Literature

[‘Edna Lyall’ (Ada Ellen Bayly), novelist and suffragist.] Autograph Signature on inscription.

Author: 
‘Edna Lyall’ [Ada Ellen Bayly] (1857-1903), English novelist and suffragist
Lyell
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£25.00
Lyell

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. Clearly written in response to a request for an autograph. On 11.5 x 5.5 piece of wove paper, cut from an album. In good condition. Reads: ‘Yours very truly / Ada Ellen Bayly / “Edna Lyall.” ’.

[‘Heinemann do not hope to make a lot of money out of me’: Olivia Manning, novelist.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to ‘Mr. Degenhardt’, regarding his review of her second novel, and approaching the BBC regarding his work on Goethe.

Author: 
Olivia Manning [married name Olivia Mary Smith] (1908-1980), English novelist [A. H. Degenhardt]
Manning
Publication details: 
15 and 22 May 1949; the first from 106 Baker Street, W1 [London], the second from the Unicorn Hotel, Stow-in-the-Wold, Gloucestershire.
£250.00
Manning

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The letters concern Manning’s second novel, ‘Artist among the Missing’ (1949). Both in fair condition, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Both 2pp, 12mo, and both signed ‘Olivia Manning’. ONE (15 May 1949): Twenty-four lines of text. She thanks him for his review of her book in the Hendford Herald: ‘I feel you have understood the point & purpose of the book a great deal more deeply than most of the regular reviewers who dealt with it for the literary weeklies’.

[John Masefield, Poet Laureate.] Autograph Card, ordering a book from a booksellers’ list.

Author: 
John Masefield (1878-1967), Poet Laureate and author
Masefield
Publication details: 
Pinbury Park, Cirencester. No date.
£80.00
Masefield

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. In the following transcript, the parts in Masefield’s autograph are in square brackets, and the first printed sentence (‘I [...] letter.’) has been scored through: ‘PINBURY PARK, / CIRENCESTER. / Dear [Sirs,] / I thank you for you letter. / [I shall be obliged if you will send me No 98 of your list / Du Maurier. Trilby / London, 1895.] / With all good wishes, / Yours sincerely, / John Masefield.’ (Note that this ‘signature’ is printed.) See image.

[Robbie Ross; Oscar Wilde; Nigel de Grey; Bletchley Park & Heinemann] Autograph Note Signed Robert Ross to Nigel de Grey (Heinemann's, Eminent De-Coder) giving his response to the end of his case against Crosland, Lord Alfred Douglas's friend .

Author: 
Robert Ross (Robbie [Robert Baldwin Ross (25 May 1869 – 5 October 1918) was a Canadian-British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde
Wilde
Publication details: 
40 Half Moon Street, W. [London], 21 July 1914.
£500.00
Wilde

Letter, basically three lines, short but significant, cr.8vo, crumpled, fold marks, text clear and complete. See Image. . Dear Nigel de Grey | How very kind of you to write to me. Both friend & stranger have done their best to break my fall. & I have no regret to complain, but I rather collapsed after the verdict. | Most surely yours, | Robert Ross. Note: A, Douglas and his friend Crosland began a campaign of libel against Robert Ross. Ross v. Crosland April-June 1914 Following a long campaign of harassment, Ross finally went to court.

[James Montgomery, Scottish hymn writer, poet, editor and abolitionist.] Signed Autograph Inscription to John Holland of Sheffield Park.

Author: 
James Montgomery (1771-1854), Scottish hymn writer, poet and editor, based in Sheffield, abolitionist and campaigner against child exploitation [John Holland of Sheffield Park]
Montgomery
Publication details: 
27 October 1821.
£65.00
Montgomery

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of irregular sheet of blue-grey paper, roughly landscape 12mo, evidently used as a cover to a package. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. In Montomery’s untidy hand, at foot, with a fragment of a red wax seal: ‘With J Montgomerys respects / and a Volume of the / Sheffd Register & the / 1793-4 / Oct. 27. 1821 [seal]’. Above this, neatly, in another hand: ‘Mr. John Holland / Sheffield Park. / To the care of Mr. James Montgomery, / Hawkshead, Sheffield / Paid.’

[‘One like me who spends half his life wandering about’: Hilaire Belloc, poet and author.] Two Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter signed in his name, to Col. Oldham of Wellington, regarding his stay with him while giving a lecture.

Author: 
Hilaire Belloc [Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc] (1870-1953), poet and author [Col. F. H. L. Oldham of Overley Hall, near Wellington]
Hilaire Belloc
Publication details: 
ONE: ALS, 5 October 1922; on letterhead of Kings Land, Shipley, Horsham. TWO: TLS, 11 October 1922; on lettehead of the Reform Club, Pall Mall, S.W.1. [London] THREE: ALS, 15 October 1922; on letterhead of Crosby Hall, Blundellsands, Liverpool.
£165.00
Hilaire Belloc

See Belloc’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is Colonel Frederick Hugh Langston Oldham (1876-1965), D.S.O., D.L., of Overley Hall near Wellington. The three items are in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: ALS, 5 October 1922. 1p, 4to. With mourning border. Folded twice. Giving details of the train from Paddington he is proposing to take to Wellington for ‘[t]he lecture’ on 13 October. ‘It is most kind of you to have asked me to stay with you & I am much looking forward to it.’ TWO: TL, 11 October 1922. 1p, 8vo. Folded twice. The signature ‘H.

[George du Maurier, novelist and Punch cartoonist, creator of ‘Svengali’.] Autograph Signature and valediction cut from letter.

Author: 
George du Maurier [George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier] (1834-1896), novelist and Punch cartoonist, creator of the character ‘Svengali’ in his novel ‘Trilby’; grandfather of Daphne du Maurier
Geo du Maurier
Publication details: 
26 April 1886. No place.
£25.00
Geo du Maurier

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On rectangular slip of paper, roughly 11 x 3 cm, cut from the end of a letter. In fair condition, lightly aged, slightly spotted and laid down along one edge on thicker piece of paper. In an elegant calligraphic hand he writes: ‘Believe me / Yours truly / Geo du Maurier / Apr. 26, 83’. The ‘eo’ of the ‘Geo’ of the signature is presented as a stylish squiggle, looking a little like a ‘W’. See image.

['Bert Thomas', British political cartoonist.] Copy of his book 'Close-ups Through a childs eyes / by Bert Thomas', with label bearing autograph inscription.

Author: 
‘Bert Thomas’ [Herbert Samuel Thomas MBE (1883-1966)], British political cartoonist who contributed to Punch magazine and created British propaganda posters during the two world wars
'Bert Thomas'
Publication details: 
No date (circa 1943). 'A Tuck Book / Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd / Copyright Printed in England'.
£120.00
'Bert Thomas'

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A scarce item: no copy in the British Library and the only copies on COPAC at Cambridge and the V & A. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight creasing to outer edge of front cover, on which a label has been laid down, carrying an inscription (repaired at one corner with archival tape) by Thomas: ‘From one child to another - Love and I cant thank you enough for everything - I’ll look forward to Janiuary - Muh love I’ll writer later’. A stapled pamphlet in brown card wraps. 16pp, landscape 8vo.

[‘A whole career lies between the quotations’: V. S. Pritchett, English writer and critic.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Victor Pritchett’), submitting his ‘Turgenev’ (i.e. the typescript of his ‘Gentle Barbarian’) to his editor ‘Mr Higgins’.

Author: 
V. S. Pritchett [Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett] (1900-1997), English writer and literary critic
Pritchett
Publication details: 
11 May 1977. On letterhead of 12 Regents Park Terrace, London N.W.1.
£56.00
Pritchett

Pritchett’s ‘The Gentle Barbarian: The Life and Work of Turgenev’ appeared in 1977; the present letter is clearly addressed to his editor at the book’s publishers Chatto & Windus. Pritchett’s entry in the Oxford DNB describes his handwriting as ‘legendarily ugly and difficult to decipher’, but the present example is no worse than an average hand. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Two fold lines. He is sending his ‘Turgenev’, and explains: ‘As you will see I have marked passages from the book in purple crayon, and my own summary bridges in green.

['The tarn is metres above the level my legs would take me': Norman Nicholson, Cumbrian poet.] Typed Letter Signed to ‘Eric’, commenting wistfully on two correspondents pointing out a ‘simple slip’ in Hunter Davies’ ‘Walk Around the Lakes’.

Author: 
Norman Nicholson [Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson] (1914-1987), Cumbrian poet [Millom, Cumbria; Lake District; Hunter Davies]
Nicholson
Publication details: 
25 September 1981; Millom, Cumbria.
£56.00
Nicholson

1p, landscape 8vo. In fair condition; a little creased. Folded twice. Nicholson’s signature is a stylized squiggle, and there are a few minor autograph corrections to the typescript. The letter begins: ‘Dear Eric / I think the correspondent is probably right and that it is Windermere and not Coniston Water which can be seen from near Stickle Tarn.’ Nicholson cannot speak from experience, ‘as the tarn is metres above the level my legs would take me, but the map does seem to confirm what the two correspondents say’.

[A Dickens Fellowship dinner in wartime London.] Autograph Signatures of James Agate, Walter Dexter, Humphrey House and Lewis B. Frewer to menu for dinner celebrating the ‘130th Anniversary of the Birthday of Charles Dickens’.

Author: 
James Agate (1877-1947), diarist and theatre critic; Walter Dexter; Humphrey House, Louis B. Frewer, Superintendent of Rhodes House Library, Oxford; Dickens Fellowship
Dickens
Publication details: 
‘Holborn Restaurant [London] 7th February 1942’.
£60.00
Dickens

It seems extraordinary that they were able to pull this off during wartime restrictions, and Dickens would have relished the shabby-genteelness of it. The menu is shakily printed in a faded blue on a 10 x 16.5 cm piece of cream card, with rounded edges. At foot: ‘Holborn Restaurant 7th February 1942’. The menu is headed: ‘THE DICKENS FELLOWSHIP / 130th Anniversary of the / Birthday of Charles Dickens / Chairman: WALTER DEXTER, Vice-President / Speakers: HUMPHREY HOUSE, JAMES AGATE’.

[William Taylor Adams (‘Oliver Optic’), author and academic, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.] Autograph Signature (‘William T Adams / “Oliver Optic”’, in attractive copperplate.

Author: 
William T. Adams [William Taylor Adams, pseudonym ‘Oliver Optic’] (1822-1897), academic, author of more than one hundred books, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Adams
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£30.00
Adams

Adams was the author of more than one hundred books. He was criticised by Louisa May Alcott for his use of slang and depiction of ‘low’ characters such as bootblacks, elements which make him sound like a proto-Mark Twain, and should attract renewed attention today. Without date or place. On 4.5 x 9.5 cm slip of wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of mount adhering to blank reverse.

[Swinburne] Front of Postal Envelope, address in Swinburne's hand.

Author: 
A.C. Swinburne [Algernon Charles Swinburne ( 1837 – 1909), poet, playwright, novelist, and critic.]
Swinburne
Publication details: 
[Postmark] Putney AP[ril] 11 [18]81.
£50.00
Swinburne

Postal Envelope Front, 11.5 x 9.5, black-bordered, postmark partially obscured by minor damage, good condition. See image

[‘Clemence Dane’, i.e. Winifred Ashton, playwright, novelist and Oscar-winning screenplay writer.] Typed Letter Signed discussing a misunderstanding of her book ‘Legend’, with inscribed photographic portrait.

Author: 
‘Clemence Dane’, nom de plume of Winifred Ashton (1888-1965), playwright, novelist and Oscar-winning screenplay writer [G. Ralton Barnard of York]
Clemence Dane
Publication details: 
TLS: 17 January 1922; on letterhead of 26 Castellain Mansions, Maida Vale, W.9. [London.] Photograph without date or place.
£120.00
Clemence Dane

See Ashton’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items in good condition, lightly aged, with evidence of mount to blank reverse of photograph. ONE: TLS. 17 January 1922. 1p, 12mo. Folded once. Signed ‘Clemence Dane’. Addressed to G. Railton Barnard, 6 The Crescent, York. She thanks him for his ‘interesting letter’: ‘If the same question had not already crept up once or twice, I should not have thought it possible for anyone so to misunderstand Legend, but I know people do, clear as I thought I had made it.’ Barnard is ‘absolutely right’: ‘Madala Grey is head over ears in love with her husband.

[Olga Novikoff, White Russian writer and journalist in Britain.] Autograph Signature and valediction from letter.

Author: 
Olga Novikoff [Olga Alekseevna Novikoff] (c.1842-1925), White Russian writer and journalist in Britain, author of ‘The M.P. for Russia’
Novikoff
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£30.00
Novikoff

On 11 x 6 cm piece of paper cut from letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Yours faithfully / Olga Novikoff.’

[‘Ellis Peters’, pseudonym of Edith Pargeter, author of the ‘Brother Cadfael’ crime novels.] Autograph Signature, with pseudonym: ‘Edith Pargeter. / ‘Ellis Peters’.’

Author: 
‘Ellis Peters’, pseudonym of Edith Mary Pargeter (1913-1995), author of the ‘Brother Cadfael’ crime novels
Ellis Peters
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£85.00
Ellis Peters

On one side of a 12.5 x 8.5 cm piece of thin white card. Clearly given in response to a request for an autograph. Written in a large somewhat old-fashioned hand, with ‘Edith Pargeter.’ centred towards the head of the page, and ‘‘Ellis Peters’.’ at bottom right. See image.

[Elaine Greene, Literary Agent, sister-in-law of Graham Greene] The small archive of mainly correspondence between Literary Agent and Author-Client.

Author: 
Elaine Greene (later Lady Greene)(1920-1987), Literary Agent, American-born sometime sister-in-law of novelist Graham Greene, married to his brother, Hugh Carleton Greene; [R.P. Lister, author]
Publication details: 
[1962-1969].
£220.00

One of the top [literary] agents in LondonThe extensive correspondence, business and personal, between Elaine Greene and Elaine Greene Literary Agency, and R.P. Lister [Richard Percival Lister], travel-writer, novelist, poet, contributor to periodicals, and eventually friend. He published extensively in the USA. as well as the UK.Elaine Greene to Lister: Twenty-five (25) Typed Letters and Notes Signed (Elaine Greene becomes a cordial Elaine), total 27pp., 8vo and 4to, 14 Dec. 1962-10 April 1969.

[‘The last production of the late Mr. Dutton Cook’.] Corrected Autograph Manuscript of Edward Dutton Cook’s last story ‘ “Columbines all of a Row” ’, completed within days of his death and published in 'Hood's Comic Annual'. Signed: ‘Dutton Cook’.

Author: 
Dutton Cook [Edward Dutton Cook] (1829-1883), author, journalist, artist, engraver, drama critic of the Pall Mall Gazette [Hood's Comic Annual]
Dutton Cook
Publication details: 
Undated, but written in 1883. Addressed in autograph at head: ‘Dutton Cook / 69 Gloucester Crescent. N.W’.
£250.00
Dutton Cook

For information on Cook see his biography in the Oxford DNB, which points out that the subtlety of his later fiction was lost on his contemporaries, being written in a style that ‘was not sufficiently sensational’ for the period. The present item is the complete text of the last thing Cook ever wrote: a story which appeared in the weeks following his death, in Hood’s Comic Annual for 1884 (London, 1883).

[Richard Wright Procter, Manchester poet.] Long Autograph Letter Signed (‘R. W. Procter.’) to C. W. Sutton, discussing the huntsman Tom Moody and Sir Edward Lugden, and describing how he once ‘watched hounds’ and ‘quaffed brown beer with huntsmen’.

Author: 
Richard Wright Procter (1816-1881), nineteenth-century Manchester author, poet, barber, circulating library proprietor [C. W. Sutton; Tom Moody, huntsman; Sir Edward Lugden, Conservative politician]
Proctor
Publication details: 
26 September 1870; 133 Long Millgate [Manchester].
£120.00
Proctor

See Procter’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition on lightly-aged paper. 85 lines of closely- and neatly-written text. He begins by thanking Sutton for ‘the welcome portrait of Sir Edward Lugden’. He gives an example of Lugden’s ‘happy election repartee’(a joke about ‘Lather’ and ‘the present price of “Soap”’), for which, if no other reason, he ‘deserves a niche in my tonsorial gallery’.

[Robert Southey, Poet] Holograph Addressed Envelope Only To | The Revd Edwin Sidney | Acle, | near | Norwich.

Author: 
Robert Southey (1774 – 1843), (Lake) Poet.
Southey
Publication details: 
No date.
£80.00
Southey

Piece of paper irregularly cut, c.11 x 6cm, tipped onto very slightly larger piece of paper. Docketed Southey the Poet in another hand. Sl stained, mainly good condition. See image. Sidney was apparently an autograph collector (see Googled entry Edwin Sidney of Acle on iCollector).

[John Wolcot, Peter Pindar; satirist] Two Letters [File copies?], Unsigned, from Wolcot to Henry Colburn, publisher [both docketed Sir Joshua Reynolds | sent to Colborn [sic] Bookseller

Author: 
John Wolcot, Peter Pindar (baptised 9 May 1738 – 14 January 1819), Satirist.
Pindar
Publication details: 
No place or date [trimmed]. Watermark Letter One 1809.
£250.00
Pindar

Total five pages, 8vo, trimmed (perhaps removing a place and date), closed tear on one fold, mainly good condition. This form of the letters (file copies?) was obviously in John Rope Rogers' mind in his Biographical Sketch, introducing Opie and His Works Being a Catalogue of 760 Pictures by John Opie [...] [1878]: The following letter of Dr. Wolcot's, indorsed,On Sir Joshua Reynolds; sent to Colborn, Book-seller was found in a collection of published and unpublished remains of Dr. Wolcot, which was sold at Puttick and Simpson's, May 17th, 1877.

[Nina Hamnett Annotation; Queen of Bohemia; Periodical] Wales 3

Author: 
Keidrych Rhys, Editor [Nina Hamnett]
Nina
Publication details: 
January: February: March, 1944.
£100.00
Nina

Printed wraps, advts back and front, pp.[1]-116, wraps dulled, stained and sl. worn, Contents in good condition, including Daniel Jones, Vernon Watkins, John Betjeman, Ruthven Todd. The phrase Nina Hamnett annotation is written top of front wrap by an unknown hand. See image (includes Contents).

[Charles Kingsley, John Bowring, Henry Rawlinson, T.H. Huxley and others] Fourteen (14) Signatures mainly of people of distinction. See image.

Author: 
Charles Kingsley, John Bowring, Henry Rawlinson, T.H. Huxley and others
Devonshire
Publication details: 
No place of date.
£320.00
Devonshire

Paper, 13 x 12cm, minor defects, apparently (from vestige of another signature at top) trimmed, remaining signatures clear, as follows: Charles Kingsley, C. St Davids, John Bowring, H[enry] Rawlinson, Egerton Ellesmere, Lyttelton, David Masson, T.H. Huxley, [Charles Nicholson?], J.W. Blakesley, W.S.W. Vaux, [J. Duffin Hardy?], J. Brewer, Devonshire. Presumably they were attending a meeting (event) of some sort of Club, perhaps the Athenaeum, but the presence of Devonshire at the bottom of the list suggests a gathering of the Devonshire Association.

[Antonia Fraser; International P.E.N.] Typed Agenda, heavily doodled by Lady Fraser, for a Meeting of the Executive Committee of the English Centre of International P.E.N.

Author: 
[Antonia Fraser] Antonia Fraser [Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser (née Pakenham; born 27 August 1932), author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction]
Antonia
Publication details: 
To be held at Dilke Street at 5.00 P.M. on Wednesday, 29th June 1983.
£125.00
Antonia

One page, sm. folio, fold marks, very small closed tears, basically good condition. The Agenda (typescript) includes: Apologies; Minutes of the Last Meeting, Matters Arising [...]; Date of next meeting; Candidates; Report of Meeting of Assembly of Delegates in Venice; Caracas Conference; Honorary Members in Prison; Death of Bela Menczer [...]; Any Other Business. Lady Fraser has put a tick or cross beside each item except Any Other Business.

[Charles Stuart Calverley] Full Signature and date only Charles Stuart Calverley.

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), poet and wit.
Calverley
Publication details: 
Feb. 1852 (no day given)
£25.00
Calverley

Full Signature, on possibly flyleaf of a book, 14.5 x 20cm, one edge rough (as removerd from book, ow good condition. See image.

[Eliza Conder, poet and abolitionist] Holograph Poem with quotation from St Mark's Gospel.

Author: 
Eliza Conder, poet and abolitionist, wife of Josiah Conder, editor, abolitionist, well-connected to Romantic authors of his day
Conder
Publication details: 
Watermark 1827.
£180.00
Conder

One page, folio, signs of extraction from album (left margin has residue of separation), good condition, in her calligraphic writing, good condition. She begins by quoting St Mark's Gospel, Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of, for a memorial fo her.

[Domhnall MacEacharn; Gaelic Poet] Autograph Lines in Gaelic signed 'Domhnall MacEacharn'.

Author: 
Domhnall MacEacharn [Donald MacKechnie]
Gaelic
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£56.00
Gaelic

Paper, 11 x 7cm, probably from an album (another signature on reverse (Florence Steel)), laid down on larger piece of paper, on the dingy side but text clear and apparently complete. Docketed Donald MacKechnie | Gaelic Poet.

[Israel Gollancz; Scholar] Bold Autograph Signature Only, Israel Gollancz. See image.

Author: 
Israel Gollancz [Sir Israel Gollancz (1863 – 1930), scholar of early English literature and of Shakespeare].
Israel
Publication details: 
Docketed in pencil 24.12.26.
£28.00
Israel

Card, 9 x 6cm. very good condition.

[Henry Mackenzie, Scottish Novelist] Autograph Signature Henry Mackenzie 1824 only. With the relevant page (Mackenzie entry) from a Biographical dictionary

Author: 
Henry Mackenzie (1745 – 1831), Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer.
Mackenzie
Publication details: 
[1824]
£150.00
Mackenzie

Two 12mo pages, extracted from Public Characters of All Nations: Consisting of Biographical accounts of nearly three thousand eminent contemporaries, alphabetically arranged (1823), later published as A New Biographical Dictionary, of 3000 contemporary public characters, British and foreign, of all ranks and professions (1825).LEAF THE FIRST: endpaper, foxed, edges chipped, with the clear signature Henry Mackenzie | 1824 | on recto; LEAF THE SECOND: printed potted biography of Henry Mackenzie (pp.671-2 of book), with MS additions and corrections (for example, correction of his date of birt

[P.C. Wren] Autograph Inscription

Author: 
P.C. Wren [Percival Christopher Wren (1875 – 1941), writer, mostly of adventure fiction.]
Publication details: 
July 1926.
£80.00

Autograph Inscription on glossy page (perhaps from the prelims of a book), 12mo, with image of Wren. head & shoulders, two small closed tears, sl. grubby, good condition. Inscription as follows: [Image] || To | A.J. Richardson, Esq | with the Author's thanks | & best wishes. | PC Wren || Jy.'26. See image.

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