[Florence Montgomery, Victorian novelist and children's author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Florence Montgomery') to her cousin Lilian Levi (née Yorke), regarding the death and funeral of their relative 'Coutie' [Ormond?].

Florence Montgomery's 1869 novel 'Misunderstood' was admired by Henry James, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and George Du Maurier, and was childhood reading of Vladimir Nabokov. It has been adapted for cinema twice (in Italy in 1966, in Hollywood in 1984). The present item is 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In envelope addressed to 'Mrs. William Levi | Woughton Hall | Bletchley'. (The recipient Lilian Maud Levi was the granddaughter of Sir Henry Cunningham Montgomery, and the daughter of the Dean of Worcester Grantham Munton Yorke.) The postmark gives the year as 1921. A personal letter on the death of a relative, filled with family information, beginning: 'My dear Lilian | Dear Coutie's death has been so sudden, & at a time when there were hardly any posts, that it has been impossible to get any news about her; except from the letter Winnie Ormond wrote to me to announce it, & to tell me when the Funeral was to be'. She complains about the delay in receiving the letter and another from 'Arthur de [Celts?]', whom she asked 'to represent our Branch of the Family as I did not like to think none of us should be there […] He tells me there were very few there – only Winnie Ormond & her Husband; & two Lytteltons (Sir Neville & the Clergyman, whose name I think, is Albert) Arthur himself & poor Cooper - & of course Gerard [Freius?] No one else!' She has 'heard nothing from anyone since' and 'cannot remember anyone's address', so asks for those of two women, the latter being Edith Yorke, whose 'little allowance' from 'Coutie' she is anxious to pay: 'I fear, as it is due now, she may be very distressed for want of it'. She ends the letter on the subject of 'Gerard', whom she finds has left Berkhampstead the year before.