Literature

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Edmondstoun de Aytoun') to James Simpson.

Author: 
William Edmonstoune Aytoun [William Edmondstoun de Aytoun] (1813-1865), Scottish poet
Publication details: 
26 January 1865; 16 Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh.
£280.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Twenty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with evidence of previous mount on reverse of second leaf. Certainly genuine, and of interest as bearing a variant spelling of Aytoun's name in a signature written from his home a few months before his death. (The spelling 'Edmondstoun de Aytoun' is not noted in Aytoun's entry in the Oxford DNB.) In the latter part of the letter Aytoun comments on his poetic practice. He is 'much flattered' by Simpson's 'selection of my poem for a public reading', and is 'glad to hear that it was appreciated'.

Prospectus for 'The Gehenna Shakespeare'.

Author: 
The Gehenna Press [Leonard Baskin]
Publication details: 
[Northampton, Massachusetts, 1972 or 1973.]
£45.00

Folio bifolium (leaf dimensions approximately 50.5 x 34 cm). Unbound. Creased, with worn central horizontal fold, and somewhat dogeared at head and foot. Four pages, printed in black, with the first and fourth pages carrying a few words in red.

First printing of his essay '[Ur-Gerausch]' ['Primal Noise'].

Author: 
Rainer Maria Rilke
Publication details: 
In 'Das Inselschiff' (Leipzig: Im Insel-Verlag, October 1919).
£35.00

The magazine consists of 48 pages, octavo, in original yellow printed wraps. Dogeared, and on aged paper, and with the grubby wraps quite heavily worn. 12mo publicity handbill loosely inserted. Rilke's contribution, dated 'Soglio, am Tage Mariae Himmelfahrt 1919', is on pp 14-20.

Observations on an autograph of Shakspere, and the orthography of his name. Communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Sir Frederic Madden ... in a letter to John Gage

Author: 
Frederic Madden (1801-1873), scholar and librarian
Publication details: 
London, T. Rodd, 1838.
£25.00

2 p. ., [3]-16, [2] p. 22 cm, beige wraps chipped and worn, and partially detached, fair condition. Notes: Facsimile of Shakespeare’s autograph on t.-p.; "Reprinted from the Archaeologia, vol. XXXVII, pp. 113-123, with some corrections." It includes a 2pp. list of related books (Shakespeariana) for sale by Rodd on back wrap.

Les vacances de Lumineux petit cheval de cirque.

Author: 
Cécile Aubry
Publication details: 
Paris: Éditions Émile-Paul Frères, 14 Rue de L'Abbaye, VI. 1955.
£60.00

PRESENTATION COPY: inscribed on half-title 'Pour Louise | avec mon bien amical souvenir - | Cécile Aubry'. 32 pages, quarto. In printed coloured boards, with decorated endpapers. llustrated by Aubry in colour (one double-page and nine full page) and black and white (five vignettes) and red (final page and endpapers). On the poor side of good, with minor staining, spotting and wear; negligible damp damage to boards.

Autograph Letter Signed to Dr Thompson, Edinburgh.

Author: 
James Thomson (1768-1855), editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1795-6); from 1805 parish minister in Eccles, Berwickshire [Rev. Thomas Lewis (d.1852) of the Union Chapel, Islington]
Publication details: 
Date not given (before 1852). 17 Stamford Street, Blackfriars.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of black mount adhering at head on reverse (not affecting text). He has received Thompson's note 'intimating to me the necessity under which the Revd Mr Lewis and the Committee of Union Chapel find themselves reluctantly placed, to refuse our deputation an opportunity of pleading the Cause of our Society on the present occasion'. Refers to the 'great liberality of the Members of the Union Chapel' and 'their attachment to the good Cause'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie') to R. Hepburn.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), M.D., poet and biographer
Publication details: 
Friday mg.' [date not stated]; Upper Berkeley Street.
£35.00

One page, 12mo. Black bordered. Very good and with the verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium laid down on a leaf detached from an autograph album. Nine lines. He thanks him for 'a brace of splendid grouse - which are now so rare as not to be had for money. It was therefore doubly generous [...] Endulging [sic] the pleasing hope of "Revenge" - & with kind regards to your House circle'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David S. Meldrum') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
David Storrar Meldrum (1864-1940), novelist and partner in the publishing house of Blackwood's
Publication details: 
4 September 1897; on company letterhead '37, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.'
£56.00

8vo: 3 pp. On grubby, lightly creased paper. The recipient has made Meldrum a 'pretty present' of her edition of Burns (COPAC provides no clue as to her identity). He finds the volumes 'very dainty', and will read her notes 'with interest'. He has already read her 'Introductions' with 'great pleasure'. He comments on her assessment of a couple of poems and finds her 'standpoint' on 'the man & the poet' 'capital'. 'But you must allow me one criticism: you read into the poems a political significance which I'm sure wasn't there.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie. MD.') to the editor of the 'Naval and Military Gazette'.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), Scottish physician and poet
Publication details: 
13 August [1858]; St James's Street, London, on embossed letterhead of the Conservative Club.
£56.00

16mo (11 x 9 cm) bifolium, 3 pp, 16 lines of text. Mourning border. Good, with slight discoloration to the external pages. He is sending a manuscript 'At the suggestion of the Author, an officer residing in Paris'. If 'on examination' the recipient considers it 'unsuitable for the pages' of the Gazette, he asks for it to be returned to him at 13 Upper Berkeley Street 'when your messenger happens to pass that way'. The author 'is a man of high character and well acquainted with Paris & the Parisians'.

30 photographs illustrative of the life of Sir Walter Scott, marked up for publication.

Author: 
Sir Walter Scott photographic illustrations
Publication details: 
Undated [1920s?]
£110.00

The photographs vary in size from 24 x 18.5 cm to 8 x 6.5 cm. The overall condition is good, with one chipped along the edges. 13 have been touched up for publication, a few quite heavily. Annotated, with dimensions, on backs.

Letter 'by the hand of an amanuensis' to the poet and biblical scholar the Rev. Henry Alford (1810-1871).

Author: 
Charles Mackay (1814-1889), Scottish poet and journalist
Publication details: 
7 March 1853; 21 Brecknock Crescent, Camden Road Villas, [London].
£45.00

Three pages, 12mo. Very good: lightly aged and with the merest glue spot to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Mackay's 'signature' appears to be in the same hand as the rest of the letter. He has had a 'severe attack of inflammation of the eye', and this has prevented him from reading or writing during the previous week. For the same reason he is replying to Alford's letter of 1 March through an amanuensis. Three weeks previously Mackay 'received a packet from Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Wedderburn; and Autograph Note to Mr and Mrs G. Wedderburn.

Author: 
Catherine Sinclair (1800-1864), Scottish novelist
Publication details: 
Letter, 13 February [no year or place]; Note, 23 March [no year], 133 George Street [Edinburgh].
£28.00

LETTER: One page, 12mo. Good, on aged, creased paper, with trace of stub on blank verso. Crest at head. 'It will give my brother & me much pleasure to accept your kind invitation for Tuesday evening the 16th. - I dine that day with Lady Sempill which will make me later than I should wish, but I hope to reach your house soon after 10'. NOTE: One page, 12mo, good, with fraying at head and traces of mount adhering to blank verso. A formal note written in the third person. 'Miss Catherine Sinclair will be happy to have the honor of accepting Mrs. Wedderburns & Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Lang') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish man of letters
Publication details: 
15 December [no year, but after 1906]; on letterhead of Alleyne House, St. Andrews, Scotland.
£45.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifolium. 27 lines, written in a shaky hand. On creased, discoloured paper, and with some damage to the second leaf caused by careless removal from mount. Two irregularly-shaped closed tears on the second leaf, one to the left of the signature, have been neatly repaired on the reverse with archival tape. He is glad that his correspondent likes 'our Odyssey: the Iliad is less attractive. [...] I dare not remember all my books, but will ask Messrs Longman to send a list of what they possess. All are very unpopular.' He doesn't write in 'T.

Autograph Letter Signed to his publisher and friend Alexander Macmillan.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896), publisher; Colin Hunter (1841-1904), Scottish painter]
Publication details: 
1 February [no year]; on letterhead of Paston House, Paston Place, Brighton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Six lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Inviting Macmillan to join him and 'some of the lads' in a dinner at the Reform Club, 'on the occasion of Colin Hunter's being made an Associate'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Lockyer.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896); astronomer; Altnaharra Hotel; angling; fishing]
Publication details: 
29 March [no year]; Altnaharra, Lairg, N.B. [Scotland]
£38.00

16mo bifolium (leaf dimensions 11 x 9 cm): 2 pp. 17 lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Wonders whether Lockyer would like to spend his Easter holidays at Altnaharra, for a fortnight from 14 April. (The Altnaharra Hotel was used by anglers visiting the nearby lochs.) 'It is an expensive journey; but the sport is good - at least it has been good this last fortnight, but now we are sadly in want of rain. The weather is like June, only more so.' Forty salmon have been killed 'in these two weeks, averaging 11 lbs each'. Black's publisher was Alexander Macmillan.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Balcarres') to 'Everard'.

Author: 
David Lindsay (1871-1940), politician and future 27th Earl of Crawford [Lindsay Library; Bibliotheca Lindesiana]
Publication details: 
16 October 1895; Haigh [Lancashire].
£65.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifoilum. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with several pin holes, light spotting, and a 1 cm closed tear along a fold. A lighthearted epistle, beginning 'Dear Everard, Dear Everard | The Cistercians make an awful mistake in giving free meals. My Charity-organisation Society temperament rises in wrath: if they wd only apply the labour test for an hour or less - but free meals! I have watched the moral ravages of free meals and feel more strongly abt that kind of thing than about Home rule or Mediaeval Brases.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent [Mr Blunt of Crewe].

Author: 
John Brown
Publication details: 
29 May 1859; 'Edinburgh 23 Rutland St'.
£35.00

Scottish essayist (1810-82). Two pages, 12mo. With mourning border. Good, but on discoloured paper, and with some glue staining to blank second leaf of bifoliate. Concerns the work for which Brown is remembered, 'Rab and his friends' (1859). If he is ever at Crewe he will 'certainly avail myself of Mrs. Blunt's & your very gratifying invitation. His wife is 'more delighted, I think, with your letter about "Rab" than by any other - & she has kept it - being like all good wives greedy of her husband's praise.' Signed 'J. Brown'.

Typed Note Signed ('O. H. Mavor. | James Briddie') to Rev. E. J. F. Davies.

Author: 
James Bridie' (Osborne Henry Mavor,1888-1951), Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon
Publication details: 
20 February [no year]; on letterhead 6 Woodlands Terrace, Glasgow, C.3.
£30.00

One page, 12mo. Very good. 'Do forgive my delay. I had lost your letter!'

Autograph Letter Signed to unknown male correspondent; Autograph Signed endorsement of 'Dr. Dick of Dundee'; and facsimile of letter of thanks to his 'Birth-day Benefactors'.

Author: 
James Montgomery (1771-1854), Scottish hymnwriter and poet
Publication details: 
The letter dated 29 May 1835, 10 New Palace Yard, Westminster; the endorsement dated 'The Mount, September 19. 1850'; the facsimile dated 'The Mount nr Sheffield, Nov. 4. 1851.'
£220.00

The letter (8vo, 1 p) is foxed, but otherwise very good. Had he not been 'engaged for ten days past to dine three or four miles off with an old acquaintance', whom it is too late to disappoint, he would have been happy to avail himself of the kind invitation. Sends best wishes and prayers to the recipient's family, 'from the elder to the youngest'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Maccall') [to the publishers W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.].

Author: 
William Maccall (1812-1888), Scottish writer and lecturer [W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.]
Publication details: 
14 November 1882; Stanhope Cottages, Bexley Heath.
£85.00

4to, 1 page and 12mo, 2 pp (single 4to leaf, folded as to give two 12mo pp on one side). Thirty-seven lines of text. Maccall is 'willing to accept any proposal which is reasonable and just' concerning his 'Christian Legends' (published by Sonnenschein in 1882), and also 'to make sacrifices for the sake of obliging [...] As the one manuscript is about twice the length of the other - I speak from memory, - it might honestly claim better remuneration'.

The Abbotsford Subscription.

Author: 
R. A. Dundas, Secretary, Royal Society of Literature [Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish novelist and poet]
Publication details: 
St. Martin's Place, Dec. 7, 1832.'
£80.00

Disbound. Octavo: four pages. Good: slightly aged and with some creasing to extremities. Thirty-one lines of text, followed by a double-column list of subscribers, and amounts subscribed.

Autograph Note Signed to unknown correspondent [David Brewster?].

Author: 
Walter Scott.
Publication details: 
No place or date (trimmed away), [1820?]
£300.00

Page trimmed of peripherals, c. 4 x 3", removed from an album, text as folllows: "Dear Sir // I fancy the Society should pay the [inclosed ??] in the first instance & recover from the gentlemen who a: [new line] vail [avail?] themselves of the tickets which I sent to you. / We will hear of our Address today Yours truly / W Scott [underlined]" David Brewster, scientist (DNB) had a hand in the growth of the collection of autographs in which this appeared.

Autograph Letter in the third person to 'Dr. Taylor', accepting election to the Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1768-1854), 4th Duke of Portland, British politician [Charles Taylor, Secretary, Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
9 July 1812; Fullarton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper. Reads 'The Duke of Portland presents his Compliments to Dr. Taylor, and has the honor to acquaint him that he will be very proud of the honor of being elected a member of the Society of Arts -'.

Autograph Letter Signed [to the publishers Messrs George Routledge & Sons].

Author: 
Beatrice Harraden (1864-1936), British novelist and suffragette [George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.]
Publication details: 
29 July [no year]; on letterhead 3, Fitzjohn's Mansions, Netherall Gardens, Hampstead, N.W. [London]
£100.00

Two pages, 12mo. Good, with minor effects of damp. Text clear and entire. Twenty-five lines. Harraden has found an old acquaintance, Mrs Charles Routledge ('the widow of the son of Colonel Robert Warne Routledge'), in 'very distressing circumstances; she had been very ill from blood poisoning in the leg, had been in hospital, & in the work house'. Mrs Routledge has 'done her very best [...] to fight an adverse fate', working hard 'as a house keeper, maid of all work, servant of lodging house'.

The Description and Explanation of a "Universal Character;" or, Manner of Writing, that may be intelligible to the Inhabitants of every Country, although ignorant of each others Language; and which is to be learnt with facility, [...].

Author: 
[anon.] [Bath, Somerset; provincial printing; pasigraphy; linguistics; universal language]
Publication details: 
Bath: Printed by J. Hollway, Engraver and Copper-Plate Printer, Union Street.' [1830? 1833? 1835?]
£450.00

4to: 48 + [3] pp of letterpress, with additional leaf after title of 'Errata of Letter Press' and 'Errata in Plates'. Twenty numbered plates (the first two transposed), including one fold-out, and a final seventeen full-page unnumbered plates ('Examples'). Apparently complete. In original brown quarter binding, with cloth spine and paper boards. Ownership inscription of 'Lady Rolle' (1796-1885, born Louisa Barbara Trefusis) on front board. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-spotted paper, with wear to extremities and wraps, and cloth spine torn and worn.

Signed Autograph Manuscript testimonial ('Philip Gibbs') on behalf of G. K. Chesterton's candidacy for the Rectorship of the University of Glasgow.

Author: 
Sir Philip Gibbs [Sir Philip Armand Hamilton Gibbs] (1877-1962), writer and journalist [G. K. Chesterton; Glasgow University]
Publication details: 
Undated [1925].
£45.00

8vo: 2 pp. Fifty lines. Text clear and complete, on two pieces of aged and spotted paper, with rust spots from paperclip. Untitled. Begins: 'I should like to see Chesterton as Lord Rector of a university which stands for Liberal thought. Some people, limited in imagination and hostile to unconventional character, would as soon give their votes to a modern Don Quixote who by some miracle has acquired the corporeal structure of his own Sancho Panza.

Offprint from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature: 'On Two Events which occurred in the Life of King Canute the Dane.'

Author: 
John Hogg, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society of Literature [John Lee (ne Fiott) (1783-1866), of Hartwell House]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by W. Hughes, King's Head Court, Gough Square. 1855.
£75.00

8vo: [ii] + 18 pp. In worn original buff wraps with white printed label on front. Clear and complete. On aged, damp-stained paper. Presentation copy, with note on title-page: 'To John Lee Esqre. L.L.D. | with the Author's kind regards.' Ownership inscription of 'J. Lee. Hartwell. 3 May 1856.' also on title. Scarce.The only copies on COPAC at the British Library and the Society of Antiquaries.

The Powys Family. Being a lecture given by him to the Swansea and South Wales Bookman's Association in May, 1945, with some additions.

Author: 
Littleton C. Powys [John Cowper Powys; Llewelyn Powys; Theodore Powys]
Publication details: 
This reprint [of the original lecture] issued April, 1953.' Western Gazette, Yeovil.
£56.00

12mo: 27 pp. Stapled. In original brown printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper with rusted staples. Divided into five sections: 'Our Ancestry', 'Our Father', 'Our Mother', 'Montacute' and 'The Children'. A scarce item, the only copies on COPAC being at the British Library, Cardiff and St Andrews.

[The Writings of Leo Tolstoy. Edited by V. Tchertkoff. No. 2.] The Spirit of Christ's Teaching.

Author: 
Leo Tolstoy [V. Tchertkoff (Vladimir Grigorevich Chertkov), 1854-1936]
Publication details: 
Purleigh, Essex: Free Speech Publishing House. 1899.
£56.00

12mo: [iv] + 35 pp. In original green cloth printed wraps. Text clear and complete. On aged high-acidity paper, and with four staple holes throughout. Creasing to front wrap and slight loss at head of title (not affecting text). In the 'Editor's Preface' (p.iii, dated 'V. TCHERTKOFF.

The Art of Poetry, Written in French by The Sieur de Boileau. In Four Canto's. Made English By Sir William Soames, Since Revis'd by John Dryden, Esq;

Author: 
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux; Sir William Soames; John Dryden; Henry Hills junior, London printer
Publication details: 
London: Printed and Sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars near the Water-side. 1710.
£400.00

12mo: 40 pp. Disbound. Good, on lightly aged paper. Contemporary ownership inscription of 'William Francklyn" on title-page. This edition is scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at Liverpool.

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