FLEET

Emerson’s novels have undergone a re-evaluation in recent years. The first six were republished by Quartet Books as ‘Rediscovered Classics’ in 2017, and in 2021 by Quadrant Books. ‘Books and Bookmen’ was one of a stable of seven London arts magazines owned by Philip Dosse (1925-1980) of Hansom Books. Emerson, who was the editor of the magazine at the time of Dosse’s suicide, has published an account of her time there: ‘Death of a Bookman’, Standpoint, October 2018.

The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and ‘Plays and Players’. 2pp, small 4to. Addressed to ‘Dear Philip Dossé’ [sic] and signed ‘Richard Ingrams’. He is enclosing ‘a rather rude review of the Clive James book for the June B & B’, and sends renewed apologies for missing the May issue. He will ‘do Thurber next’ and reminds Dosse that he still has ‘the biography of Thurber which you sent me many moons ago’: ‘Would it be too late to embrace that as well?’ He thanks him for ‘continuing to print the P.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. She thanks him for his note, adding 'Would this do?', and stating 'I will write my piece definitely by March 15th.' Signed 'Nora Beloff / NORA BELOFF'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, in which ‘deep professional commitment and mental toughness’ are said to be qualities whose possession he demonstrated ‘heroically’. On 8 x 5 cm piece of light blue-grey paper. Good large firm signature 'Beatty'. No other writing on page. In good condition, lightly aged.

A scarce item: no copies on WorldCat or JISC, nor at the Caird Library, National Martime Museum (though the latter does have a signed print of one of the illustrations). Twenty-six broadsheet pages, on news stock paper, in shiny paper covers printed in red, blue and brown. Filled with illustrations and topical advertisements for everything from corsetry to bicycles, from a full-page one on the inside front cover for ‘Brickwoods Jubilee Brew / 4d. per Small Bottle in Public Bars’, to one on the back cover reading ‘On Review / United Ales & Stout Are Supreme’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. From Taylor’s papers. Addressed to ‘Tom Taylor Esq’. Begins: ‘Dear Mr Taylor / I have profited by your kind instructions, & enrolled myself on the List of the Arundel Society.’ He finds the collection ‘well worth seeing’, and ‘the Van Eyck in particular strikes me as being the most wonderful example of successful reproduction in Chromo Lithography that I have yet seen’. Signed ‘J Walter’. From Taylor’s papers.

See his father?s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 16mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. The recipient?s full name is not give. Signed ?Walter H Pollock?. The ?Ajax business? referred to in the letter is the performance of the first of the Cambridge Greek plays, organised by the archaeologist Sir Charles Walston [formerly Waldstein] (1856-1927).

A significant figure, unaccountably unrepresented in the Oxford DNB. An interesting item, casting light on the way business was conducted in the world of nineteenth-century newspaper proprietorship. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. The recipient, evidently a fellow newspaper proprietor, is not named, and the letter is signed ?William Ingram?.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Twenty-two lines of text. In good condition, lightly discoloured and worn. Folded for postatge. The addressee’s name is unclear. Signed ‘Clement Scott’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with four small gummed squared as mounts adhering to the four corners. Folded for postage. Large firm signature and handwriting. Reads: 'Dear Miss Thompson / The piece is not mine and I am sorry I cannot inform you to whom the acting rights, if any, belong. / Your sincerely / Geo R Sims'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of mount adhering to inner margin. Folded once for postage. Reads 'My dear Miss Stuart / I don't think Mr. Bridges brings us much forrider with Keats. Many thanks for the article but I am a little disappointed that his criticism seems so flat. I return your paper with many thanks - / Every yours very truly / Robert H Hutton'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters closely written. Both folded for postage. The letters concern the following statement in the Spectator, 6 February 1875: ‘Rumour says that Sir William Harcourt has ascertained from his friend, Mr. Disraeli, that while he will treat the Marquis of Hartington with all the respect due to the leader of a great party, he could not have accorded that deference to Mr. Forster. If rumour does not speak falsely, we could wish that the meeting of the Reform Club had received that very significant message.’ ONE (9 March 1875): 4pp, 12mo. Fifty-seven lines.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On the front cover of a 12 x 7 cm envelope, from which the seal has been torn away on the reverse. Otherwise in very good condition. A pleasing piece of calligraphy, with the word ‘Private’ centred and underlined at the head, and the address to ‘The Honble. Spencer Ponsonby. / Foreign Office’ across the central band, with the signature at bottom left: ‘Alaric Watts.’ See Image.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium, the second docketed ‘Mr. Delane / April 6/59 / Introd. Mr Wimpore Cooke - Times Correspt in China -’. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Addressed to ‘The Earl of Clarendon’ and signed ‘John T. Delane’. Reads: ‘My dear Lord, / I should be much obliged if you would receive the bearer, Mr.

See his entry, and hers, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Addressed to ‘The Lady Theresa Lewis’. Reads: ‘Mr Delane regrets sincerely that a previous engagement will prevent him from having the honour of waiting upon Sir G. Cornewall and Lady Theresa Lewis on Thursday the 13th. In 1844 Lady Theresa married her second husband, the future Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), her first having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister. (1800-1842)

See the entries for Cox and Tuckwell in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium blind-stamped with the device of the Conservative Club. Addressed to ‘Rev P [sic] Tuckwell / College School / Taunton’, and signed ‘Edwd Wm Cox’. In good condition, on aged paper. Folded twice for postage. He begins: ‘Dr Sir / It gives me very great pleasure to aid the fund of the College School. After its long hybernation 43 years ago, I was the first pupil received on its revival. & within its walls I obtained the larger portion of my education, following the then master, (Rev H Forster) to Oxford.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the autograph album of the novelist George Meredith's daughter Marie Eveleen (‘Mariette’; 1871-1933), later the wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. 1p, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, laid down on a part of a leaf from the album. Neatly written and centred on the page. Reads: ‘With kind regards / from your fathers friend / James Payn / Oct 31/91.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. He is pleased that Stuart is 'coming along on March 15 to talk to the journalism students, and tell them from a practical point of view what they have to expect when they make a start on a good provincial newspaper'. He agrees with Stuart's plan to 'emphasise that Fleet Street is not the only place in the world', his own view being that 'the best traditions of British journalism are still enshrined in the provincial press'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The six items - written in the semi-retirement that followed Escott's breakdown in 1885 (Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Randolph Churchill took up a subscription for him) - are in good condition, on lightly aged paper. A total of 12pp, 12mo. Closely written in a well-nigh illegible hand. All six letters are addressed to ‘My dear Sir’ and signed ‘T H S Escott’. Considering the execrable nature of the handwriting, it is ironic that the main topic would appear to be the supplying by Escott of autographs for the recipient’s collection.

See Hutton's entry in the Oxford DNB, together with that of the recipient Sir Lovelace Tomlinson Stamer (1829-1908), Anglican Bishop of Shrewsbury. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper, with slight smudging on the first page. With two folds for postage. Addressed to ‘The Revd Sir Lovelace T Stamer Bart’ and signed ‘R H Hutton’. Twenty-five lines of text in a hand that must surely have proved as much of a challenge to Hutton’s compositors as to present-day readers.

According to Delane’s entry in the Oxford DNB, he settled ‘from about 1847 at 16 Serjeants' Inn, Temple’. The addressee appears to be ‘W. Forsyth Esq’, and is named in the letter as a brother of the Conservative politician William Forsyth (1812-1899), who took silk in 1857, and hence also of the diplomat Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth (1827-1886), both of whom have ODNB entries. 2pp, 12mo, with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded twice for postage, in the neat remains of a windowpane mount.

See Gambier’s entry in the Oxford DNB. He served during capture of Charleston during American Revolutionary War, at the Glorious First of June, and commanded at Battle of Copenhagen and Battle of the Basque Roads. He was First Naval Lord, three times: 1795-1801, 1804-6 and 1807-8. Henslow was Surveyor to the Navy, 1784-1806, and Hope was Deputy Comptroller of the Navy, 1795-1801.

A son of Sir George Edward Knox, Gordon Daniell Knox was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, before going into journalism. He served as deputy editor of the Times of India, and was the author of several works of popular science. The letter and questionnaire are on separate pieces of paper, pinned together. Each 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: Circular letter, 9 November 1909.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. A very good facsimile of a typed letter, with the main text in black, some in red and the facsimile signature 'Henry W. Nevinson' in light blue. Names of Nevinson as President, E. M. Forster as Past-President, and dozens of Vice-Presidents in left-hand margin, including Aldous Huxley, A. A. Milne, J. B. Priestley, H. G. Wells and Rebecca West. Addressed to 'Dear Sir', the letter sets out the history of the organization, appealing for 'support for its activities'.

See the entries on Robert and Sylvia Lynd, and Clement Shorter, in the Oxford DNB. (Shorter’s first wife, the Irish nationalist poet Dora Mary Shorter (née Sigerson), had died in 1918.) Both items are in good condition, lightly aged. Both 1p, 12mo, and each folded once for postage. ONE: SL to CS, 18 January 1922. Signed 'Sylvia Lynd'. Begins: 'My dear Clement, I hear that you have a little daughter. Many many congratulations & good wishes. It is very nice to know that you are so happy.' She turns to her own family: ‘We are all well down here & very busy. Sheila & B. J.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged; folded for postage. Addressed ‘To / A. Williams Esqre.’ from ‘Edmund Yates.’ Written in purple ink. Reads ‘Dear Sir / I am much obliged to you for your politeness in forwarding me the extract from the Liverpool Mercury. / Faithfully your’s, [sic] / Edmund Yates.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is a nice piece of printed ephemera relating to the man described in his Guardian obituary as ‘the dominant cartoonist of the western world’. In 1937 Goebbels had told Lord Halifax that Low’s cartoons were harming Anglo-German relations, and after the war it was revealed that his name was in the ‘black book’ of individuals to be ‘liquidated’ on German conquest of Britain. In good condition, lightly aged.Small 4to bifolium printed in brown ink on thick wove paper.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, together with those of his uncles and other members of the newspaper dynasty of which he was a member. The recipient Philip Dosse was the proprietor of the London publishers Hansom Books. Beginning in 1950 with ‘Dance and Dancers’, Dosse built up a stable of seven monthly arts magazines, produced from offices in Artillery Mansions, London, the most influential of which were ‘Books and Bookmen’, ‘Plays and Players’ and ‘Films and Filming’. An elusive figure, Dosse certainly merits a full-length study.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Mr Keary, / Enclosed is for 1000th Number of Pearson’s Weekly. It is not what I wanted to do for you, but illness and other interruptions have spoiled my work for the last two months. So please reject if necessary. / Faithfully yours / J. J. Bell’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Dear Burdett’ and signed ‘J Bone’. He will let him know if he hears of anything with regard to Burdett’s ‘young friend’, ‘but one hears so rarely now of newspaper openings, as everyone is holding on tight, and there are so many experienced men on the street’. He is sending Burdett’s note ‘on to Manchester in case there should ever be an opportunity there’.