HARVARD

[George Ticknor, Professor of French and Spanish at Harvard.] Autograph Letter Signed [to the novelist Thomas Henry Lister?], presenting a copy of Prescott’s ‘Ferdinand and Isabella’, ‘written by a friend in America’ and liked by Hallam and Southey.

Author: 
George Ticknor (1791-1871), Professor of French and Spanish at Harvard [William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859), American historian; Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842), English novelist]
Publication details: 
‘Brunswick Hotel [Jermyn Street, London] / May 26. 1838.’
£380.00

Signed ‘Geo. Ticknor’. The male recipient is not named, but the item is from the papers of the author Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), successively wife of the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842) and the Liberal politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), all of whom have entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium, with a trace of glue from mount to the second leaf. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage.

[George Ticknor, Professor of French and Spanish at Harvard.] Autograph Signature and address of letter to Lady Theresa Villiers from cover of envelope.

Author: 
George Ticknor (1791-1871), Professor of French and Spanish at Harvard [Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), author]
George Ticknor
Publication details: 
With partial Boston postmark. No year [but between 1844 and ]
£80.00
George Ticknor

The recipient Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865) was successively wife of the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842) and the Liberal politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), all of whom have entries in the Oxford DNB. The present item is an 11.5 x 8 cm panel of light-brown paper from the front cover of an envelope. Part of a large Boston postmark is at the left, with a manuscript ‘2’ written over a few letters of the address. All in Ticknor’s hand, it reads: ‘Lady Teresa Lewis / South Place, / Knightsbridge / London, SW.’, with the signature ‘Geo: Ticknor’ at bottom left.

[J. K. Galbraith, Canadian economist, Professor of Economics at Harvard University.] Typed Letter Signed and Typed Note Signed to Philip Dosse, regarding his reviewing for 'Books and Bookmen'.

Author: 
J. K. Galbraith [John Kenneth Galbraith] (1908-2006), Canadian economist and diplomat, Professor of Economics at Harvard University [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher of 'Books and Bookmen']
Publication details: 
1 October 1974 and 5 February 1975. Both on his Harvard letterhead.
£80.00

From the papers of Philip Dosse, proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. 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; and Michael Barber, 'What was Books and Bookmen?', Literary Review blog, 18 August 2023. Both items in good condition, lightly aged. Both folded once for postage. Both 1p, 12mo. ONE (1 October 1974): It was 'nice' of Dosse to write, but he 'needn't have given it a second thought'.

[Charles Eliot Norton, American author; Authority on Dante] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed C.E. Norton to Paget Toynbee, 'the most influential Dantean scholar of his time', about Dante (of course).

Author: 
Charles Eliot Norton (1827 – 1908), American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art
Publication details: 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2 Febr. 1885.
£420.00

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, fold marks, good condition. He is sending the three Reports of the Dante Society in reponse to Toynbee's request. In the last Report you will find a list of such publications on Dante or his works as have been made in America, which I truct may be useful to you. The 'Concordance' of which I sent you the specimen pages is advancing well, and will, if we can get it published, be a great boon to the most constant students of the D.C. | You have indertaken a great task [word crossed out] , and one of slow accomplishment.

[Helen D. Willard, Curator, Harvard Theatre Collection.] Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Card Signed to London bookseller Andrew Block, regarding visits to ‘beloved England’; the letter with reference to Arthur Colby Sprague.

Author: 
Helen D. Willard [Helen Delano Willard] (1905-1979), Curator, Harvard Theatre Collection [Andrew Block, London bookseller.]
Publication details: 
LETTER: 31 May 1963; on letterhead of the Harvard College Library, Theatre Collection, Cambridge, Mass. CARD: 16 June 1965; on letterhead of Harvard College Library, with ‘Theatre Collection’ in Willard’s autograph.
£45.00

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. Both addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Block’. LETTER: 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed ‘Helen D. Willard’. She is hoping to be able to see him in London the following month. ‘I called in you [sic] briefly last year, then got swept up into many activities that kept me from returning to browse.’ She has a very pleasant memory of their conversation.

[Percival M. Stone,book collector; theatre history] Eight long and informative Letters (seven typed, one autograph) to W. P. Macqueen-Pope, foremost British theatre historian of the twentieth century.

Author: 
Percival M. Stone, Book Collector [Harvard Theatre Collection and American and British theatre history.]
Publication details: 
12 Lexington Terrace, Waltham, Massachusetts. One from 1949, two from 1950, four from 1951, one from 1953
£1,650.00

The book collector Percival M. Stone (1886-1965) of Waltham, Massachusetts, was a Harvard alumnus. He was an expert in the field of crime fiction, and in particular the 'Dr Thorndyke' stories of R. Austin Freeman. Stone edited an American collection of Freeman's stories, titled 'Dr Thorndyke's Crime File' (1941), to which he contributed the essay '5a King's Walk'. The eight long and informative letters in this collection reveal Stone's association with the Harvard Theatre Collection (whose curator William B.

[Thomas Hollis, radical political philosopher, benefactor of Harvard.] Autograph Presentation Inscription ('Ex dono Tho. Hollis') on loose leaf from John Owen's 'Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost'. With title and one other loose leaf

Author: 
Thomas Hollis (1720-1774), English political philosopher, benefactor of Harvard and other American colleges
Publication details: 
Title-leaf of second edition, 1700. 'Printed for William Marshall, and Sold by him at the Bible in Newgate-Street'.
£350.00

The three leaves are worn, aged and stained. Two of the leaves carry the four pages of 'The Epistle to the Reader', by the editor Daniel Burgess, and at the head of the first of these pages is the ownership inscription: 'Ex dono Tho. Hollis'. The third leaf is the title, and the title-page has two ownership signatures at the head, neither of them legible. Sotheby sold the united library of Hollis, Thomas Brand Hollis and John Disney in 1817.

[Karl Pearson, mathematician, biostatistician and eugenicist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Karl Pearson.') to 'Dr. Peirce', regarding 'Mrs Baker's death', ancestry and Professor Benjamin Osgood Peirce of Harvard.

Author: 
Karl Pearson (1857-1936), mathematician, biostatistician and eugenicist, pioneer in the field of mathematical statistics [Benjamin Osgood Peirce, Harvard Professor of Mathematics]
Publication details: 
7 Well Road, Hampstead; 11 November 1902.
£350.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter begins with a reference to 'Mrs Baker's death'. Pearson and his wife 'had not realised the gravity of her illness', as they had recently seen her 'so well and fresh in spirit'. He wishes he had been able to accept Peirce's suggestion of 'putting me up for tonight' in order to be 'present tomorrow', but he is 'overdone and had work till 6 o'clock arranged for today, so that to come down by the night train tonight & track back tomorrow night have been more than I could safely attempt'.

[Leslie Hotson and Norman Holmes Pearson on a George Washington letter.] Autograph Letter Signed from Hotson, and Typed Letter Signed from Pearson, both to Robert Beloe, discussing the proposed sale of his George Washington letter.

Author: 
Leslie Hotson [John Leslie Hotson] (1897-1992), authority on Elizabethan literature; Norman Holmes Pearson (1909-75), Yale academic [Robert Beloe (1905-84), educationalist; George Washington]
Publication details: 
Hotson's letter from Northford, Connecticut (but sent from a museum in Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat, Amsterdam), 29 January 1955. Pearson's letter from 233 Hall of Graduate Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1 February 1955.
£120.00

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.

[Philip Hofer, book collector and curator at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.] Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Note Signed to Stephen Harrison, regarding his collection of drawings by Edward Lear

Author: 
Philip Hofer (1898-1984), book collector and founder of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts in the Houghton Library of Harvard University [Stephen Harrison; Edward Lear]
Publication details: 
Both on letterheads of The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Autograph letter dated 19 October 1966. Typed note dated 28 November 1966.
£100.00

See Hofer's obituary in the New York Times, 12 October 1984, in which it is stated that 'Mr. Hofer, who was secretary of the Fogg Museum at Harvard for 12 years, was a recognized book collector focusing on 18th-century German, Iberian and Italian publications. Mr. Hofer put together an Italian book collection considered the finest outside Italy. | Konrad Oberhuber, professor of fine arts at Harvard, said of Mr. Hofer: ''He was one of the most farsighted collectors that Harvard ever had. [...]”'. Two airmail letters, both in good condition.

[Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Canadian Arctic explorer, regarded by Roald Amundsen as 'the greatest humbug alive'.] Typed Letter Signed ('V. Stefansson') to English author Clifford Bax; regarding plans for a meeting in New York.

Author: 
Vilhjalmur Stefansson [Vilhjálmur Stefánsson] (1879-1962), Canadian Arctic explorer of Icelandic extraction, ethnologist and archaeologist [Clifford Bax (1886-1962), English author; the Harvard Club]
Publication details: 
On his letterhead, 67 Moreton Street, New York. 25 March, 1935.
£120.00

Stefansson was involved in two disasters: the loss of the Karluk during the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 to explore the regions west of Parry Archipelago for the Government of Canada, which he led; and the Wrangel Island fiasco, 1921. 1p., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He writes to Bax 'c/o Hill & Peters'. The letter begins: 'Just as I am starting on a lecture tour, a letter comes from Marjorie Humphreys saying you are about to arrive and asking that I do something for you.

[ Charles Sedgwick Minot, American anatomist. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Alexander Ramsay (editor of the 'Scientific Roll'), giving details of plans for an 'International Congress' (regarding psychical research?).

Author: 
Charles Sedgwick Minot (1852-1914), American anatomist at the Harvard Medical School and founding member of the American Society for Psychical Research [ Alexander Ramsay, editor, 'Scientific Roll' ]
Publication details: 
25 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Massachusetts. 29 September 1884.
£650.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter would appear to relate to the formation of the American Society for Psychical Research. Six days before the writing of the present letter, on 23 September 1884, Minot had been a member of a committee of nine scientists who met at Boston to consider the advisability of the formation of a society for psychical research in America, William James being another member.

[ William Cunningham, Archdeacon of Ely, Scottish economist. ] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Wm. Cunningham') to an unnamed party, explaining why he must decline his invitation to co-operate, despite the 'flattering invitation' of the Delegates

Author: 
William Cunningham (1849-1919), Archdeacon of Ely, Scottish economist [ Harvard University ]
Publication details: 
Both from Trinity College, Cambridge. 9 and 12 October 1899.
£150.00

The two letters were written on Cunningham's return from America, where he had been lecturing in economic history at Harvard. Both are in good condition, lightly aged. Both are addressed from Trinity College, Cambridge. ONE: 9 October 1899. 2pp., small 4to. He has 'just returned to England after a long absence'. He appreciates 'the honour you have done me in asking me to cooperate in such a work', but regrets 'that it is impossible for me to undertake anything of the kind at present'. TWO: 12 October 1899. 4pp., small 4to.

[ The Wesleyan Conference, Sheffield, 1875. ] Autograph Letter Signed from Stephen P. Harvard to 'Mr. Walker', reporting on doings at the Conference.

Author: 
Stephen P. Harvard (d.1905), Wesleyan Methodist minister and author [ The Wesleyan Conference, Sheffield, 1875; Rev. Walker of Liverpool ]
Publication details: 
Carver Street, Sheffield. 12 August 1875.
£180.00

Regarding the Sheffield Wesleyan Conference of 1875 see the article in the Spectator, 14 August 1875, 'The Wesleyan Ultramontanes', and the long review of the conference minutes in the London Quarterly, no.45, vol.89. The present item is 2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. An interesting gossipy letter from a committee member at the conference, satirising two of the others present as 'Mr. Pepys in Conference' and 'Those who approve'. 2pp., 12mo.

[ Edward Knoblock, playwright and novelist. ] Unpublished typescript of 'The Great Exhibition | A Play in two Acts | with songs of the Victorian Days | by | Edward Knoblock'. With a Typed Note Signed from Joan Ling Ltd to W. J. MacQueen Pope.

Author: 
Edward Knoblock [ born Edward Gustavus Knoblauch ] (1874-1945), American-born British playwright and novelist, author of 'Kismet' (1911) [ W. J. MacQueen-Pope (1888-1960) ]
Publication details: 
21 Ashley Place, SW1, under label of Joan Ling Ltd, London. Without date.
£450.00

137pp., 4to. Typed text on rectos only. Bound with red ribbon into red wraps, with typed label on front cover. In fair condition, aged and worn, in heavily-aged wraps. Pencil annotations to the list of characters. Bound in before the beginning of almost every scene is a manuscript leaf carrying a page giving the layout of the set. The label of Joan Ling Ltd, Gloucester House, 19 Charing Cross Road, WC2, is pasted over Knoblock's typed address 21 Ashley Place on the title page. Knoblock's papers are at his alma mater Harvard.

[John Jay Chapman, American essayist.] Autograph Draft of Letter to Kenneth Macgowan, President, Harvard Dramatic Club, regarding the reading of a play 'under the auspices of the Dramatic Club'.

Author: 
John Jay Chapman (1862-1933), American author, husband of Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler (1866-1937) [Kenneth Macgowan (1888-1963), President, Harvard Dramatic Club]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Sylvania, Barrytown-on-Hudson [New York state]. 3 November 1910.
£120.00

2pp., 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged. He writes that he will be 'most delighted to read the play under the auspices of the Dramatic Club'. He suggests a date, 'as being the farthest off & giving time generally', but if another is preferable, he 'can attend'. If Macgowan 'will fix the day and let know [sic] - (in case Monday is a bad day)', he will 'follow your decision'.

[Lauren R. Stevens.] Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Letter Signed (both 'Lauren') to English literary critic A. Alvarez ('Al'), discussing his decision to leave Harvard and his first novel, 'The Double Axe', an inscribed copy of which is included.

Author: 
Lauren R. Stevens (b.1938) [A. Alvarez [Al Alvarez] (b.1929), English literary critic; H. C. Baker [Herschel Clay Baker] (1914-1990), Professor of English Literature at Harvard University]
Publication details: 
TLS: 430 W. Allen's Lane, Philadelphia 19, Pennsylvania. 5 October 1960. ALS: on his (cancelled) letterhead 1717 Cambridge Street, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts. 31 January 1961. Book: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961.
£250.00

TLS: 2pp., 12mo. In good condition. The letter begins: 'Dear Al: | Last Thursday morning, while sitting in a barbar chair, I asked myself a question which a number of people have been asking me recently, namely, What are you doing at Harvard? I couldn't come up with a very satisfactory answer, so I went to a friend's house on Cape Cod for the weekend. Monday I saw the head of the English Department at Harvard, H. C. Baker. He said, "Follow your star," which seemed to me a little romantic, but all the same good advice.

[John Russell Lowell, American poet.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. R. Lowell'), while American ambassador in London, to Lady Elphinstone, declining an invitation and attempting to arrange a meeting to renew their acquaintance.

Author: 
J. R. Lowell [John Russell Lowell] (1819-1891), American poet, author and diplomat [Lady Elphinstone]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 40 Clarges Street, Piccadilly, W. [London] 2 July 1886.
£60.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, and with the margins cut down. The letter reads: 'Dear Lady Elphinstone, | I am very sorry that an engagement here will prevent my having the pleasure of coming to you this afternoon. But I hope to be able to go out to Richmond next Friday & if so shall do myself the honour of renewing so agreeable an acquaintance.'

Autograph Letter Signed from the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Edward Everett, enclosing a copy of a book to aid the recipient's 'statistical enquiries'.

Author: 
Edward Everett (1794-1865), American orator and Whig politician, 15th Governor of Massachusetts and President of Harvard College
Publication details: 
46 Grosvenor Place [London]; 12 December 1842.
£100.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight discoloration at head and evidence of previous mounting on reverse. Docketed on reverse. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir, | Knowing your fondness for statistical enquiries, I have thought the accompanying copy of the last annual return of the Commerce & Navigation of the Unites States, might have some interest for you. - | Very truly & faithfully Yrs, | Edward Everett'. Note: 'Everett, one of the most famous American orators, is most remembered for his oration at Gettysburg on Nov.

[Small printed booklet.] Some Account of Mrs. Henry Ware, Jun. of America. Derived from Dr. Hall's Memoir. By R. L. Carpenter, B.A.

Author: 
R. L. Carpenter, B.A. [Mary Lovell Ware [née Pickard] (1798-1849), wife of Henry Ware, Jun. (1794-1843), Unitarian Minister and mentor of Ralph Waldo Emerson; Edward B. Hall]
Publication details: 
Published by The Christian Tract Society. London: E. T. Whitfield, 178, Strand. [No year: 1850s?] [Letts, Son & Steer, Printers, 8, Royal Exchange, London.]
£80.00

24pp., 12mo. Stitched into brown card wraps. Near fine on lightly-aged paper. Title-page on front cover, and drop-head title on p.1. An excessively scarce item, with no copy listed on COPAC or OCLC.

Autograph Manuscript of the poem 'The Thunder Storm', in the autograph of its author William Bourne Oliver Peabody.

Author: 
Rev. William Bourne Oliver Peabody (1799-1847), pastor of the Unitarian church in Springfield, Massachusetts, educated at Harvard and Cambridge Divinity School
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£100.00

2pp., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper. In pencil at head: 'Autograph of the Rev W. B. O. Peabody'. In ink in a contemporary hand, between the title and body of text: 'Autograph of Mr Peabody '. Twenty-four lines, arranged in three eight-line stanzas. The text presented here differs in certain respects from that printed in A. P. Putnam's 'Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith' (1875). In the present version the first stanza reads: 'Black the heaven is overcast! | Breathless is the sultry blast.

Autograph Letter Signed from the geologist George Gibbs to Charles Sumner, abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts, regarding the French jurist Jean-Jacques Gaspard Foelix and Sumner's review.

Author: 
George Gibbs (1815-1873), American geologist and expert on Native American culture [Charles Sumner (1811-1874), abolitionist Massachusetts senator; Jean-Jacques Gaspard Foelix (1791-1853)]
Publication details: 
Greenwich, Massachusetts; 28 February 1836.
£150.00

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. 35 lines of text. Addressed, with postmark, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Chas. Sumner Esq. | Boston | Masstts.' Very good, on aged paper. Written while Sumner was lecturing at Harvard Law School, the year before his visit to Europe. Gibbs explains that he has made an arrangement by which Sumner can forward his periodical the Jurist 'to [the French jurist] Foelix &c. & receive others in exchange. Hudson the Proprietor of the Merchants News Room has an agent in Paris & one in Narn to whom he will transmit them.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. S. Hillard') from George Stillman Hillard (later District Attorney for Massachusetts) to the abolitionist Rev. Samuel Joseph May, describing his acquaintance with the first Harvard Professor of German, Charles Follen.

Author: 
George Stillman Hillard (1808-1879), Massachusetts District Attorney [Rev. Samuel Joseph May (1797-1871), abolitionist; Charles Follen [Karl Follen] (1796-1840), first Professor of German at Harvard]
Publication details: 
Boston; 11 March 1840.
£280.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. 89 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed, with red circular postmark, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Revd. Samuel J. May | South Scituate'. Hillard describes 'Dr. Follen' as 'an intimate and dear friend to me'. He looks back 'with melancholy pleasure upon the happy hours' he spent in the society of 'so pure and elevated a being'. He has 'never known a better man; I do not know that I may not say, that I have never known so good a man.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John H. Sheppard') from the Boston lawyer and author John Hannibal Sheppard to General Henry Dearborn, proposing George Kent for the post of messenger to Washington.

Author: 
John H. Sheppard [John Hannibal Sheppard] (1789-1873), British-born Harvard-educated Boston lawyer, author and prominent freemason [Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn (1783-1851),]
Publication details: 
Boston; 5 December 1848.
£80.00

1p., 4to. 25 lines.Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Sheppard writes that he called on Dearborn the previous day, but found him confined to his room by indisposition. He proposes his friend 'George Kent Esq of this city, a Counsellor at Law', for the appointment of 'Messenger to carry on the electoral votes to Washington'. He describes Kent as 'a man of talents, a brother of Ex-Gov Kent of Maine', who has 'been very active with his able pen in helping in this section of the country to promote the election of Gen Taylor'. Kent is a prolific writer and 'a decided Whig'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the poet and patron of the arts John Kenyon to 'Mr. Curtis' [George William Curtis of the New York Tribune], inviting him and his brother to dine with 'our genial friend Felton'. With portrait.

Author: 
John Kenyon (1784-1856), poet and patron [George William Curtis (1824-1892), American traveller; James Burrill Curtis (1822-1898); Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-1862), President of Harvard College]
Publication details: 
39 Devonshire Place [London]; 19 May [1847?].
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. Very good. Neatly presented, With the blank second leaf of the bifolium tipped in onto a large leaf of cream paper, with the engraved portrait of Kenyon (7 x 8 cm), extracted from a contemporary magazine, laid down above it, both items surrounded by a ruled border. Kenyon begins the letter: 'I have a male party to dine with me on Saturday next - consisting of persons whom you would I think like to meet - our genial friend Felton among them.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Josh: Green, Junr:') from the Boston poet Joseph Green, giving instructions regarding an 'Adventure' to his agents in Bermuda 'Mr: John Stevens & Mr: John Phillips Junr.'

Author: 
Joseph Green (1706-1780), Harvard-educated Boston merchant, poet and British Tory loyalist, friend of Mather Byles, and owner of one of the largest libraries in the city
Publication details: 
10 February 1759; Boston.
£280.00

2 pp, folio. Bifolium. A frail survival, on brittle, aged paper: a horizontal closed tear across the head and other damage has been obtrusively repaired with archival tape.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
William Everett (1839-1910), American Democratic congressman for Massachusetts' Seventh District, [Charles William Eliot (1834-1926); Harvard University]
Publication details: 
15 January 1869; 96 Washington Street.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. 42 lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Small ink stain at foot of reverse of blank second leaf (not affecting text). Interesting letter, revealing of the politics surrounding appointments within nineteenth-century Harvard. The 'Lectureship' having been 'carried throough', Everett repeats his 'very special request that in some way the Undergraduates may have an opportunity of attending the course - This I regard as vital'. Reports the view of 'Mr. Eliot' on the idea that Everett 'desired to be on the staff of instructors at Harvard'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Herman C. Merivale') to the London publisher Samuel French. With a printed subscription form, filled in by Merivale.

Author: 
Herman Charles Merivale (1839-1906), English playwright and novelist [victorian publisher Samuel French, of 89 The Strand, London; James Robinson Planché]
Publication details: 
Letter: 25 April 1879; on embossed letterhead of the Union Club, Brighton. Subscription form: undated.
£56.00

Letter: 12mo, 1 p. Grubby and stained. He 'did not mention the Planché-affair' in his letter of the day before. Asks for his name to be put down 'for a copy of the book' [French's edition of Planché's 'Extravaganzas']. The subscription form (12mo, 1 p), heavily worn and with loss to the extremities, is laid down on the reverse of the letter. On it Merivale gives his address as 'Barton Lodge, Kingston on Thames'.

Two Autographs Letter Signed ('George Goold' and 'George') to Paul Quinton, Classical Department, Blackwell's of Oxford; with inscribed offprint of Goold's lecture 'Richard Bentley, a Tercentenary Commemoration'.

Author: 
[YALE UNIVERSITY] George Patrick Goold (1922-2002), William Lampson Professor of Latin Language and Literature, Yale University [Richard Bentley; Blackwell's of Oxford; Loeb Classical Library]
Publication details: 
LETTERS: 30 September 1977 and 3 July 1979, both on letterhead of Yale University Department of Classics; OFFPRINT (from 'Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'): Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1963.
£200.00

Both letters two pages, quarto. LETTER ONE (annotated in ink with some ink marks in the blank space beneath Goold's signature): Written at the point at which Goold was relinquishing the University College Latin Chair to return to Yale. 'I told you I should be visiting Yale this autumn; and now I have to tell you that I shall be going on to Stanford after Christmas till March. Still, if I shan't have the pleasure of coming in occassionally to the bookshop, it probably means that I shall be ordering more books from you!' Orders a couple of copies of Austin's 'Aeneid'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to Kenneth Luckhurst, Secretary, and G. P. Griggs, Assistant Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with four unsigned carbons of Typed Letters from them to him.

Author: 
Sir Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith [AVIATION]
Publication details: 
1949-51; three on letterheads of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
£200.00

Historian of aviation (1909-81) at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Eight items, various formats. Very good. LETTER ONE (two pages, octavo, 14 January 1949, on V & A letterhead): 'As a very new fellow of the Society I hesitate to burden you with reading the enclosed [an article on 'Father Gusmao: the first practical pioneer in aeronautics', not present], but I thought there might be some chance of its appearing in the Journal. It is too historical for the Roy. Aeronautical Society's Journal and too aeronautical for the others, so I am stuck!

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