critic

See his entry, and Herman?s, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium, with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of tape from mount adhering to blank second leaf. Folded once. Addressed to ?Dear Mr. Herman? and signed ?Jos Comyns Carr?. With reference to Herman?s play ?The Silver King? (co-written with H. A. Jones), which proved a huge success from its opening at the Princess?s Theatre in 1882. He begins by reminding him that he ?kindly said? he would send Carr ?a box for the Silver King when I was able to go?.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In addition to being the de facto editor of Edmund Yates?s ?World?, the recipient (?Broadley Pasha?) was a renowned autograph collector and shady social figure. Scott?s handwriting is not entirely legible. ONE: ?Wednesday?, dated by Broadly ?March 1887.? 1p, 12mo. In good condition, with glue from mount adhering to the blank reverse. Folded once. Signed ?Clement Scott?. On the question of ?the letter from the impertinent idiot Mr James Runciman? he comments: ?He thinks that calling a man ?Tommy Rot? is a complaint! I conclude that he must be a madman?.

Eleven lines of closely-written text. 1p, 16mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the verso of the second addressed in another hand to ‘F Chapuy / 6 Bis. Rue Rodier’. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of tape from mount adhering to the second leaf. Folded once. Attractive vignette letterhead of illustration based around the letter W. Signed ‘Albert Wolff’. It will render him ‘un bien grand service’ if the recipient will act on his promise made when they dined together to place ‘un très brave et très digne garçon de mes amis’, as ‘il a besoin pour vivre’.

Eleven lines of closely-written text. 1p, 16mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium, the verso of the second addressed in another hand to ‘F Chapuy / 6 Bis. Rue Rodier’. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of tape from mount adhering to the second leaf. Folded once. Attractive vignette letterhead of illustration based around the letter W. Signed ‘Albert Wolff’. It will render him ‘un bien grand service’ if the recipient will act on his promise made when they dined together to place ‘un très brave et très digne garçon de mes amis’, as ‘il a besoin pour vivre’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse (Hoggart addresses him as Dosse) was the proprietor of Hansom Books, which operated a stable of seven London arts magazines, including ‘Books and Bookmen’ and ‘Plays and Players’. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, slightly aged, worn and creased. Folded twice. Signed ‘Richard Hoggart’ (‘Assistant Director-General (Social Sciences, Human Sciences and Culture)’. He presumes that the letter with the copies of ‘Books and Bookmen’ was delayed by the French customs.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The archives of the recipient are at Yale. Addressed to ‘Vere H. Collins Esq.’ and signed ‘Frank Swinnerton’. Written in Swinnerton’s distinctive minuscule hand. The central part of the letter has smudging from another letter lightly blotted over it (not near the signature), otherwise in good condition, lightly aged, and folded twice. He thanks him for sending a copy of his book ‘One Word and Another’. He has ‘already glanced through the book; but we have visitors here, with children, and I am writing an urgent article under great difficulties’.

See his entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Elegant signature, with final flourish curving backwards above the signature. Clearly in response to a request for an autograph, on 14 x 10 cm piece of cream paper. In good condition, lightly aged.

For information regarding Sir Leslie Stephen, consult Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, though somewhat aged and worn, with strip of brown paper stub adhering to one edge. Folded for postage. Reads: ?Madam, / I am obliged by your offer of an article, but, though I agree with you that it has some merit, I regret that my engagements make it quite impossible for me to accept it. / Your truly / The Editor of the Cornhill? (?Cornhill? little more than a series of scratches). See Image.

See the entries on Collier and Dilke in the Oxford DNB. The eight volumes of Collier?s edition of Shakespeare?s works were first published between 1842 and 1844, with the sonnets and other poems in the last volume. The Athenaeum carried a long review of vols.2 and 3 of Collier?s edition on 9 July 1842, and another dealing with the biographical element of the entire work on 2 March 1844. From this letter it is clear that Chasles intended to review the eighth and last volume containing the sonnets (and may well have done so). The present item is 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient (‘Dear Sir’) is not named, but is presumably Alexander Macmillan (see Oxford DNB), the publisher of the two books referred to in the letter, which he seems to have sent for review. The letter is signed ‘H Reeve’. Folded for postage. He begins by thanking him for sending copies of ‘Lady Duff Gordon’s Letters [from Egypt]’ and ‘Ecce Homo’ [‘a survey of the life and work of Jesus Christ’ by J. R. Seeley], which he has ‘already read with great interest’.

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 obituary in The Times, 7 April 1933, and Hornung's entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. With mourning border. In fair condition on discoloured paper. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘My dear Richards, / Greetings! / I should like very much to meet Hornung - practically any day would suit me. I admire his book immensely, not only for the excellence of its workmanship but the remarkable manner of the characterization. It struck me as being intensely sincere.’ He hopes that the Richards clan are well (‘all of you’): ‘We are molto moderato so to speak - My brother’s cruel death in S.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, landscape 12mo. On bifolium of grey paper. The letter is complete, on what appears to be the upper half of a 4to bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with stamp, postmark and remains of autograph address on reverse of second leaf, with traces of mount. Signed ‘J A Fuller Maitland’. Begins: ‘Dear Sir / Very many thanks for your book, the second copy of which has just come. I shall hope to be able to come & hear your lecture on a subject which is especially dear to me.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Forty-nine lines. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper, with the reverse of the second leaf laid down on cut-down remains of leaf of autograph album, with a number of autographs on slips laid down on the reverse, including that of Charles Hallé, cut from a letter. Prout’s letter is signed ‘Ebenezer Prout’, but the recipient is not named.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Written in the year in which Smith made his one return to America after becoming a British citizen in 1913. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. On grey paper. Reads: ‘Mr. L. Pearsall Smith regrets that he will be away from London on July 6th & will not be able to attend the Dinner of the Royal Literary Fund on that date.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of the recipient Lady [Maria] Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). 32mo, 2pp. On the two sides of a piece of gilt-edged paper. In good condition, folded once for postage. Signed ‘F Jeffrey’. A difficult hand.

See his entry, and Craig’s, in the Oxford DNB. 13 x 9 cm envelope, with seal (no impression of any kind) in red wax over the broken flap. In good condition, lightly aged. On the front of the envelope, in Jeffrey’s hand, ‘To / James Gibson Craig Esqre / 7. North St Andrew Street’. Beneath this, at bottom left and between the customary lines is the signature ‘F. Jeffrey’.

See the entries for Cooper (born Arthur William Douglas Cooper) and Richardson in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of the recipient, Philip Dosse, who was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Art and Artists and Books and Bookmen. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. 2pp, 8vo, on a single leaf of air mail paper. Forty-six lines of text. Somewhat worn and creased, but in fair condition overall.

One page, 12mo, good condition, laid down on part of an album page (see note below). Text: My dear Con, | Many and many a Happy Christmas to you- & to all who love you - that's a wide wish I know. | Now - when & how do you & mama want me to come to yoy. I will be at your [underlined] orders, (provided they are peremptory-) any day after New Years day. | Thank mama for her kind note. | Ever affectionately Your | J Ruskin. Note: Item detached from Meredith family album containing letters from distinguished contemporaries such as Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Clemenceau, etc etc.

Rather long for a carte de visite: 6 x 9 cm albumen print laid down on 6.5 x 10.5 cm card. In fair condition, lightly discoloured and worn. On the card beneath the photograph is a facsimile of Ruskin’s signature (‘John Ruskin’) and ‘ELLIOTT & FRY Copyright. 55. BAKER ST.’ Printed on the reverse is the royal crest and the firm’s address. A copy of the present item was offered by Sotheby’s in 2021, dated to 1867, with the claim that it was ‘signed on the mount’. That claim is erroneous: the signature to that copy is identical with the present lithographed one.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf: ‘123456 / [T. W. Naellz?] Esqr / Ambleside’. Aged and worn, with closed tears along folds, and damage to second leaf from breaking of seal. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / If you can send me Madame Cottin’s romance about Saladin you will much oblige me. / Yours truly / John Wilson’. Good large signature. The first edition of ‘The Saracen; Or, Matilda and Melek Adhel: A Crusade Romance, From the French of Madame Cottin, with an Historical Introduction, by J.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is not named, but the item is from the papers of Eileen Cond, an enthusiastic collector of autographs. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. In Blunden’s stylish hand the note simply reads: ‘[9 Woodstock Close / Oxford] / 1 April 1936 / Dear Madam / I append the autograph which you requested. / yours faithfully / Edmund Blunden.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcards are bromide prints, and 9 x 14 cm. The two identical images of Scott, dressed for the theatre, with curled moustache and flower in his buttonhole, are both inscribed. In the bottom margin of one he has written ‘late of the D. T.’; in the same position on the other, and rather poignantly considering his later history, ‘Remember me / Clement Scott / 1902’. The former card is addressed by Scott on the reverse, with Ingatestone postmark dated 27 February 1904, to ‘Mr S. Le Sage / Maisonette / Ingatestone / Essex’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight wear at base. Typed address to ‘Mr. J. A. Neuhuys, / 37, Dean Road, / Willesden Green, / N. W. 2’. Reads: ‘Will you please send me on approval No. 582a, from your catalogue No. 29. / R. W.’ Recipt marked with red date stamp of 1 January 1924, and message lightly crossed out in pencil.

The circumstances surrounding this extraordinary original composition in Latin verse are obscure. See Phillips’s entry in the Oxford DNB, which notes that there was ‘an air of Proust’ about him, and quotes Oliver Brown’s description of him as ‘a stout man, immaculately dressed and heavily scented, who talked continuously while he looked at the pictures'. It may be that Phillips and the author of the poem had been educated together, or that they were members of the same club (the Athenaeum for example).

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Removed from an album, and with stub still adhering to inner edge. Folded twice. He asks to be accorded ‘un quart d’heure d’audiénce’, as he is leaving on a journey and needs a passport and letters of recommendation. The recipient is not named, but he has written ‘Samedi à midi’ at top left.

See Hopkins’s entry in the Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. His papers are in the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. Printed on one side of a foolscap 8vo leaf. A tasteful piece of provincial printing. Worn, creased and dog-eared, with closed tears at head. Inscribed at bottom-right: ‘for Andrew Block / Kenneth Hopkins’. Titled ‘THREE SONNETS’ and signed in type ‘KENNETH HOPKINS’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On brittle, discoloured paper, cropped at foot. Signed (‘J. Oxenford’). The recipient is not named, but is clearly the editor of the Athenaeum. Reads: ‘Sir/- / In the name of Mr. C. A. Feiling and myself, I beg leave to thank you for the very handsome and prominent notice of our “German Tales” which appeared in the Athenaeum of the 30th. ult. - You will confer a further obligation by letting the gentleman who wrote the article [know] how much we feel indebted to his kindness.’

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).

Paper, 9.5 x 10cm, laid down on larger piece of paper, part of album page, good condition. Vous sentez bien que votre approbation m'est precieuse. Elle l'est par ille-meme & par ce qu'ille suppose - Je suis d'ailleurs toujours un invalide, & ma sante, depuis trois mois et demi, [?] restee avc un grave [accrue?]. | A vous [...]