JOURNALISM

Autograph Letter Signed and Typed Letter Signed (both 'Geo. R. Sims') from the journalist and playwright George R. Sims to Lillie Ross-Clyne of Manchester.

Author: 
George R. Sims [George Ross Sims] (1847-1922), journalist, dramatist, novelist and poet [Lillie Ross-Clyne]
George R. Sims [George Ross Sims]
Publication details: 
Autograph Letter: 27 September 1911. Typed Letter: 12 February 1915. Both on letterhead of 12 Clarence Terrace, Regent's Park, London.
£56.00
George R. Sims [George Ross Sims]

Both 4to, 1 p. Texts clear and complete. Both on aged and worn paper. Autograph Letter: He apologises for not acknowledging her letter ('I have been so busy and away a great deal') and regrets that he does not 'for the moment remember anything which would be of service to you'. Typed Letter: He regrets that 'the present is rather a bad time for what we call the free lance in literature'. He is not himself 'very much in Fleet Street and the neighbourhood', the 'bulk' of his work being done 'far from the madding crowd'.

[Printed pamphlet.] On the Recognition of the Southern Confederation. Second Edition.

Author: 
James Spence [American Civil War; Confederate States of America]
On the Recognition of the Southern Confederation
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. Liverpool: Webb and Hunt. 1862. [Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross, London.]
£135.00
On the Recognition of the Southern Confederation

8vo, 48 pp. In original buff printed wraps with brown cloth spine. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Spence is described on the title-page as 'Author of "The American Union," and the Letters to "The Times" on American affairs.' The first sentence sets the tone: 'The time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the governments of Europe to acknowledge that another power is added to the family of nations.'

Autograph Note Signed "E. Lynn Linton", novelist, to "Mr Wright".

Author: 
Eliza Lynn Linton, novelist
Autograph Note Signed "E. Lynn Linton", novelist
Publication details: 
6 Fitzroy Street, [London] W., no date.
£36.00
Autograph Note Signed "E. Lynn Linton", novelist

One page, 12mo, edge trimmed with minor loss of text. She is working too hard to find time for "social duties or politenesses" She will be at a certain place the following day. She has a cold "who has not?") abnd asks whether he will be in his "place" the following day.

Autograph draft of letter to the Editor of the Daily Chronicle, rebutting in strong terms the claim that Knowles was editor of the Contemporary Review.

Author: 
Alexander Strahan [Alexander Stuart Strahan] (1833-1918), English publisher [Sir James Thomas Knowles (1831-1908); Alfred Tennyson]
Publication details: 
14 February 1908; on letterhead of Oakhurst, Ravenscourt Park, W.
£150.00

12mo (17.5 x 11 cm): 5 pp. On two bifolium letterheads and half of a third. The text of each page is clear and complete on aged and lightly-spotted paper, but gaps between the various sections indicate that the draft is incomplete. Begins 'Sir | I see that in your obituary notice of Sir James Knowles inn today's paper you say that he was the Editor of the Contemporary Review from 1870 to 1877. | This is news to me. I was the Editor and proprietor of the Contemporary Review all these years, and I think I ought to know the facts of the matter.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Richard] Welford [of the Newcastle Chronicle].

Author: 
George Troup (1811-1879), editor, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine [Richard Welford; Newcastle Chronicle]
Publication details: 
2 November 1859; Tait's Magazine Office, 34 Paternoster Row, London, E.C.
£75.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 58 lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged paper, with the outer pages grubby and stained. The delay in replying to Welford's letter is due to the fact that it 'fell aside in Edinburgh and did not reach my hands until lately'. 'I was engaged in a veryy subordinate capacity on Taits Magazine when the shilling series commenced - and for some years - and again had it as my own property from 1846 to 1850 and have had it again for some years; yet I do not remember having ever seen a notice in the Newcastle Chronicle'.

Broadside titled 'Mr. W. J. Bryan. Speech at Thanksgiving Day Banquet, Hotel Cecil, November 26.' Inscribed by Bryan to Cecil Harmsworth.

Author: 
William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), American politician, Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States, 1896, 1900 and 1908 [Cecil Harmsworth (1869-1948), 1st Baron Harmsworth]
Publication details: 
[1903.] [London?]
£180.00

In three columns of small type, on one side of a piece of paper 41.5 x 26.5 cm. Fair, on aged and lightly-worn laid paper, with a little offsetting from the ink of the inscription. Reproduces the text of Bryan's speech without editorial interpolation. A report on the banquet (held by the American Society in London and with 'over 400 covers') in the New York Times, titled 'Bryan and Choate in a duel of repartee. Former Guest of Honor at Thanksgiving Day Banquet in London.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C. Genest'), in French, to unnamed male recipient.

Author: 
Claude Genest [editor, 'La Revue du XIXème siècle']
Publication details: 
Undated, on printed 1840s lettehead of the 'Revue du XIXème siècle', 'Bureaux, 11, rue de Lille', Paris.
£38.00

12mo, 1 p. 20 lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged paper and lightly-creased paper. Writing to ask how the recipient wishes to deal with 'traités de Botanique et de Chimie' in his reviews. Written during the first of several incarnations of the 'Revue', this one beginning around 1836.

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs [Cecilia] Perkins.

Author: 
Edmund Yates
Publication details: 
23 July [no year]; on letterhead of Moorhurst, Holmwood, Surrey.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. The purple ink of the letter has bled, otherwise in good condition. He does not 'think it likely that we shall soon see this neighbourhood again'. They have had 'frequent bad weather, constant illness, & general discomfort'. The Yateses 'hope to meet you at Hamburg, where we expect to arrive on Wednesday 5th. August. So be it!' Mrs Perkins was the wife of the wealthy brewer Augustus Frederick Perkins.

Corrected Autograph Manuscript of the final draft of an article entitled 'London's Broadest Highway' (which appeared in the Strand Magazine, 1931).

Author: 
R. A. Scott-James [Rolfe Arnold Scott-James] (1878-1959), journalist, editor of the 'London Mercury', and friend of Wyndham Lewis [River Thames; Strand Magazine]
Publication details: 
[In envelope postmarked 5 September 1930.]
£180.00

In an envelope with label and compliments slip of Hilda Neal, Copying Offices and Secretarial Training School, by whom the article had been typed up for the printers. On one side each of thirty-two A4 leaves (dimensions roughly 25 x 20 cm). The text is complete, although there are wormholes to the latter leaves, and damage and loss at the head of the last leaf.

Autograph Letter Signed ('R. Bruce Lockhart') to 'Max', on the death of his father Lord Beaverbrook.

Author: 
Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart [Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart] (1887-1970), Scottish diplomat and writer [William Maxwell Aitken (1879-1964), 1st Baron Beaverbrook; his son Max Aitken (1910-1985)]
Publication details: 
10 June 1964; on letterhead of the Gyllyngdune Hotel Ltd., Falmouth.
£85.00

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-eight lines of text. Good, on lightly-creased paper. Lockhart's signature has been docketed in ink (by Aitken?) 'Sir Robert'. A letter of condolence on the death of Aitken's father. Reminisces about the 'moment I came into his life', a 'luncheon at Charkley' soon after the First World War: 'The only other guest was Augustus John. [...] as you know, I learnt much from him. Indeed, it was he who taught me how to write, and in his house I met numerous people whom, but for him, I should never have known.' He considers that Beaverbrook treated him 'nobly'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Oliver A. Fry') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Oliver Armstrong Fry (b.c.1855), editor of 'Vanity Fair' from 1889 to 1904
Publication details: 
20 April 1898; 141 Portsdown Road, W. [London], on 'Vanity Fair' letterhead.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. In reply to the recipient's note, by which he is 'much worried', Fry does not know that he can offer him 'any more than the few short notes <?> for us in "Men & Women of the Times". Little is known about Fry, apart from the fact that he was born in Van Diemen's Land, the son of the Church of England clergyman Henry Phibbs Fry (c.1807-1874).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Bernard Partridge.') to 'Miss Smith'.

Author: 
Bernard Partridge [Sir John Bernard Partridge] (1861-1945), English cartoonist and illustrator, best-known for his work for 'Punch'
Publication details: 
24 January 1897 ('M.dccc.xc.vij: | jan: xxiv.'); on letterhead of 11 Marlborough Road, St John's Wood, [London] N.W.
£56.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Attractive red letterhead, in the Arts and Crafts style. The writings she referred to in a previous letter have not come. 'You probably forgot to enclose them. I expect to read some of the papers in the days when I look in the P[all]. M[all]. G[azette].' He asks her to give him 'an idea of what the publisher proposes to spend on the illustrations, and also the size of them, and the style - pen & ink, or "wash".' He has heard news of her 'from Welsh, Ethel Johnson's husband, who is with me at the Haymarket'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Henry Norman') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Henry Norman (1858-1939), English journalist and Liberal politician (as editor of the Daily Chronicle) [Maurice Maeterlinck]
Publication details: 
22 March 1895; on letterhead of The Daily Chronicle, 12 Salisbury Square, Fleet Street.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Blank second leaf of bifolium bearing traces of previous mount. He is obligedfor the 'kind invitation to meet Maeterlinck. It will give me great pleasure to lunch with you at the National Liberal Club on Tuesday at 12.30.'

Autograph Note [to Jerdan?].

Author: 
Barry Cornwall' [Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874)], English poet and friend of Charles Lamb [William Jerdan, editor of the Literary Gazette]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [London; circa 1820?].
£38.00

On upper half of a piece of quarto paper, unevenly torn to make a piece roughly 11 x 18.5 cm. Fair: on aged paper. Part of address from previous letter to 'W. Jerdan <...> | 267 Strand <...>' on reverse, which is docketed 'Procter | Miss Proby | Cornwalls poems'. Reads 'I inclose you a note left here for you | George says he will review the book for you next week - in the meantime give a flourish in your notice - 'The time does not admit of doing just to the vol. &c &c We are all a Party in this success -'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mortimer Wheeler') to Fred Behrens, editor of the Bradford Observer.

Author: 
Robert Mortimer Wheeler (d.1936), journalist, father of Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1890-1976), English archaeologist [Sir Jacob Behrens; Fred Behrens; Bradford Observer; Yorkshire Observer]
Publication details: 
7 June 1900; on letterhead of the Bradford Observer.
£23.00

12mo: 1 p. Twenty-one lines. Clear and complete. Fair: on lightly-aged and ruckled paper. He 'turned up at the Executive this afternoon rather in the hope of seeing you than in the expectation of being useful'. He had 'intended amongst other things supporting a meeting of the Committee sometime next week'. He is 'only just emerging from the influenza you gave me last time, which proved of a rather virulent order!' He has 'a visitor in the house & must consult the home arrangements'. 'The absence of Fred Byles (on holiday) ties me somwhat more closely than usual.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie. MD.') to the editor of the 'Naval and Military Gazette'.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), Scottish physician and poet
Publication details: 
13 August [1858]; St James's Street, London, on embossed letterhead of the Conservative Club.
£56.00

16mo (11 x 9 cm) bifolium, 3 pp, 16 lines of text. Mourning border. Good, with slight discoloration to the external pages. He is sending a manuscript 'At the suggestion of the Author, an officer residing in Paris'. If 'on examination' the recipient considers it 'unsuitable for the pages' of the Gazette, he asks for it to be returned to him at 13 Upper Berkeley Street 'when your messenger happens to pass that way'. The author 'is a man of high character and well acquainted with Paris & the Parisians'.

Autograph Letter Signed to his publisher and friend Alexander Macmillan.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896), publisher; Colin Hunter (1841-1904), Scottish painter]
Publication details: 
1 February [no year]; on letterhead of Paston House, Paston Place, Brighton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Six lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Inviting Macmillan to join him and 'some of the lads' in a dinner at the Reform Club, 'on the occasion of Colin Hunter's being made an Associate'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Lockyer.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896); astronomer; Altnaharra Hotel; angling; fishing]
Publication details: 
29 March [no year]; Altnaharra, Lairg, N.B. [Scotland]
£38.00

16mo bifolium (leaf dimensions 11 x 9 cm): 2 pp. 17 lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Wonders whether Lockyer would like to spend his Easter holidays at Altnaharra, for a fortnight from 14 April. (The Altnaharra Hotel was used by anglers visiting the nearby lochs.) 'It is an expensive journey; but the sport is good - at least it has been good this last fortnight, but now we are sadly in want of rain. The weather is like June, only more so.' Forty salmon have been killed 'in these two weeks, averaging 11 lbs each'. Black's publisher was Alexander Macmillan.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Holbrook Jackson') to 'Mr. Bennett'.

Author: 
George Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948), author, wroter on books, etc
Publication details: 
10 August 1912; on letterhead of the Crossways, Langley Park, Mill Hill, N.W.
£45.00

8vo: 1 p. Good on lightly-aged paper. Small closed tear at head, and traces of glue and grey paper from previous mounting on reverse. He is sorry to say that he will be 'away at the seaside' when Bennett is in London. If he is 'in town again shortly' Jackson will be glad to meet him. 'I am to be found most days at 29 Henrietta St, Covent Garden [the offices of 'T.P.'s Weekly', on which Jackson held an editorial position] - but it is safer to make an appointment.'

Signed Autograph Manuscript testimonial ('Philip Gibbs') on behalf of G. K. Chesterton's candidacy for the Rectorship of the University of Glasgow.

Author: 
Sir Philip Gibbs [Sir Philip Armand Hamilton Gibbs] (1877-1962), writer and journalist [G. K. Chesterton; Glasgow University]
Publication details: 
Undated [1925].
£45.00

8vo: 2 pp. Fifty lines. Text clear and complete, on two pieces of aged and spotted paper, with rust spots from paperclip. Untitled. Begins: 'I should like to see Chesterton as Lord Rector of a university which stands for Liberal thought. Some people, limited in imagination and hostile to unconventional character, would as soon give their votes to a modern Don Quixote who by some miracle has acquired the corporeal structure of his own Sancho Panza.

Autograph Card Signed ('Joseph Hatton') to Edward Draper of Vincent Square.

Author: 
Joseph Hatton [Joseph Paul Christopher Hatton] (1841-1907), English novelist and journalist
Publication details: 
On the <Maille?>' [postmarked Nijmegen, 17 August 1895].
£35.00

Fourteen lines on the back of two-tone Dutch postcard, the front being tined light blue. Addressed to 'Edw Draper Esq, 3 Vincent Square, Westminster, London, England'. Aged and grubby, with two creases and slight traces of previous mount on front. Hatton's hand is difficult, but the note, addressed to 'My dear Friend', defending his use in a story of the following version of the celebrated quotation: 'When Greeks joined Greeks". Concludes 'You are right about the tinder box of course.'

Autograph Letter Signed (with accent: 'Hugh de Sélincourt') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Hugh de Sélincourt [Hugh de Selincourt] (1878-1951), English journalist and author
Publication details: 
3 December [1916]; 12 Hill Road, St. John's Wood, N.W.
£35.00

4to: 1 p. Fourteen lines of text. Aged and worn, with closed tears along the fold lines, but with text clear and complete. He thanks his correspondent for the letter ('It is always a great delight to me to know that people like my work.') and gives details of where the 'little book I published on "Pride of Body" ' can be purchased. Ends with the details of his 'new novel "A Soldier of Life" ': 'I mention it, as you say it is difficult for you to get hold of books and I should like you to read it.'

Typed Note Signed ('Geo R Sims') to F. Leslie Moreton.

Author: 
George R. Sims [George Robert Sims] (1847-1922), English journalist and writer.
Publication details: 
24 March 1900; on letterhead of 12, Clarence Terrace, Regents Park. N.W. [London].
£45.00

4to: 1 p. Text complete and clear, on aged, spotted and lightly-creased paper. He has exchanged letters with 'Mr Morell' 'with reference to "Faust up to Date" ', but does not believe any contract has yet been arranged. He does not have a copy of 'the Score and Band Parts': 'I should say Mr Geo. Edwardes or Mr Meyer Lutz has these.' Sims co-wrote 'Faust up to Date' with Henry Pettitt. The music was by Lutz. It was produced by Edwardes, and first performed at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 30 October 1888.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Justin Mc.Carthy') to 'F. H. Hill Esq'.

Author: 
Justin McCarthy (1830-1912), Irish politician and writer [Frank Harrison Hill (1830-1910)], editor of the Daily News]
Publication details: 
6 February 1872, on letterhead of 48 Gower Street, Bedford Square, W.C. [London.]
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Fourteen lines of text, neatly and closely written. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. 1 cm closed tear to a margin (not affecting text). He accepts Hill's proposal 'with regard to the Parliamentary leaders of the Daily News'. He hopes the 'condition [...] as to notice of termination [...] will prove as much of a formality without consequence as certain claims for "consequential damages" '.

Her Royal Highness; A Romance of the Chancelleries of Europe.

Author: 
William Le Queux
Publication details: 
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914.
£56.00

Octavo: 190 pp. In original red cloth binding. First edition. Lacks rear free endpaper. On aged paper and in heavily worn binding. INSCRIBED by author on creased front free endpaper 'Much that is contained in this book is founded on fact | [signed] William Le Queux | Oct 1916'.

Secretarial Letter Signed ('Victor Meunier') to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Victor Meunier (1817-1903), French author and journalist; editor of 'Cosmos', the 'Revue Synthétique', and 'L’Ami des Sciences'
Publication details: 
Undated; on letterhead of the Revue Synthetique, Paris.
£25.00

12mo, 1 p. Five lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Good firm signature. He is sending the first issue of the 'Revue Synthétique' and proposes an exchange of that magazine for the one that the recipient edits.

Offprint entitled 'Notice sur Mr. F.-G. Maurice, l'un des Rédacteurs de la Bibliothèque Britannique et Universelle.'

Author: 
[Fréderic-Guillaume Maurice (1750-1826), French-Swiss savant, one of the founders in 1796 of the Bibliothèque Britannique [Bibliothèque Universelle]
Publication details: 
Tiree de la Division Litterature de la Bibl. Univ. [Bibliothèque Universelle] Nov. 1826'.
£75.00

8vo, 13 pp. Paginated I-XV. Eight-leaf unbound bifolium. Unbound and unstitched, the whole held together by a pin in the gutter. Good, on wove paper, but with title-page somewhat discoloured with damp. Separate printed title, 'NOTICE SUR Mr. F. G. MAURICE.' Inscribed [to?] at head of title-page, 'Msr Marshall Newton-Kyme, Tadcaster, Yorkshire'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'J. H. Stocqueler') to Philippart.

Author: 
Joachim Hayward Stocqueler (1800-1885), English traveller and writer [Sir John Philippart (c.1784-1875), editor of the United Services Gazette
Publication details: 
Two letters from 6 Wellington Street, Strand, London, both undated (one 'Thursday' and the other docketed by Phillipart 'Novr 1848'; the third letter 10 August 1870, 8 Henley Street, Kentish Town.
£180.00

Letter One (November 1848; folio, 1 p; on discoloured, creased and worn paper): Availing himself of Philippart's 'kind permission to contribute to the U. S. Magazine', Stocqueler is sending 'the commencement of a Historical Sketch' he has 'long meditated writing'. 'A note in this month's Dublin University Mag. has afforded the text - & the pretext'. It 'will be calculated to please the India Office', and will contain 'a good deal of personal sketch'. Addressed on reverse to Philippart at the Magazine's office at 19 Catherine Street, Strand, and docketed by Philippart.

Ten Autograph Letters Signed and a Signed secretarial Letter (eight signed 'Victor Meunier' and three 'V Meunier'), all in French, to individuals including Charles Nodier, Pierre-Simon Ballanche and (with Autograph Signed reply) Jean-Augustin Barral.

Author: 
Victor Meunier (1817-1903), French author and journalist; editor of 'Cosmos', the 'Revue Synthétique', and 'L’Ami des Sciences' [Charles Nodier; Pierre-Simon Ballanche; Jean-Augustin Barral]
Publication details: 
Five undated, the others between 1856 and 1876; from a number of addresses including the offices of 'L'ami des sciences', 'Cosmos' and the 'Revue Synthétique', Paris.
£350.00

The collection is in good condition, on lightly aged and slightly creased paper. Text of all items clear and entire. Letter One: to Jean-Augustin Barral (12 June 1862, from 33 Rue de Vaugirard, 8vo, 2 pp, 30 lines). He has received 'les premières feuilles de votre notice', and has been prevented from coming to London by 'un rhumatisme articulaire'. On the recto of the second leaf of the bifolium is Barrel's nine-line autograph reply, signed 'J. A. Barrel' and dated 'Londres 16 juin 1862'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C R Hewitt') to Sewell Stokes.

Author: 
C. R. Hewitt (1901-1994) (Cecil Rolph Hewitt, who wrote under the pseudonym 'C. H. Rolph'), English policeman, journalist, editor and author [Francis Martin Sewell Stokes (1902-1979); G. W. Stonier]
Publication details: 
21 November 1957; 6 Liskeard Gardens, London, SE3, on New Statesman letterhead.
£45.00

8vo, 2 pp, 33 lines. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. An interesting letter, written by a former policeman to a former probation officer, on the subject of the latter's book 'Come to Prison: A Tour through British Prisons today' (Longmans, 1957), about which the former has written a negative review. Begins by praising Stokes' 'really generous letter, written at what cost in self-control I can only dimly imagine'. When Hewitt 'read the published review', he thought 'that it was still on the whole unfair'. 'I hate reviewing really, and am a bad reviewer.

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