AMERICAN

A nice collection of material, including five letters in which an American actor writes to a London friend while on a visit to England. The recipient of McDonough's letters is John Jabez Stocken (d.1892), head of a leading City of London firm of tobacconists, and an antiquary. (His son Frank Lacy Stocken (1867-1937) was later an actor under the name 'Frank Lacy'.) From the correspondence it is clear that McDonough stayed with Stocken during his stay in England.

1p, 4to. On leaf of aged, worn and creased cartridge paper. Addressed to 'A. T. Q. C., | Care of The Editor of | The Speaker, 115, Fleet Street, E.C., London.' An interesting letter, touching on English and American journalistic practice, 'sensational' copy, plagiarism and fin-de-siècle Paris. The context is not entirely clear: one reading is that the recipient reported on or reproduced in the Fleet Street newspaper the Speaker one of Heilig's 'sensational letters to the American Sunday papers', only to have it 'cribbed' by Pearson's Weekly.

24pp, 8vo. Saddle-stitched pamphlet in pink wraps the the title-page reprinted on the cover, this time within a decorative border. In fair condition, aged, worn and creased, with slight loss to outer corner of front cover. Bushnell takes as his text 2 Chronicles XXXII.30, and begins his 'Discourse': 'Any community or city will prosper that will do its duty.

The full title is: 'An Address to the Quarterly, Monthly and Preparative Meetings, and the Members thereof, composing the Yearly Meeting of Friends, held in Philadelphia, By the Committee appointed at the late Yearly Meeting to have charge of the Subject of Slavery.' 12pp, 12mo. Pamphlet in (original?) plain brown wraps. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Begins with two pages of extracts from the minutes, 17 May 1839, regarding the setting up of the committee on 'the deeply interesting subject of Slavery', with reference to 'Benjamin Price, Jr. Clerk' and 'Deborah F.

For the context see Gardiner's entry in the Oxford DNB. Gardiner's disastrous last mission to Patagonia ended with his death on 6 September 1851, as the last of the seven missionaries to starve to death on Picton Island. No other copy of the present item has been traced, either on OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC. 4pp, 16mo. Bifolium. Well printed. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded several times.

8.5 x 14 envelope. In fair condition, aged and creased. Torn open, with slight loss to flap. A nice Mark Twain artefact, and something of a puzzle, as he does not appear to have been in England at the time. There does not appear to be any connection between Twain and William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst (1835-1909), 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney, whose London address was 88 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square.

Such was his prominence in the abolitionist debate, that three years after the writing of this letter Cox's house and church would be sacked, and he himself would be burned in effigy, in the Anti-Abolitionist Riots of 1834, causing his removal from New York City.

Yates studied in Paris before setting up a successful practice in San Francisco, also teaching there at the Art Student League. His portraits include the educator John Haden Badley and the only president of Hawaii, Sanford Ballard Dole. He returned to England in 1900, but was invited back to America to attend the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson and to paint his portrait. Wilson presented Yates with the flag that his hand rested on whilst he took his oath of office. The Oldham family moved in artistic circles, and Constance Oldham was John Ruskin's god-daughter and corresponded with him.

Yates studied in Paris before setting up a successful practice in San Francisco, also teaching there at the Art Student League. His portraits include the educator John Haden Badley and the only president of Hawaii, Sanford Ballard Dole. He returned to England in 1900, but was invited back to America to attend the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson and to paint his portrait. Wilson presented Yates with the flag that his hand rested on whilst he took his oath of office. The Oldham family moved in artistic circles, and Constance Oldham was John Ruskin's god-daughter and corresponded with him.

Both items scarce, with no copies showing up on OCLC WorldCat. ONE: 'Weathers | Poetry and Watercolors by Charles E. Wadsworth'. [4] + 41 + [1]pp, 4to. With seven full-page reproductions of watercolours. Ring-bound in cream covers, with title printed on front cover in brown. Text printed on rectos only. In good condition, bumped at head of spine, with a little marking to covers. Inscribed on fly-leaf: 'For Christopher to enjoy | from | Waddy and Jeannie | Cranberry Isles | Maine, U.S.A.' Colophon gives short biography of Wadsworth, with an even shorter one of his brother Geoffrey C.

The letter is 1p, 12mo, and is accompanied by the covering 8vo leaf, addressed to 'John Atkins Esqre | Duke Street | Westminster', with a second signature for franking. The covering leaf is endorsed: 'Admiralty August 21 1806 | Adml. Markham concerning Miles Burn that it would be impossible to get him reinstated'. Both letter and covering leaf in good condition, lightly aged and worn, with fold lines. Markham could hardly be more decisive.

The name of the recipient is not clear: it would appear to read 'Wriggles', and the letter suggests that this is a pet name for Melchers' close friend Henriette Lewis-Hind, who wrote the foreword to 'Gari Melchers, Painter', published that same year in New York by W. E. Rudge. An excellent letter, full of content, beginning: 'My dear [Wriggles?]. | We only returned from the West Indies a week or two ago – had a fine time'.

3pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. A long and entertaining letter, beginning: 'Dear Mr. Fry, | Probably late in 1949, in a New York City duplex living room, two married couples lay prone on the floor, fanned out around a single copy of “The Lady's Not for Burning”, the better to read aloud all its colorful roles. The couples were Alfred Drake (with whom I had played the previous season in my first Broadway play), his wife, my writer husband [i.e. Robert Presnell Jr] and I.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Begins: 'My very dear Friend, | I lack words to express my real gratitude for your heartfelt kindness to so young a fellow as your devoted comrade, here writing'. He hopes for an opportunity to show proof of his 'profound and hearty friendship'. He ends with renewed thanks, and 'sincere loves [sic] to your good Wife and dear self'.

On one side of 11 x 12.5 cm leaf of pink paper, with rounded outer edges, detached from an autograph album. In fair condition, lighty aged and a little grubby. Reads: 'To | Michael | sincerely | Fredric March'.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with traces of mount, and red wax seal, adhering to the reverse of the second leaf, which is franked (the franker's name and signature illegible) to 'Sir John Phippart [sic] | &c &c | No 8 New Burlington St'. Slight loss to one corner of second leaf, from breaking open of seal, with damage to one word of text.

An interesting and unusual survival, casting light on funerary practice in Georgian London. In black ink on 37 x 15 cm piece of watermarked laid paper, clearly cut from the working ledger of the signwriter responsible for the display at Gambier's funeral. Two excellent drawings, marked up with notes for colours, as a guide for the painting process.

Two pages, obl.12mo, fold mark, good condition. "Previous to leaving the Baltic, Sir James Saumarez was presented with a magnificent Sword [sett?] in Diamonds by His Majesty The King of Sweden for the Services he rendered to thjat country and upon the arrival of the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia in England he was honored with their Majesties persoanl thanks for the benefit derived to the Common Cause of Europe, which were also communicated to him from the Emperor of Austria by his Excellency Prince Metternich.

Pamphlet, 15pp., 12mo, illustrated wraps (inc. "Bird's Eye View of the Exposition"). Contents include a "Proclamation du President des Etats-Unis d'Amerique" (Theodore Roosevelt; presumably he didn't say it in French as here); Programme de l'Exposition; etc. With: [English text} Pamphlet "The Jamestown Exposition", 12pp., 16mo, printed wraps, sl dusted, anticipating the Exposition of 1907, with the same biird's eye view as above, printed by Iredale-Brown & Sons, 48 Frith Street, London, W. No other copy traced.

For the recipient Millais Culpin (1874-1952), see the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip from mount adhering to reverse. Folded a number of times. Addressed to 'Doctor Millais [corrected in autograph from 'Miller'] Culpin | 55, Queen Anne Street | Cavendish Square | London, W. 1'. The letter begins: 'My dear Culpin: | It was good of you to interest yourself in that strange creature Spray. Your findings about him agree very closely with my general impression, but I had hoped that you might find opportunity to put his therapeutic claims to a test.

1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to edge on reverse. Folded once. Signed 'C Townshend' with good impression of seal in red wax at bottom right. Nineteen-line document in a secretarial hand, with tax stamp at head. At foot, by two members of the Army Pay Office, Horse Guards: 'Sign'd, Sealed and delivered, (being first duly stamp'd) in the presence of | John Powell | Chas: Bembridge'.

ONE: TLS. Ithaca, NY; 20 September 1976. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter begins: 'Dear Christopher Fry, | I so relish climbing the castellations of your wit, to where I feel energized and deliriously long-sighted, or running higgledy-piggledy with your thoughts, at times as if with the bulls of Pamplona, I simply cannot resist telling you so any longer.' According to her 'internal calculations' she owes him 'at least a galaxy for the delight your plays have given me; perhaps you'd accept these few planets instead'.

1p, 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn, folded three times, with labels from mount on blank reverse. With RSPCA date stamp. Singular signature, with all three parts of Fiske's name running into one another, and the middle name elongated. Addressed to Fairholme at the RSPCA, London. 'I regret that the article by Senor de Toledo [i.e. J. Garcia de Toledo of Malaga, Honorary President of the IHA] d[i]d not reach me in time to make it possible for me to send it with our other Anti-Bull-Fight MSS, to the Humane Conference.

An interesting communication from one noted twentieth-century English-language poet to another, and of additional significance as a V-Letter written in the year of publication of Shapiro's first successful collection, the Pulitzer Prize winning 'V-Letter and Other Poems' (1944). (See Diederik Oostdijk, 'The Wartime Success of Karl Shapiro's V-Letter' (2006).) The present item is a V-Mail [Victory Mail] letter: a 13.5 x 11 cm photograph print of an autograph letter bearing the censor's stamp.

3pp, foolscap 8vo. On laid paper with watermark: 'GOLDING | & | SNELGROVE | 1811'. Aged and worn, with closed tears along folds, but with text complete and clear. The document includes two passages written in red ink which has faded but is still legible. The background to the present letter is given in Lambert's entry in the Oxford DNB: 'On 4 June 1813 Lambert was promoted major-general, and was appointed to a brigade of the 6th division. […] Having been sent to America, he joined the army under Sir Edward Pakenham below New Orleans on 6 January 1815, with the 7th and 43rd foot regiments.

Two Air Mail letters, both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Both letters are addressed to Beloe (author of the 1960 Beloe Report - education at The Hill House, Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. The subject of the two letters is a letter from George Washington to Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, Belvoir, 7 March 1754, beginning ''Honble. Sir | If the Vessel you Honour hir'd of Colo. Eyre has not left York'. The letter is now at Mount Vernon. ONE: Hotson's letter, signed 'Leslie Hotson'. 29 January 1955. 1p., 12mo.

An apparently-unique Manuscript – signed by Lord Stanley as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and dated from 'Downing Street, | 30: July 1842' – of what W. P. Morrell describes in his 'British Colonial Policy in the Age of Peel and Russell' (1966) as a 'Circular Dispatch to Governors of West Indian Colonies', regarding the 'Act to amend the laws for the regulation of the Trade of the British Possessions abroad' (5 & 6 Vic. c. 49). The document discusses the act with regard to 'the West Indian Colonists' and 'the British Possessions in South America and the West Indies'.

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. On bifolium with stub from mount adhering to blank second leaf. Neatly written and reading: 'Le Senateur Volney a l'honneur d'offrir au Ministre du tresor public, comme a l'un des juges les plus competens et les plus Eclairés l'examplaire ci-joint de Son Nouveau livre Tableau du climat et du Sol des Etats-unis D'Amerique | et leprie d'agreer des tres humbles civilités.' At the head of the page the recipient has written: 'Rep. 2o Br[umair]e. 12. [i.e.

Volney's 'Ruines' (1791) was extremely influential, particularly in the United States. In 1796 Volney met Thomas Jefferson at Monticello to discuss Jefferson's plan to translate the book into English. Jefferson had completed the greater part of his translation by the time he mounted his 1800 bid for the presidency, at which point he handed over the project to Joel Barlow, who translated the last four chapters and, at Jefferson's request, put his name to the whole translation, which was published in 1801.

For information on Lester see his obituary in the Independent, 4 July 1993, which states that with his band he 'cheered up England during the blacked-out Forties'. 12pp., 4to. Stapled. In good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Cover text printed in red, with black and white 14.5 x 19 cm photograph of 'Harry Lester and his Hayseeds'. P.3 carries an article on 'Harry Lester', with photograph.