Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'G. L. M. Strauss') to Edward Draper.

Author: 
Gustave Louis Maurice Strauss (c.1807-1887), Anglo-Canadian writer and journalist, nicknamed 'The Old Bohemian' [James Robinson Planché [Planche] (1796–1880), playwright and herald]
Publication details: 
1878, 1880 and 1885.
£100.00
SKU: 6805

Letter One (12mo, 1 p; on creased, aged paper with closed tear at head): date (1878) illegible, on letterhead of the 'Office of "Tinsleys' Magazine," | 8, Catherine Street, Strand, W.C.' A most unusual way of declining an invitation. He thanks Draper for his kindness and is 'truly grieved' that he 'cannot come to-day - I gave my boots a holiday yesterday, which they want to pass with a worthy cobbler. I expected them back this morning, but they have grievously disappointed me - you see they are not respectable boots, and I am afraid the party to whom they are gone on a professional visit is rather given to dissipation'. Letter Two (5 June 1880, 2 Prospect Villas, < Brickington?>-on-Sea; 12mo, 2 pp; good): He hopes 'to be convalescent in another fortnight' and intends 'to return to the Charterhouse by the middle of thhe month'. Sends best wishes and thanks to named members of Draper's family, and comments on domestic news. 'Planché had lived his full span of life - He was 34 years older than I am - still it would have been <?> to me had he been spared another decennium or so - Alas! all flesh is grass which the scythe of the mower is unceasingly cutting down - May all our blades long be spared!' Letter Three (14 October 1885, 2 Inverness Terrace, Broadstairs, Kent; 12mo, 2 pp; good, on aged paper): He has 'been rather shaky of late and suffering greatly from sore eyes and <?> of sight'. He thanks Draper for sending 'Grattan Cooke's epistle': 'Pray do tell the dear old boy that it has given me great pleasure to find him still so spruce and brisk and so very much to the fore'. 'I have a notion that I may come up to town next week, when I <?> in an appearance at Vincent Square'. (Draper's home was at 60 Vincent Square.)