Substantial Autograph Letter Signed ('Frederick Niven') from the Canadian novelist Frederick John Niven to the Irish journalist and essayist Robert Lynd, explaining his ill health and praising Lynd's writing.

Author: 
Frederick Niven [Frederick John Niven] (1878-1944), novelist from British Columbia, Canada, born in Chile of Scottish parents [Robert Lynd (1879-1949), Irish journalist and essayist]
Publication details: 
Lorenza, Combe Martin, North Devon. 26 December 1916.
£160.00
SKU: 13288

4pp., 4to. Fair, on lightly aged and creased paper, with a few closed tears. The letter begins: 'Dear Lynd: I have been very ill and after two months in bed and an introduction to what Marley called "the thick, sweet smell of chloroform" I have been sent down here to get better - with the word of specialist and doctor that when I am well again I shall be better than I have been for a long time. This I write because I have often thought of writing to tell you how much I relish your papers. I have often wished that you would collect them - in a kind of Retrospective Reviews volume.' He discusses Omar Khayyam ('I remember once Andrew Lang was annoyed that there were people who thought Omar would serve as their classic as well as Homer.') before returning to Lynd's work. 'I cut out those papers of yours when I see them - and just now, when there seems such a dearth of work that shows any feeling for that big - and as I think immensely valuable - part of writing of any kind, when people are writing so earnestly, I wish you could make your work a criticism in the news.' After a reference to Hall Caine he continues: 'I daresay it will please you to know of one more who always reads an article with your name at the top of it'. He apologises for his letter: 'the news in it are very slapdashedly picked up! - but it will convey to you what I want it to convey - crawling back to this world from that other (which was not a bad one either I assure you; it was a very wonderful place when I was at my worst) and finding too little of what - of what I can't understand how people get along without. It is in your work. Thanks for it.' According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, 'In 1899, because of lung trouble, Niven travelled to British Columbia, Canada, where he regained his health and led an energetic outdoor life. On his return to Glasgow he began a career in journalism. He moved to England and his first novel, The Lost Cabin Mine, appeared in 1908. [...] Found unfit for military service, Niven spent the First World War in London, working for a time in the War Office under the novelist John Buchan. In 1920 he returned to Canada with his wife to settle on the shores of Kootenay Lake, near Nelson, British Columbia, and became a full-time novelist.' He has been described as 'British Columbia's first professional man of letters and the first significant literary figure of the Kootenays'. From the Lynd papers.