Literature

A Letter to the Editor of the British Review, occasioned by the notice of "No Fiction," and "Martha," in the last number of that work. [Annotated copy of Francis Barnett (the 'Lefevre' of Reed's 'No Fiction') bound up with a review of the two books.]

Author: 
Andrew Reed (1787-1862), Congregational minister [Francis Barnett (b.1785)]
Publication details: 
[1823?] London: Printed by H. Teape, Tower-hill: Sold by Francis Westley, Stationers' Court, and the other booksellers.
£850.00

Excessively scarce, with no copy in the British Library and the only copy on COPAC at Cambridge, where it is tentatively dated to 1823. 8vo: 80 pp. Followed by five leaves (pp.373-382) from 'The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle' for 1839, in which an anonymous review of Reed's two books features on pp.378-382. Interleaved (all blank). In simple contemporary blue-grey half-binding with cloth spine and corners and marbled boards. Tight copy on aged paper in worn binding. Neat contemporary repair to blank reverse of title. The circumstances of this publication are as follows.

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs [Cecilia] Perkins.

Author: 
Edmund Yates
Publication details: 
23 July [no year]; on letterhead of Moorhurst, Holmwood, Surrey.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. The purple ink of the letter has bled, otherwise in good condition. He does not 'think it likely that we shall soon see this neighbourhood again'. They have had 'frequent bad weather, constant illness, & general discomfort'. The Yateses 'hope to meet you at Hamburg, where we expect to arrive on Wednesday 5th. August. So be it!' Mrs Perkins was the wife of the wealthy brewer Augustus Frederick Perkins.

Offprint titled 'William Butler Yeats. Aetat. 70', containing pieces by Hackett, O Faolain, Higgins, Johnston, de Blacam and Malone, in celebration of the poet's seventieth birthday, also a photograph of Yeats and facsimile of one of his manuscripts.

Author: 
Francis Hackett, Sean O Faolain, F. R. Higgins, Denis Johnston, Aodh de Blacam, Andrew E. Malone, contributors
Publication details: 
Reprinted from the Irish Times of June 13th, 1935.' [Printed and Published by The Irish TImes Limited, 31 Westmoreland street, Dublin.']
£56.00

8vo, 16 pp. In original buff wraps. Text clear and complete. On aged and slightly-creased paper, with rust to the staples resulting in the detaching of the central bifolium. Wraps discoloured. Photograph of Yeats seated in his library on front wrap, and reproduction of Augustus John's portrait of the poet on p.2. On the first page is the facsimile, captioned ' "A Song," from W. B.

The Arrow.

Author: 
W. B. Yeats, editor [The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, Ireland; Irish literature]
Publication details: 
Vol.1, No.2. 24 November 1906. [Hely's, Limited, Printers, Dame St., and Acme Works, Dame Court, Dublin.]
£350.00

4to, 8 unpaginated pages. In original grey printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Neat vertical fold. On worn and foxed paper, with rust to staples and slight wear and chipping to wraps. The second of the five issues to appear in Yeats's lifetime. (In the 'W. B. Yeats Commemoration Number' of Summer 1939, 'The Arrow' was described as 'an occasional, a very occasional, publication by the Abbey Theatre', with only five numbers to have appeared up to that point: 'two in 1906, one in 1907, 1908 and 1909') Contains three articles signed 'W. B.

Beltaine. An Occasional Publication. The Organ of the Irish Literary Theatre. Edited by W. B. Yeats.

Author: 
W. B. Yeats, editor; George Moore, Edward Martyn, W. B. Yeats, Alice Milligan, and Augusta Gregory, contributors [Irish literature]
Publication details: 
Number Two. February 1900. London: At the Sign of the Unicorn, VII Cecil Court, Saint Martin's Lane, W.C.
£200.00

4to, 28 + [iv] pp. In original buff printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with rust to staples causing detached covers. Nicely printed. Advertisements on the last four pages and three sides of the wraps.

Dana. An Irish Magazine of Independent Thought.

Author: 
Stephen Gwynn, Edward Dowden, George Moore, F. Hugh O'Donnell, John Eglinton, Hon. W. Gibson, contributors [Irish literature; Ireland]
Publication details: 
No.3. July 1904. Publishers: Hodges, Figgis & Co., Ltd. Grafton Street, Dublin; David Nutt, 57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C.
£50.00

12mo, 32 pp (paginated 65-96). Stapled. In original grey printed wraps. On aged and foxed paper, in worn wraps. Closed tears to last leaf and back wrap, which carries tape from postage. Contains 'The Policy of the Irish Party' by Stephen Gwynn, 'A Sunday in July (Poem)' by 'Professor Dowden', 'Moods and Memories, IV' by George Moore, 'The Facts of the Churchbuilding Question in Ireland' by F. Hugh O'Donnell, 'On Going to Church' by John Eglinton, 'On the Possibility of a Thought Revival in Ireland' and 'Hon. W. Gibson'.

The Dublin Magazine. A Quarterly Review of Literature, Science and Art. [Featuring 'Diarmuid and Grania. A Play in Three Acts. By George Moore and W. B. Yeats. Now first printed with an introductory note by William Becker'.]

Author: 
Seumas O'Sullivan, editor [George Moore; W. B. Yeats]
Publication details: 
April-June 1951. [Printed by Alex. Thom & Co. Ltd., Dublin.]
£20.00

4to, x + 64 pp. In original grey printed wraps. In fair condition: on aged paper, with slightly dog-eared with a little creasing and a couple of short closed tears at rear. In lightly-worn wraps. Becker's introduction to 'Diarmuid and Grania', dated 'Oxford, November, 1950', covers pp.1-4, with the play itself on pp.5-41. This is followed by 'Dramatic Commentary' (not on the play) by A. J. Leventhal on pp.42-44, 'Art Notes' by Edward Sheehy on pp.45-46 and book reviews on pp.47-64.

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'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Gilbert Parker.') to 'Mr Anderson'.

Author: 
Sir Gilbert Parker [Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker] (1862-1932), Canadian novelist and British politician [early cinema]
Publication details: 
5 April 1922; on letterhead of 24 Portman Square, [London] W.1.
£28.00

4to, 1 p. On aged, worn paper with small area of loss at head (not affecting text). He will be 'pleased to act on the Committee to judge of the stories for filming', and is glad that 'the work will not be onerous'. In a postscript gives the version of his name he wishes given for announcing ('Right Hon. Sir Gilbert Parker Bt.'). According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, no fewer than sixteen of Parker's novels were filmed. As head of British propaganda in America, 1914-1916, Parker had a direct involvement with the medium.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Bernard Partridge.') to 'Miss Smith'.

Author: 
Bernard Partridge [Sir John Bernard Partridge] (1861-1945), English cartoonist and illustrator, best-known for his work for 'Punch'
Publication details: 
24 January 1897 ('M.dccc.xc.vij: | jan: xxiv.'); on letterhead of 11 Marlborough Road, St John's Wood, [London] N.W.
£56.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Attractive red letterhead, in the Arts and Crafts style. The writings she referred to in a previous letter have not come. 'You probably forgot to enclose them. I expect to read some of the papers in the days when I look in the P[all]. M[all]. G[azette].' He asks her to give him 'an idea of what the publisher proposes to spend on the illustrations, and also the size of them, and the style - pen & ink, or "wash".' He has heard news of her 'from Welsh, Ethel Johnson's husband, who is with me at the Haymarket'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Rose Kingsley') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Rose Kingsley [Rose Georgina Kingsley], author and daughter of Rev. Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) ['Lucas Malet', pen name of her sister the novelist Mary St Leger Kingsley (1852-1931)]
Publication details: 
16 November [no year]; on letterhead of 40 Sloane Street, [London] S.W.
£56.00

16mo, 2 pp. On first leaf of bifolium. Mourning border. She has just received his letter, 'forwarded through Mr Fisher Unwin'. 'I am not "Lucas Malet" - but I am forwarding the letter to her. She is my sister - | Mrs. William Harrison | Clovelly Rectory | Bideford | North Devon'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Henry Norman') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Henry Norman (1858-1939), English journalist and Liberal politician (as editor of the Daily Chronicle) [Maurice Maeterlinck]
Publication details: 
22 March 1895; on letterhead of The Daily Chronicle, 12 Salisbury Square, Fleet Street.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Blank second leaf of bifolium bearing traces of previous mount. He is obligedfor the 'kind invitation to meet Maeterlinck. It will give me great pleasure to lunch with you at the National Liberal Club on Tuesday at 12.30.'

Autograph letters signed (x 6) to Ralph Lewis, author of "Scene in Sussex: a fresh look at the county" and others

Author: 
Esther Meynell
Publication details: 
1943-1944.
£100.00

Author. She discusses work in progress (the County Book Sussex), past work (on Lincoln), Lewis's writings and activities, the effects of the War, and life in Ditchling, especially her "new-old cottage". In the final letter there is a postscript: "Yes, Edward Johnston is a loss - he wrote the best book there is on Lettering & was a real master-craftsman in his own line". [Johnston had followed his pupil , Eric Gill, to Ditchling.] Six items,

Autograph note signed to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Flora Annie Steel
Publication details: 
no date
£35.00

Novelist (1847-1929). She is obviously writing to an editor of a periodical saying: "The terms are lower than I get elsewhere, but as you ask me to write on a subject for which I am desirous of the widest possible audience I will write you an essay of 4,000 to 4,200 words for your October number; that is, you shall have it on Sept.6." Her postscript: "I seldom find it necessary to type my manuscript".

Two autograph letters signed and one typed letter signed, to Mrs Roscoe, secretary of the Society of Women Journalists

Author: 
Ursula Bloom
Publication details: 
ALSs undated, TLS 18 April 1932
£50.00

Novelist. 4pp., 8vo and 4to, edges sl. fire and water damaged, no significant loss. She responds to an invitation to give a talk. She likes the suggested theme of Mistakes many of us Novelists make". She then gives thanks for hospitality at talk. Three items,

Shakespearian and Dramatic Catalogue [including books from the libraries of Ellen Terry and Henry Arthur Jones]

Author: 
P. J. & A. E. Dobell, booksellers, 77 Charing Cross Road [Shakespeare; Ellen Terry; Henry Arthur Jones]
Publication details: 
1930. No. 362. Printed by Robt. Stockwell, Baden Place, Borough, London.
£100.00

8vo, 72 pp. Stapled and unbound. Complete. On aged paper. The outer leaves are worn and coming apart at the spine. Otherwise the item is sound and tight. 1976 items. Items 783 to 883 concern 'the Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy'. Items 888 to 893 are 'Books from the Library of the late Dame Ellen Terry.' ('Only a few Books from her Library were sold, and Association Books are very difficult to obtain.'). Items 894 to 982 are 'Books on the Drama and Shakespeare, from the library of Henry Arthur Jones'. Items 983 to 1976 are 'Books on the Drama'.

Engraved copperplate Certificate, completed in manuscript and signed by E. Gilbert Highton, with a long 'Private note' by him, notifying Williamson of his election to Fellowship in the Royal Society of Literature.

Author: 
Edward Gilbert Highton, Fellow and Secretary, Royal Society of Literature [George Charles Williamson (1858-1942), writer on art and historian of Guildford; George Bell & Sons]
Publication details: 
3 January 1890, on letterhead of the Royal Society of Literature.
£28.00

4to bifolium (leaf dimensions 26 x 20.5 cm). The notification certificate is on the recto of the first leaf, and Highton's letter is on the recto of the second. Versos of both leaves blank. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with 5 cm closed tear to margin of second leaf caused by removal of letter from stub, traces of which still adhere to the verso of the second leaf. The certificate is tastefully printed in black, with the Society's crest in red in the top left-hand corner.

Autograph Note Signed

Author: 
Berthold Auerbach, German Jewish novelist and poet
Publication details: 
No place [docketed April 1876]
£100.00

One page, 8vo, 10 lines including bold signature. Not translated. Scan on request.

Manuscript notebook, titled 'Anecdotes &c.', containing several hundred humorous stories (transcribed and 'Related'), with a few newspaper and magazine cuttings.

Author: 
Victorian notebook filled with humorous anecdotes [A. S. S. Sidney, Wobaston House, Wolverhampton; nineteenth-century English social history; jokes; humour]
Publication details: 
English. Dated between 1866 and 1911.
£150.00

Quarto (leaf dimensions roughly 19.5 x 15.5 cm). Ruled with twenty-eight lines to the page. Written in a close, neat hand, covering the first ninety-one pages of the notebook. Loosely inserted are twelve pages containing a further thirty stories, on three bifoliums each headed 'Anecdotes &c'. In black-leather half-binding, marbled boards. Good and tight, with text clear and complete on lightly aged paper. Calligraphic design printed on front free endpaper. A charming collection, casting amusing and entertaining light on nineteenth-century English social history.

Autograph Note [to Jerdan?].

Author: 
Barry Cornwall' [Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874)], English poet and friend of Charles Lamb [William Jerdan, editor of the Literary Gazette]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [London; circa 1820?].
£38.00

On upper half of a piece of quarto paper, unevenly torn to make a piece roughly 11 x 18.5 cm. Fair: on aged paper. Part of address from previous letter to 'W. Jerdan <...> | 267 Strand <...>' on reverse, which is docketed 'Procter | Miss Proby | Cornwalls poems'. Reads 'I inclose you a note left here for you | George says he will review the book for you next week - in the meantime give a flourish in your notice - 'The time does not admit of doing just to the vol. &c &c We are all a Party in this success -'.

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.

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'.

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 ('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.

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.

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