Literature

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.

Scri´bhinni´.

Author: 
Padraic H. Pearse [Padraic mac Piarais; Pha´draig mhic Phiarais]
Publication details: 
[Dublin] 1919.
£250.00

Original green cloth, 268pp, 8vo, corners bumped, covers marked, endpapers yellowed, contents good. First collected works [?]. Scarce: three copies listed by COPAC which also lists an edition (of the same book?) which it dates [1917 ("Dublin: Phoenix").

[Rutherford Mayne] The Troth. A Play in One Act

Author: 
Rutherford Mayne, pseud. [i.e. Samuel Waddell], Irish playwright.
Publication details: 
Dublin : Maunsel & Co., 1909
£50.00

First edition. Original green wraps, title in red, 14pp, 8vo, wraps frayed and sunned (or grubby) at edges, contents good. Scarce: COPAC lists two copies (BL and NLS).

The Story of Shane O'Neill, Hereditary Prince of Ulster

Author: 
"Ollamh"
Publication details: 
Sealy, Bryers & Walker, Dublin,
£50.00

88pp., 2pp. Publisher's Catalogue. Scarce: No copy on AddAll, and COPAC lists copies only at BL, Oxford, NLS. Original paper boards bound into modern green paper wraps with title label on front, restoring a copy with contents in good condition, but fragile, stained and damaged covers. Ownership inscription (signature only)  of Robert Lynd in Irish 

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 an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Emma Roberts, author, inc. "Hindustan" (1845).
Publication details: 
[19 Decr 1827 - date entered in pencil in another hand]
£125.00

Two pages, 8vo, good condition. She explains why she can't fulfil his wish that she receive his guests but looks forward to a visit to "Craven Street"., only postponed. Hhe has "written to Mr Pickering [publisher?] according to your instructions and shall feel obliged by the exertion of your influence in my behalf with him." She claims to be writing in great haste.

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'.

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.

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.

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."

Epigrams on Sappho and other famous Greek Lyric Poetesses Englished by G. R. Woodward, M.A. (sometime Scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge).

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1931.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 10 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 13.5 x 10 cm). Edition limited to 120 copies, of which this is No. 23. Good.

Five & Forty Examples of The Epigram Sepulchral turned out of Greek into English Verse by the Reverend G. R. Woodward, M.A.

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1931.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 20 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 13.5 x 10.5 cm). Edition limited to 120 copies, of which this is No. 103. Good, in slightly bumped wraps.

Gleanings from Ancient Olive-yards Greek & Roman by the Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham).

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
London: 'Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1928'.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 17.5 x 10.5 cm): Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 19 x 11.5 cm). Edition limited to 136 copies, of which this is No. 100. Good, in lightly worn and bumped wraps.

Greek Witticisms told in English Verse by the Rev. G. R. Woodward.

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Printed at 48 West Hill, Highate, MCMXXIX [1929].
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 22 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 14 x 11 cm). Edition limited to 120 copies, of which this is No. 14. Good, with light crease to front wrap.

Tales of Sea-Sorrow from The Greek Anthology Englished by the Reverend G. R. Woodward, M.A.

Author: 
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) ['Rev. G. R. Woodward, Mus. Doc. (Sometime Vicar of Walsingham)'] [private printing; Highgate Village; Walsingham]
Publication details: 
Privately Printed at 48 West Hill, Highgate Village, 1931.
£15.00

12mo (dimensions of leaf 12.5 x 9.5 cm): 19 pp. Stitched. In original brown printed card wraps (dimensions of wrap 13 x 10 cm). Edition limited to 136 copies, of which this is No. 97. Good.

No´ra Marcuis Big,agus Sge´alta eile.

Author: 
Pa´draic O´ Conaire
Publication details: 
I nA´t Cliat Cualann, Connrad na Gaedilge, 1909.
£450.00

64pp., [12mo], original tan wraps restored (formerly detached and badly chipped, and recased in green paper wraps, staining and marking but contents mainly good. Title label on front mispelt (Marcus" for Marcuis"). Very scarce. I have found only one copy recorded (Harvard).

Studies. Being Number Two of the Tower Press Booklets Second Series

Author: 
Padraic Colum
Publication details: 
Dublin, 1907.
£75.00

50pp., 12mo, original printed grey wraps, chipped and marked, contents good.

Crabbed Youth and Age. A Little Comedy.

Author: 
Lennox Robinson
Publication details: 
G.P. Putnam's, London & New York, second printing (from inscription, February), 1924 (first printing also in 1924, January).
£120.00

Pp.38 [2], 8vo, original illustrated pink wraps, yapp edges chipped, contents good. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR to Sylvia Lynd, poet and reviewer: "Sylvia Lynd/ from Lennox/ Feb 1924." Original cast list on verso of last two pages.

Reminiscences of the Impressionist Painters (The Tower Press Booklets Number Three)

Author: 
George Moore
Publication details: 
Dublin: Maunsel & Co., MCMVI (1906).
£100.00

Pagination starts at p.9 (-48), preceded by endpaper, title, and 2pp. of text, [12mo], original illus. wraps, chipped, dulled, slightly marked, some wear to top and bottom of spine, contents good.

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.

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.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C R Hewitt') to Sewell Stokes.

Author: 
C. R. Hewitt (1901-1994) (Cecil Rolph Hewitt, who wrote under the pseudonym 'C. H. Rolph'), English policeman, journalist, editor and author [Francis Martin Sewell Stokes (1902-1979); G. W. Stonier]
Publication details: 
21 November 1957; 6 Liskeard Gardens, London, SE3, on New Statesman letterhead.
£45.00

8vo, 2 pp, 33 lines. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. An interesting letter, written by a former policeman to a former probation officer, on the subject of the latter's book 'Come to Prison: A Tour through British Prisons today' (Longmans, 1957), about which the former has written a negative review. Begins by praising Stokes' 'really generous letter, written at what cost in self-control I can only dimly imagine'. When Hewitt 'read the published review', he thought 'that it was still on the whole unfair'. 'I hate reviewing really, and am a bad reviewer.

Autograph Note Signed.

Author: 
Beryl Bainbridge (b.1932), English novelist
Beryl Bainbridge.
Publication details: 
After 1975.
£28.00
Beryl Bainbridge.

On one side of a piece of paper, dimensions 19.5 x 21 cm. Lightly creased. Presumably in response to a request for an autograph. Reads 'Is there a life before Death? | (slogan chalked on wall in Northern Ireland, 1975) | Yours sincerely | [signed] Beryl Bainbridge.' Firm sprawling signature.

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.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'James Knowles') to 'Lord Stratford de Redcliffe'.

Author: 
Sir James Knowles [Sir James Thomas Knowles] (1831-1908), architect and editor of 'The Nineteenth Century' [Stratford Canning, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe (1786-1880), British diplomat]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 22 September 1877, Milton Villa, West Hill, St Leonards on Sea. Letter Two: 16 October 1877, on letterhead of the Reform Club, London.
£80.00

Both letters good, on lightly aged paper. Both items concern Canning's article on 'International Relations' in the October 1877 issue of 'The Nineteenth Century'. Letter One (12mo, 4 pages, bifolium with mourning border). Knowles hopes Canning has received the proof of the article from the publishers Spottiswoodes. A judicious bit of sycophancy follows.

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'.

Castle Avon. By the author of "Emilia Wyndham," "Mordaunt Hall," etc. etc.

Author: 
Anon. [Anne Marsh (later Anne Marsh-Caldwell) (1791-1874)]
Publication details: 
London: Thomas Hodgson, 13, Paternoster-row. [Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.] [1855]
£56.00

12mo, 352 pp. In contemporary brown calf half-binding, with marbled boards and grey endpapers. Loose and foxed in worn binding.

Autograph Letter Signed to Edward Draper.

Author: 
Byron Webber, English novelist and journalist [The Sporting Gazette, London]
Publication details: 
15 September 1871; on letterhead of The Sporting Gazette, 135 Strand, London W.C.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Text complete and legible, on grubby and creased paper. Trace of grey paper mount adhering to blank verso of second leaf of bifolium. Crude caricature of a man's face in top left-hand corner of first page. Draper 'bolted from the Club last night' - Webber can 'guess the cause' - 'thereby depriving the committee of the unit necessary to form a quorum'. Had he not done so 'Marks would have shown you the drawing which he had brought down, finished, for your inspection.' Webber will 'bring it with me to the Circle to-morrow.

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