POETRY

Autograph Letter Signed ('G. F. Hamilton') to 'My dear Harmsworth' (Viscount Northcliffe?). With a copy of his booklet translation: 'In St. Patrick's Praise: The Hymn of St. Secundinus (Sechnall)'.

Author: 
[G. F. Hamilton, Rector of Moylough, Co. Galway] [Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe]
Publication details: 
Letter dated 13 March 1919; on letterhead of the Rectory, Moylough, Co. Galway. Booklet: Dublin: The Church of Ireland Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd., 61 Middle Abbey Street.
£125.00

Letter: 12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Begins 'Your hands must be full just now, judging from the Daily Papers.' He presents the 'booklet' as 'a small memento of friendship for you', and describes as 'just published by me on a hymn considered (by Bernard, Bury etc.) to be a contemporary of St. Patrick. An 11th. cent MS. containing it is in T. C. D. Library. And it is also given in a 7th. cent. MS. at Milan.' Postscript referring to an article he has sent Harmsworth, 'for which I received thanks (quite unsolicited) of the Prof. of English Literature, T.C.D.!

Autograph Card Signed to unnamed male correspondent [the headmaster of Harrow School?].

Author: 
Anna Swanwick (1813-1899), English author, translator and social reformer [Reginald Bosworth Smith (1839-1908), Housemaster of Harrow School]
Publication details: 
20 March [no year, but after 1892]; on letterhead of 23 Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park, N.W.
£75.00

On both sides of the gilt-edged card, which is roughly 9 x 11.5 cm. Aged, but in fair condition. 'Mr Bosworth Smith' has informed her that her book 'Poets the Interpreters of Their Age' (1892) 'will be acceptable to the pupils of Harrow School', and she has 'great pleasure in presenting a copy to your library, & hoping that a kind welcome will be accorded to my little offering'. A postscript explains that the volume 'will be forwarded by an early post'.

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.

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'.

Poems of Rural Life in Common English.

Author: 
William Barnes [Dorset dialect poetry]
Publication details: 
London: Macmillan and Co. 1868. [London: Printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street.]
£65.00

First edition. 8vo: xii + 200 + [iv] pp. (the last four pages an unpaginated publisher's catalogue). In original blue cloth, gilt. Fair, tight copy, on lightly-aged paper, with some spotting to endpapers. Binding with dulled spine and minor spotting. Bookplate of the Rev. English Crooks. Binders ticket ('BOUND BY BURN & CO.') to rear pastedown. Half-title reads 'RURAL POEMS'. The 'translation' of the three collections beginning with 'Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect' (1844).

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.

Three Typed Letters Signed (the first two in full and the third 'E P Gorini') the first two to Violet Bonham Carter and the last to her son Mark, the first in English and the last two in Italian.

Author: 
Edvige Pesce Gorini, Italian poet, editor of the 'Giornale dei Poeti' [Violet Bonham Carter (1887-1969); Mark Raymond Bonham Carter (1922-1994), Baron Bonham-Carter, Liberal politician]
Publication details: 
21 February 1946; 15 May 1947; and 28 July 1948. All three from Via Angelo Poliziano No. 69, Rome.
£120.00

Text of all three items clear and complete. All three on lightly aged paper, creased and with some wear to extremities. Letter One (8vo, 1 p; 20 lines of text): She thanks Bonham Carter for her 'kind and appreciative letter' and 'will see that through the English Embassy' she receives 'a copy of my short story: "I due prigionieri", of which your son is the protagonist'. (An officer in the Grenadier Guards, during the war Mark Bonham Carter had escaped from a prison camp in northern Italy.) Describes material she is sending relating to her 'literary career'.

Number Four in the series of Christmas cards printed by the Favil Press for the Poetry bookshop, containing the poem 'The Curate's Christmas Eve' by Monro, and two coloured engravings by Stewart, one entitled 'Decorations'.

Author: 
Harold Monro (1879-1932); Alistair Stewart; The Favil Press; The Poetry Bookshop
Publication details: 
No date [circa 1928]. Printed 'by The Favil Press, 152 Church Street, Kensington, W.8 and published, in collaboration with the printers, by The Poetry Bookshop, 38 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.1.'
£45.00

Printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 46 x 32 cm, folded twice to make a 23 x 16 cm card. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. On the front is a small illustration in green and black, roughly 7.5 x 6 cm, showing a picture of a domestic Christmas interior in an ivy-topped frame. Inside the card, on the left-hand page, is Monro's poem, of 18 lines arranged in three stanzas, beginning, 'The Curate and the Spinster sit.

The first four numbers of 'The New Athenian Broadsheet'. No.1, 'Festival Issue - Scottish Poems of Place'. No.3: 'Spring and Summer Poems'. No.4: 'Scottish Lore and Legend'.

Author: 
The New Athenian Broadsheet [The Favil Press; Lewis Spence; William Soutar; Sydney Goodsir Smith; George Campbell Hay; Edwin Muir; Naomi Mitchison; Maurice Lindsay; Scotland; Scottish poetry]
Publication details: 
No.1: August 1947; No.2: Christmas 1947; No.3: April 1948; No.4: July, 1948'. All printed for 'The Editor, The New Athenian Broadsheets, 45 Plewlands Gardens, Edinburgh, 10' by The Favil Press Ltd., 152 Kensington Church Street, London.
£165.00

All four items printed on both sides of a piece of paper roughly 57 x 25 cm, folded twice to make 6 pp, each 19 x 25 cm. Aged and a little grubby and creased. The second number with title printed in red, the third with title in green, and fourth with title in blue. Each with engraving of park with neo-classical buildings by William McLaren. No.1: poems by Lewis Spence, R. L. Cook, Joe Corrie, W. H. Hamilton, Alexander Buist, A. V. Stuart, Hugh N. Maclachlan, A. A. C. Blackie, Dorothy Margaret Paulin and Helen B. Cruikshank. No.2: poems by William Soutar, Alexander Buist, A. V.

Autograph Note Signed ('Henry Newbolt') to Routledge.

Author: 
Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938), English poet [George Routledge & Sons, publishers]
Publication details: 
13 October 1906; on letterhead of 23, Earl's Terrace, Kensington, W.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Thanking them for the cheque, and returning the 'form of permission to reprint the four poems, signed' (not present).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Thos: Day') to 'Edmund Taylor Esqe | Castle Yard Windsor | Berkshire', including original unpublished forty-line manuscript poem by Day entitled 'Lines address'd to Windsor', in which he has 'spit his spite' on the town.

Author: 
Thomas Day [Edmund Taylor; Windsor, Berkshire; Oxford Street; Georgian London; John Romney?; Matthew Cotes Wyatt?]
Publication details: 
25 March 1810; Oxford Street.
£40.00

The work of a cultured and witty man, but not by the author of 'Sandford and Merton', who died in 1789. While possible authors include the 'Mr. Thomas Day, solicitor, Woburn, Bedfordshire', whose death at the age of 47 on 18 February 1824 was reported in The Times (5 March 1824), and the Thomas Day who lived around this time at Montague Street, Russell Square, the most likely candidate, considering the references to 'Romney' and 'Wyatt' is the Thomas of 'DAY William, and Thomas Day, of No. 95, Gracechurch-street, in the city of London, oilmen', who went bankrupt in 1841.

Farmer Brown's Blunders; and the London Director's Report of Wheal Blue Bottle.

Author: 
J. T. Tregellas [John Tabois Tregellas (1792-1863)] [Cornwall; Cornish dialect poetry; the West Country]
Publication details: 
[1860] Truro: Printed by James R. Netherton, 7, Lemon Street. ['Third Edition. - Price Sixpence.']
£220.00

12mo: 26 pp paginated 101-126. Stitched. In original worn, creased and grubby green printed wraps. Internally clean, except for the first two leaves, both of which are grubby, with loss to the first leaf affecting two lines of text. 'Farmer Brown's Blunders' is a dialect poem, with explanatory footnotes; the other item is a spoof letter by 'Hannibal Hollow'. There are no records of first or second editions of this item, or of any other edition in which the two pieces are printed together. Scarce: the only copy on COPAC, dated to 1860, at the British Library.

Keepsake poem entitled 'Lines written for the dinner of the Book Publishers' Representatives' Association. October 4th, 1929.'

Author: 
E. V. Lucas [The Book Publishers' Representatives' Association; Methuen & Co.]
Publication details: 
[1929.]
£35.00

12mo: 8 pp. Dimensions of leaf roughly 13.5 x 11 cm. Lightly-spotted and creased, in creased and worn original purple wraps with title printed on front, and stitched with matching purple thread. An uncommon piece of Lucas and book trade ephemera, nicely printed. Beneath the title: 'President. W. J. Crawley. Principal Guests of the Evening. Sir Godfrey Collins, M.P. Edgar Wallace. E. V. Lucas. H. E.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£56.00

On a piece of wove paper, cut into a shape roughly corresponding to a 5 x 8 cm rectangle. Aged, discoloured and worn, with some of the autograph slightly smudged with blotting. The autograph of one of America's greatest poets. In Longfellow's small, tight hand, reads: 'With regards | Henry . W . Longfellow .' Thin slip of paper laid down on the reverse reads 'S. ENGLEFIELD COLLECTION | HENLEY ON THAMES'.

Handbill poem entitled 'After Fifty Years! | September 20, 1874.' With Hall's autograph signature ('S. C. Hall').

Author: 
Samuel Carter Hall [S. C. Hall] (1800-1889), journalist, editor and author
Publication details: 
Date not stated [1874?]. At foot: 'M. W. & CO., ENT. STA. HALL.'
£56.00

Attractively produced on a piece of thin card, dimensions 17 x 11 cm. The recto of the card has a shiny, light-blue coating, on which the text and design is printed in gold and bronze. The verso is blank and white. Very good, with minor damage to the blank reverse caused by removal from mount. The poem, of thirty-one lines, is enclosed within a grecian-style border. A tender poem addressed to his wife, and reviewing their years together, beginning 'YES!

Short Poems and Sacred Verses. Third Series.

Author: 
A. S. [minor Victorian poetry; nineteenth-century devotional verse]
Publication details: 
London: 1895. [Printed for Private Circulation.]' [London: G. E. Waters, Printer, 97, Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W.'
£100.00

12mo: iv + 164 pp. In original green cloth, with the title in gilt on the front cover. All edges gilt. Slightly foxed. Good and tight, in lightly worn cloth. A curious collection, with the index of first lines containing such entries as 'Sweet Edgbaston bells' [this poem dated 1844], 'Dear Varinka', ' 'Twas a boy in a cut-off jacket' and 'They call me little Trottie'. All three series are excessively scarce. The only copy of this third series on COPAC is in the British Library, and the only copy on WorldCat in California.

Handbill street ballad entitled 'Mr. Sopkin's Misadventures at Blackpool. (After Ingoldsby's Misadventures at Margate.)'

Author: 
Samuel Laycock (1826-1893), Victorian Yorkshire dialect poet [nineteenth-century Blackpool]
Publication details: 
Publisher and date not stated.
£75.00

At foot: 'PRICE ONE PENNY.' On one side of a piece of wove paper, roughly 220 x 170 mm. Enclosed within decorative border. Foxed and creased, with edges trimmed to edge of border. Thin strip of card mound adhering to one edge of reverse. Text clear and entire. Printed in two columns employing characteristically Victorian typography. Twenty-six four-line stanzas (the last two being the 'MORAL.'). Begins 'When down at Blackpool last July, and walking on the Pier, | I met a pretty maiden, so I said "How do my dear?" | "What do you here, love, by yourself? How is it you're alone?

Dein Sternbild Leuchte Auch Uns. Fünf Gedichte an Nelly Sachs.' and 'Pablo Neruda Friede für die Dämmerungen'.

Author: 
Eva Mohr [Pablo Neruda]
Publication details: 
The first item dated 1960; the second undated. Printer and place not stated in either case.
£56.00

Item One: 'Dein Sternbild' (1960). 8vo: 7 pp. In original cream printed wraps. Stitched. Printed on the rectos of seven leaves. Good, in slightly grubby and worn wraps. German inscription to Nelly Weiss. German poem. Nicely printed on watermarked laid paper. Item Two: 'Pablo Neruda' (undated). 12mo: 3 pp. German translation by Mohr from the Spanish. Six-line note explains the context in which the poem was translated. With manuscript correction and signature of Mohr. No other copy traced.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Julius de Geyter'), in Flemish Dutch.

Author: 
Julius de Geyter (1830-1905), Flemish poet
Publication details: 
31 December 1899; Antwerp.
£35.00

12mo: 1 p. Seven lines of text. Monogram in red in top left-hand corner. On creased and aged paper, with pinholes at head (not affecting text). Scan on request.

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.

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.

Oda en elogio de la Marina Española, por Doña María Rosa de Galvez.

Author: 
Dona María Rosa de Gálvez [Maria Rosa Galvez de Cabrera] (1768-1806)
Publication details: 
Madrid: En la Imprenta de Repullés. 1806.
£100.00

4to, 12 pp. Disbound and stitched. Very good. The poem covers pp. 3-11, with five 'Notas' on p. 12. Scarce (in the Anglo-Saxon world at least): COPAC only lists a copy at the British Library. Includes a passage on Nelson and 'el feroz Britano'. No copy found in Sanish Union Catalogue etc. (accessed through German Union Catalogue).

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.

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.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Alaric Watts') [to Mr Limbird?].

Author: 
Alaric Watts [Alaric Alexander Watts] (1797-1864), English journalist and poet [keepsakes; The Literary Souvenir]
Publication details: 
28 November 1828; 58 Torrington Square, London.
£56.00

4to, 1 p. On aged, creased apper, but with text clear and entire. A small piece of paper from a bottom corner has been torn away in opening the letter, and is still present on the reverse, under a red wax seal bearing a clear impression of a lyre and the words 'Addolcire ed Maturare'. Brief communication apologising for the fact that the Literary Souvenir has not reached him sooner. 'The omission is the sin of my booksellers and not mine'. He is sending a copy with the letter, and asks him to accept his thanks, 'for your courtesy'.

Adargraphiad Llythyrenol o Flodau y Beirdd Brytannaidd, a gydgynnullwyd gan y dyfgedig Dr. John Davies, o Fallwyd [...] Ynghyd a Rhagdraethawd ar Farddoniaeth Gymreig, gan yr enwog Gadpen Wiliam Midelton.

Author: 
Dr John Davies o Fallwyd [Wiliam Midelton; William Middleton; Robert Jones (1810-1879)]
Publication details: 
Llundain [London]: 1864. [Argraffedig dros y Parch. Robert Jones, yn Mhersondy "All Saints," Rotherhithe.'] ['Argraffedig yn Rhudd-ddwr-hydd.']
£45.00

12mo: [xii] + xxiv + 76 pp. In original red cloth boards, with 'FLORES POETARUM BRITANNICORUM.' stamped in gilt on front board. Lightly aged and foxed, in slightly grubby binding, but good and tight. A few marginal notes in a contemporary hand.

Signed Autograph inscription.

Author: 
Eliza Cook (1812-1889), English poet and journalist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£28.00

On a piece of pink paper, roughly 9 x 11 cm. Neatly laid down onto a piece of white paper. Very good. A reply to a request for an autograph. Reads 'I am | my dear Lady | Yours truly | [signed] Eliza Cook'. The signature is firm and bold, with a small part of the flourish beneath it shaved away.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mortimer Collins') to [Edward] Draper; together with a printed poem produced on the occasion of Collins's death.

Author: 
Edward James Mortimer Collins (1827-1876), English nineteenth-century novelist, journalist and poet
Publication details: 
The letter: undated, 'Knowsley, <?> of L. Derby'
£95.00

Letter: 12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Text clear and entire, but with the outer pages grubby. He has 'no wish to annoy other members of the Court family', so it will 'go no further'. 'It is cool of Miss Court to talk thhe confidence of her own home, when she made the statement to Mrs Bulkeley in her own drawing-room.' Suggests that Draper send 'the Postmistress' a 'reminder'. 'She is so accustomed to threatening letters from her creditors' lawyers that she possibly may disregard this.' Asks him to 'make her understand that withholding an apology may have sharp consequences'.

Some Poems of Roger Casement.

Author: 
[Roger Casement]
Publication details: 
The Talbot Press Booklets. Dublin & London, 1918.
£100.00

Original grey printed wraps (spine lost), hinge strain, pages browning, ow good condition. From the Library of Robert Lynd, nationalist and old friend of Casement's.

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