolph. A Neglected Poet. 1605-1634.'

Author: 
Mrs Reginald Brown [Thomas Randolph (1605-1635); Northampton Natural History Society and Field Club]
Publication details: 
[Journal of the Northampton Natural History Society and Field Club, 1932.]
£56.00

8vo: 11 pp (on 6 leaves) paginated 127-137. Plate carrying portrait of Randolph facing p.132. Stitched and unbound. Heavily foxed, and with a central vertical fold. PRESENTATION COPY, with the words 'With the writer's Compliments.' at head of p.127. The source of the article is deduced from the information contained on the verso of final leaf, which is headed '56th Annual Report, 1932.' No copy of this offprint listed on COPAC.

Prospectus for the New Series of "Once a Week"

Author: 
[Printed Pamphlet; Prospectus of Literary Periodical]]
Publication details: 
Bradbury & Evans, London, [1866].
£85.00

Pamphlet, [12]pp., 8vo, formerly sewn but thread missing, hence leaves loose, good condition. It advertises new works (for example, "A New Novel, by the Author of 'Guy Livingstone'") but is notable for its lists of contributing Authors and Artists, and "Classified Index of all the Principal Articles in Prose".

"Two Thunder-Clouds, closing in conflict": the meeting of Madvig and Cobet at the tercentenary of Leyden University and its historical background. Authorised translation by H. J. Rose.

Author: 
B. A. Van Proosdij [H. J. Rose, translator; Johan Nicolai Madvig (1804-1886); Carel Gabriel Cobet (1813-1889); Leiden University]
Publication details: 
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1954.
£50.00

8vo, 47 pp. In original grey printed wraps. With frontispiece portrait of Madvig and one plate. Good, in dusty wraps. Presentation copy, with card 'With the compliments of Dr B. A. Van Proosdij, Scientific Advisor to Messrs. Brill' loosely inserted. Divided into four parts: 'The Intellectual Background', 'Preparations and the Eve of the Day', 'The Dies Natalis' and 'Epilogue', with six appendices of passages from original sources, and a postscript of 'Four Letters from Madvig to Geel, Bake, and Cobet'.

The Bardic Chair Poem. London, 1926. [The Burial of David Livingstone.]

Author: 
[Rev. George Walton Keesey (c.1875-1936), 'known to many as the "Congregational Bishop of East London"'] [David Livingstone; Metropolitan Free Church Federation Eisteddfod, 1926.]
Publication details: 
London: Forest Gate Press, The Grove, Stratford, E.15. [1926?]
£120.00

8vo, [19 pp]. In original grey printed wraps. On lightly aged paper, with unevenly trimmed edges, and in slightly worn wraps. Short ink inscription at head of front wrap. INSCRIBED by the author's wife 'To my very dear Daughter Marian In happy memory of dear Pater the Author May 4th. and May 24th. 1936'. Full-page illustration of the 'Metropolitan Free Church Federation Eisteddfod, 1926. Grand Bardic Chair Presented by John Weir, Esq.' A curious mixture of pagan and Christian.

Handbill poem, with illustration, entitled 'Doodle, Doodle, Doo. A New Love Song in the Court Stile.'

Author: 
John Pitts, ballad printer of Seven Dials [Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany; Mary Anne Clarke (1776-1852)]
Publication details: 
Printed and Sold by J. Pitts, No. 14. Great Saint Andrew Street Seven Dials,'
£100.00

Printed on one side of a piece of rough laid paper, approximately 24.5 x 8.5 cm. Crude circular woodcut of pedlar at head, diameter 3.5 cm. Good, on aged paper with a little creasing at head and foot. Consists of four four-line stanzas with refrain 'Doodle, doodle, doo.' First stanza, heavy with double-entendre, reads 'HEAV'N bless my dearest little dear, | The wind is not quite fair, | From Portland Road I write this here - | Oh! bless your little hair. | Doodle, doodle, doo.' Clearly refers to a high society Regency scandal, possibly that concerning the Duke of York and Mary Anne Clarke.

Aklla.

Author: 
Inti Illapa' (pseud. of Santiago Pereda Hidalgo) [Peru; Peruvian]
Publication details: 
Peru [Santiago de Chuco]: Editorial INTI, '1950' and '16 de Febrero de 1951'.
£250.00

8vo: xii + 64 pp. In original green wraps, printed in red with illustration on front, with printed signature of 'Inti Tupac', and large distinctive publisher's device on back. Good, on yellowed high-acidity paper, in faded wraps, with Yapp edges a little chipped. Inscribed on fly-leaf 'Para el gran rotativo The Times. Inti Illapa. | Direccion: Inti Illapa | Santiago de Chuco | Dep. La Libertad | Peru.' No copy in the British Library. COPAC only lists one copy, at Cambridge, whose catalogue entry does not explain that 'Inti Illapa' is a pseudonymn.

One Typed Letter Signed, one Autograph Letter Signed, one Autograph Postcard initialled, all to Harry Paynter (one also to Paynter's wife), and a typescript annotated in Young's hand.

Author: 
Francis Brett Young, novelist.
Publication details: 
107 East 70th Street, 21 Nov. 1928, Esthwaite Lodge, Hawkshead, Nr. Ambleside, 31 March 1930, and (Postcard) Mamounia Hotel, Marrakesh, [1935?].
£220.00

Both letters, two pages, 8vo, stained and marked, but texts clear and complete. The Postcard is grubby (view of Marrakesh on front).

Autograph Note Signed to Thomas Hood, journalist, editor and poet.

Author: 
Cyrus Redding, journalist and editor (DNB)
Publication details: 
3 Hill Road, [St John's Wood], "Monday morning", undated [1846 or before?].
£100.00

One page, 8vo, corners frayed, one spot, text clear and complete. "I feared the objection you mentioned in your note, but I was willing to try 'The Spanish Page' [Velasco [or memoirs of a page, 3 vols, 1846?], as has been sometimes done, piecemeal, for it will be a long time before I shall be able to complete the three volumes. / I send you a small light article purely my own.

Autograph Letter Signed to John Childs of Bungay, Suffolk, printer, non-conformist, agitator, staunch nonconformist (DNB).

Author: 
J. Atkinson, [radical poet].
Publication details: 
London, 11 Jan. 1823.
£280.00

One page, folio, closely written, chipped with some loss of text, creases and small closed tears. Obviously close (he calls him "Jockie"), Atkinson touches on various radical matters and people in a relaxed, allusive and witty fashion. He initially discusses a poem he is putting togther which "Henry & David" wish to get printed under Childs auspices ("any idea or expression not harmonising with your taste & judgment tell me & I will amend it"). He will get the printer David Maurice (a friend; also see BBTI) to set it up.

Engraved portrait.

Author: 
Claude-Emmanuel Lhuillier, dit Chapelle (1626-1686), French poet and author
Publication details: 
Without date [early nineteenth century?] or place.
£28.00

On a piece of paper 24 x 15.5 cm. Dimensions of image roughly 6.5 x 6 cm. Paper heavily foxed and creased at foot. Image clear and uncreased. Titled 'CHAPELLE.' Head-and-shoulders engraving of a tousle-haired Chapelle, with open white shirt, waistcoat and cloak hanging off shoulders.

Apparently-unpublished manuscript poem, in French, entitled 'Aux Amis de Pierre Dupont'.

Author: 
J. Dupuis [Pierre Dupont (1821-1870), French poet and song writer]
Publication details: 
Dated 'Lyon 7 Avril 1877 | [signed] J. Dupuis'.
£180.00

On one side of a piece of laid paper roughly 27 x 21 cm. Text clear and entire on aged and lightly creased paper. Chipped, with slight loss and closed tears, to extremities. Thirty-lines in Alexandrine couplets, beginning 'L'Ame du chansonnier (si l'ame est immortelle) | Doit tressaillir pieuse à votre amour fidèle.' and ending 'Gravons sur sa mémoire un souvenir profond: | Son nom n'est pas de ceux que les siècles refont.' The date and signature are in the right-hand margin, towards the bottom right-hand corner.

Ten Autograph Letters Signed and a Signed secretarial Letter (eight signed 'Victor Meunier' and three 'V Meunier'), all in French, to individuals including Charles Nodier, Pierre-Simon Ballanche and (with Autograph Signed reply) Jean-Augustin Barral.

Author: 
Victor Meunier (1817-1903), French author and journalist; editor of 'Cosmos', the 'Revue Synthétique', and 'L’Ami des Sciences' [Charles Nodier; Pierre-Simon Ballanche; Jean-Augustin Barral]
Publication details: 
Five undated, the others between 1856 and 1876; from a number of addresses including the offices of 'L'ami des sciences', 'Cosmos' and the 'Revue Synthétique', Paris.
£350.00

The collection is in good condition, on lightly aged and slightly creased paper. Text of all items clear and entire. Letter One: to Jean-Augustin Barral (12 June 1862, from 33 Rue de Vaugirard, 8vo, 2 pp, 30 lines). He has received 'les premières feuilles de votre notice', and has been prevented from coming to London by 'un rhumatisme articulaire'. On the recto of the second leaf of the bifolium is Barrel's nine-line autograph reply, signed 'J. A. Barrel' and dated 'Londres 16 juin 1862'.

Autograph Note Signed (illegibly as usual) to "Mr Tuckwell" (prob. Rev. Tuckwell, see new DNB).

Author: 
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.
Publication details: 
[Place illegible]6 Jan.1888.
£120.00

Traveller, poet, diarist, etc. Two pages, 8vo, good condition. "I fear I cannot allow you to reprint the story of Mr Balfour's conversation on any authority of mine. I trust the [worst?] by coercion is pretty well over now in Ireland, and as all here are in excellent heatr I feel far more hopeful than I have been for some time."

Poor Richard's Almanack, for the year 1848. Leap Year. Containing, in addition to all that is requisite in an Almanack, A list of all the fairs in England and Wales, and advertisements for three hundred and thirty-two Heirs-at-Law.

Author: 
Richard Allen, editor [almanack; almanacks; ephemerides; ephemeris]
Publication details: 
Illustrated edition. 1848. London: W. Strange, 21, Paternoster Row. Heywood, Manchester; Philip, Liverpool; Webb and Co. Leeds; Guest, Birmingham; Allen, Nottingham; Allen, Leicester. [Nottingham: - Printed by R. Allen, 57, Long Row.]
£100.00

12mo, 32 pp. In original pink printed wraps. Unbound and stitched. Text clear and entire. Tight, but grubby and dogeared, and with closed tear and creasing at head of recto of front wrap. Densely printed in a variety of point sizes, with frontispiece and twelve wood-cuts (one for each month). Contains advertisements, 'Borough Regulations', a 'Gardener's Calendar', 'Table of the Sun's rising and setting' and other matter. Neat ownership signature of 'Mrs. Paterson' at head of recto of front wrap, and twelve others of her signatures at the head of each month.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Hammerton') to 'My Dear Shorter' [Clement King Shorter (1857-1926)].

Author: 
Sir John Alexander Hammerton (1871-1949), author and editor of reference works
Publication details: 
6 November 1925; on letterhead of 54 Shepherd's Hill, Highgate, London.
£45.00

12mo, 2 pp, and 8vo, 1 p. A little grubby and creased, but with text clear and entire. He is sorry that Shorter was not able to visit the Chateaux of the Loire, but hopes that 'the sea air of Dieppe' has done him good. The year before Shorter's death, Hammerton writes: 'But you must really cease this brink-of-the-grave touch! Ten years hence, from an inglenook at Knockmoroon [where Shorter would die], you will wonder why you were anticipating the "closing down" of C.K.S.

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