LEXICOGRAPHY

[Sir Ernest Gowers, author of the guide to correct English usage ‘Plain Words’.] Three Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to fellow-grammarian V. H. Collins, discussing a crux and the perils of being an authority in the field.

Author: 
Sir Ernest Gowers [Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers] (1880-1966), author of the guide to correct English usage ‘Plain Words’, and the revision of Fowler’s ‘Modern English Usage’ [V. H. Collins, grammarian]
Publication details: 
Autograph Letters: 27 June 1952, 27 March 1954 and 16 March 1955. Typed Letter Signed: 29 July 1953. All four items on letterhead of Rondle Wood, Liphook, Hants.
£120.00

See the entry what was wrote about him in the Oxford DNB. The archives of the recipient, Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), are now housed in the library at Yale. All four items signed ‘Ernest Gowers’ ONE: ALS, 27 June 1952. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, worn and spotted, with pin holes to one corner and short closed tear at edge of one of the two folds. Begins: ‘By all means. The more I look into your book the more I realise how true what I said was.

[Sir William Smith, classical and biblical scholar and lexicographer, editor of the Quarterly Review.] Autograph Letter Signed, thanking his daughter Annie for the birthday present of a pair of slippers.

Author: 
Sir William Smith (1813-1893), classical and biblical scholar and lexicographer, editor of the Quarterly Review
Publication details: 
20 May 1881. On letterhead of 94 Westbourne Terrace, W. [London]
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and with slight discoloration to corners of second leaf from previous mounting. Folded once for postage. With large firm signature. Begins: ‘My dear Annie, / Please accept my best thanks for your kind present of a pair of slippers on the anniversary fo my birthday, & especially for your kindness of thinking of me.’ He comments on his improved health since the previous year, the long time since their last meeting, and his anticipation of their next.

[John Roget [Jean Roget], Geneva-born pastor in London, father of Peter Mark Roget (of the ‘Thesaurus’) and brother-in-law of Sir Samuel Romilly.] Autograph Notebook in French, with apparently-original compositions and extracts from other authors.

Author: 
John Roget [Jean Roget] (1751-1783), Geneva-born pastor of two French protestant churches in London, father of Thesaurus compiler Peter Mark Roget and brother-in-law of Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818)
Publication details: 
Undated, but probably started after 1773, and in part written after his arrival in London from Geneva in 1775.
£800.00

See the entries in the Oxford DNB for his brother-in-law Sir Samuel Romilly and his son Peter Mark Roget, as well as Joshua Kendall’s 2008 biography of the latter, ‘The Man Who Made Lists’. From the Roget family papers, and certainly of later date than the two schoolboy commonplace books by Jean Roget offered separately. Roget is not named as the author, but the handwriting is his, and the spine bears the remains of a blue paper label with the words ‘MSS of the Rev. J. Ro[get]’ on it the same nineteenth-century hand (P. M. Roget's?) as the two commonplace books.

[ Fitzedward Hall, American orientalist and contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary. ] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr. Harrison', regarding the stock of the London bookseller Edward Lumley.

Author: 
Fitzedward Hall (11825-901), American Orientalist, and philologist, Sanskrit scholar and a principal contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary
Publication details: 
Marlesford, Wickham Market [ Suffolk ]. 8 March 1878.
£220.00

3pp., 8vo. Bifolium on grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Harrison had previously procured, 'for the Library', a copy of 'Romantic Fiction', 'published by Edward Lumley, 40, Gower Street': 'At the end of the volume there is a catalogue of various books published by the same person. | Wishing to procure several of these, I wrote to my bookseller, Trübner, to get them for me.

[ Sir William Smith, lexicographer. ]

Author: 
Sir William Smith (1813-1893), lexicographer and editor of the Quarterly Review
Publication details: 
On his 'Biblical Dictionary' letterhead, 31 Regent's Villas, Avenue Road, N.W.. [ London]. 21 January 1858.
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. He asks to be informed if the recipient has 'commenced any of your articles in C', as he 'may be able to restore some of the articles to you which have gone astray'. Clearly referring to an entry in the Dictionary, he offers to 'take Canticles off your hands'.

[ Printed volume. ] An Universal Etymological English Dictionary; comprehending The Derivations of the Generality of Words in the English Tongue, [...] To which is added, A Collection of our most common Proverbs, [...].

Author: 
'N. Bailey, [Philologos]' [ Nathan Bailey (d.1742), philologist and lexicographer ]
Publication details: 
'The Three and Twentieth Edition, with considerable Improvements'. London: Printed for J. Buckland, J. Beecroft, W. Strahan, J. Hinton, J. and F. Rivington, [and 29 others in London] 1773.
£45.00

A bulky 8vo volume, unpaginated. In fair condition, on aged paper, with damp staining to the last few leaves. In worn contemporary brown-leather binding, with spine in six compartments, and red label with title in gilt. Six copies of this edition on COPAC.

[ J. Thierry, teacher of French in Georgian London. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('I. Therry') in French, to the editor of the Court Journal, regarding his publication in London of a work on French pronunciation ('

Author: 
J. Thierry, teacher of French in Georgian London [French pronunciation]
Publication details: 
40 Great Marlborough Street [London]. 25 May 1829.
£120.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Addressed, with red wax seal, on reverse of second leaf, 'To the Editor | of the | Court Journal.' The letter concerns a work published by Thierry in London in 1829, and titled in English, 'Forty-four lines, by the aid of which the pronunciation of the French may be learned in a few hours', and in French, 'Quarante-quatre vers, par le moyen desquels on peut apprendre la prononciation française en quelques heures'. (The only two copies on COPAC at Glasgow and Oxford.

[Simplified Spelling Board, New York.] Twenty-five printed circulars, numbered 1-21, 23-25 (including two versions of 16), promoting English spelling reform.

Author: 
Simplified Spelling Board, New York [Thomas R. Lounsbury; Mark Twain; Calvin Thomas; Brander Matthews; Henry Holt; Burt G. Wilder; William Hayes Ward, Editor of The Independent; William H. Maxwell]
Publication details: 
The twenty-five items printed by the Simplified Spelling Board, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, between 30 April 1907 and 30 September 1911.
£950.00

The Simplified Spelling Board was founded in 1906, funded by Andrew Carnegie, and counted Mark Twain and President Theodore Roosevelt, and the English lexicographers James A. H. Murray, Walter W. Skeat and Joseph Wright among its members. The present collection of the Board's Circulars consists of 25 uniform items, all unbound and stapled. The collection is in fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with occasional wear. Stamps, shelfmarks and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library, London.

[Two printed pamphlets and a handbill.] A Reformed Alphabet designed to facilitate the Art of Learning to Read. [bound up with] The Reformed Reading Primer. [and] The International Alphabet, by Ralph Winnington Leftwich, M.D.

Author: 
R. W. Leftwich [Ralph Winnington Leftwich], M.D. [Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., London, and at Bath and New York; linguistics; phonetics]
Publication details: 
[Item One.] New York: Isaac Pitman & Sons, 33 Union Square. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1 Amen Corner, E.C. And at Bath. [1898] [Item Two:] Undated. [Item Three:] Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., London and at Bath and New York. [Undated]
£100.00

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Stamp and label of the Education Department Reference Library, London. ONE: Pamphlet titled 'A Reformed Alphabet'. 10pp., 12mo. Stapled in grey printed wraps. The first four pages carry 'Phonetic Notation. The Reformed Alphabet. For teaching purposes only. Devised by R. W. Leftwich, M.D.' The last six pages carry an essay by Leftwich, beginning: 'The art of learning to read English, instead of being so easy as to form a stepping-stone to higher accomplishments, is really a very difficult task.

The Description and Explanation of a "Universal Character;" or, Manner of Writing, that may be intelligible to the Inhabitants of every Country, although ignorant of each others Language; and which is to be learnt with facility, [...].

Author: 
[anon.] [Bath, Somerset; provincial printing; pasigraphy; linguistics; universal language]
Publication details: 
Bath: Printed by J. Hollway, Engraver and Copper-Plate Printer, Union Street.' [1830? 1833? 1835?]
£450.00

4to: 48 + [3] pp of letterpress, with additional leaf after title of 'Errata of Letter Press' and 'Errata in Plates'. Twenty numbered plates (the first two transposed), including one fold-out, and a final seventeen full-page unnumbered plates ('Examples'). Apparently complete. In original brown quarter binding, with cloth spine and paper boards. Ownership inscription of 'Lady Rolle' (1796-1885, born Louisa Barbara Trefusis) on front board. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-spotted paper, with wear to extremities and wraps, and cloth spine torn and worn.

DICTIONARIES and GRAMMARS Catalogue 891 [500 Books on Linguistics and the Diversity of Tongues].

Author: 
[DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS, LEXICOGRAPHY] Maggs Brothers booksellers' catalogue
Publication details: 
April 1964; London: Maggs Bros. Ltd. 50 Berkeley Square, London, W.1.
£45.00

8vo. Pages: [2 +] 142. Frontispiece and fourteen full-page plates on art paper at rear. In good condition, in original green printed wraps, worn and torn and with closed tear at head of spine. A few marks in soft pencil. An invaluable scholarly production.

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