LITERATURE

On 2.5 x 6.5 slip of paper cut from the end of a letter. Laid down on a small piece of black card. In good condition, lightly aged. In a small tight hand. Reads 'Very truly yours | M. O. W. Oliphant'. With cutting of part of an article. featurinng a photograph of the novelist.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight rusting at head from paperclip. He writes that there is 'no relationship between myself and any of the people you mention. I have no antecedents such as you suggest and I cannot recall having received a copy of your catalogue.' Turning to the character 'Horace' in his play 'Nothing Up My Sleeve' he writes: 'he's just a figment of my imagination and the whole play is just a piece of work without any intended resemblance to anyone, only types.' The carbon copy of Barry Duncan's letter is somewhat aged and worn around the edges.

The inscription is on a 22.5 cm square piece of card, and reads: 'Eden Phillpotts - somewhat battered, but still telling stories. | May 1950.' Laid down on the card, above the inscription, is a 14 x 18 cm black and white photograph, depicting Phillpotts, book in hand, standing in front of a bookcase, which has apparently been cut by Phillpotts from a magazine. The item is in fair condition, lightly-aged and worn.

ONE: Letter. 1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He cannot attend the breakfast club, as he is to be best man to a friend in Wimbledon at that time. He is 'rather too old for the character but all his other friends are married'. He would 'prefer the chat but, alas, it cant be managed'. TWO: Note. 1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper with slight damage at foot. He regrets that, being out of town, he will be unable to 'join the breakfast club' at the recipient's house.

14pp., 12mo. Disbound without wraps. In good condition, lightly aged. Poem of seventy five-line stanzas, arranged in four parts.

On 12.5 x 9 cm piece of cream paper. In good condition, with light signs of age. Boldly written and underlined, at the top of the page, reading 'Eric Linklater.' No other writing on either side of the leaf.

Learned and witty, Spedding was a popular figure within the literary scene of Victorian London. As he lay dying following an accident, Tennyson rushed to the hospital and begged admission to his bedside. When approached by Delia Bacon, he dismissed the Baconian theory with contempt, and was the first to realise that the play 'Henry VIII' was a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Both of the present letters are signed 'Jas Spedding' and addressed to 'My dear Mrs. Pollock', and both in good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper, with minor traces of glue from mount.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper. He thanks him for sending 'Idylls of Spain' (by Rowland Thirlmere, 1897), which 'Mr. Milner' will settle with him for, and states that he is 'interested in the subject and would be glad of a note of any books you happen to come across on this subject'. In 1903 Crockett would publish 'The Adventurer in Spain'.

The envelope is 7 x 12 cm, with penny stamp printed on. In fair condition, lightly-aged, with back flap intact (i.e ungummed rather than cut open). The address - certainly in Swinburne's hand - simply reads: 'The Hon. J. Leicester Warren | 67 Onslow Square | S.W.'

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He begins by noting that they have not corresponded for a while, and that he has 'been abroad most of my time for several years'. He is sending him 'a set of advance sheets of a little book I am to publish with Cassells at the end of September' ('Recollections of Rossetti'), 'because I have a very grateful memory of all the kind, appreciative and very able articles which you have written about other books of mine'.

On one side of an 8 x 13 cm piece of paper. In good condition, with light signs of age, and central horizontal fold. Firm, bold signature, 8 cm long, with underlining flourish. Beneath the signature, in a small hand, is the message: 'M Guinot | M: Vigny vous adresse son nom pour vous remercier il ne connait pas votre adresse'. Addressed on reverse, 'à M. Eug. Guinot'.

1p., landscape 8Vo. In fair condition, aged and with a number of vertical crease lines. Reads: 'Dear Mr Clarkson, | Will you please give instructions that any wigs that are being made for Sir Arthur Pinero's new play should be here not later than 11 o'clock on Monday morning next. Our Dress Parade is at 12 o'clock.' The play Boucicault refers to is 'The Widow of Wasdale Head'.

118pp., of which the first 102pp. are in 4to, and the last 16pp. in folio. Stapled into red card wraps. Ownership inscription on inside front cover: 'Padraic Fallon, | Prospect, | Wexford'. Internally in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in heavily-worn wraps. The story is set among race-horse trainers in Ballinasloe in 1936. There is a curious example of typewriter slippage in the last line but three on the last page: '[...] and the woods and 5h3 5o2nw in 2hifh h3 hqe wp3n5 hiw lir3. Qne [...]'.

1p. 8vo. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. With envelope addressed by Ambler to Pitt at Kennister in Somerset. Also present are copies of two letters to Ambler from Pitt, dated 2 January and 20 February 1980. In the first Pitt congratulates Ambler on the receipt of an OBE, reminds him of their previous correspondence through Peter Janson-Smith, and sends 'Part I of my trilogy on the North African campaign' ('If it gives you one tenth of the enjoyment I get from every one of your books, it will have been worth writing.').

3pp., 12mo. Writing in a difficult hand, he thanks him for his very curious & interesting letter respecting Chr. Smart, of whose birthplace I had been previously ignorant, tho' his name was not unknown to me in connection with Horace'.

2pp., 4to. Printed on the same side of one piece of shiny art paper, folded to make a bifolium. Aged and stained, with wear and slight loss to extremities. Photograph of Russell beneath title, alongside 'Sonnet | To W. Clark Russell', reprinted 'From "English Sea Pictures." By Julia D. Young, Author of "Barham Beach, the President's Poem." - New York.' The author laments that '[i]n this country, it is not the fashion to ennoble those who really do something for their time and generation', such as Russell, whose 'stupendous output' consists of 'fifty-seven books everyone [sic] of them good'.

1p., 12mo. On aged paper, with spike hole and damage to one margin, affecting five words of text, but not the signature. He asks for the item he orders, 'Natural Hist of England', to be addressed on the parcel to 'Very Rev. Dr. Husenbeth | Care of Mr. Spratchett | St. John's | Madder Market | Norwich'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged, and laid down on a piece of card. Reads: 'July 26 | My dear Faed, | Would you mind seconding me at the Athenaeum? I believe Tom Hughes has put down my name. | Yours faithfully | William Black.' According to Black's entry in the Oxford DNB, he 'studied landscape painting for a short time in the Glasgow School of Art, but, becoming connected with the Glasgow Citizen, gradually exchanged art for journalism'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged. He writes that he has had 'a very fine p' sent to him, and asks if Pearson might accept it. 'If you dont care about it yourself you may have friends here to whom you might like to give it. Only, unluckily, I must have back the top'. He ends with a complaint regarding a 'Bronchial cough'.

On one side of 7 x 11 cm piece of paper, cut from the end of a letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'It would be very good of you to append this short notice of a deserving measure. | Please forgive me trespassing on yr. time & good nature and believe me | Faithfully your's | Walter S Sichel'. For more information about Sichel, see his entry in Who Was Who.

A good, firm signature on the reverse of an 8vo endpaper removed from a book. In good condition, lightly-aged. Reads simply: 'Marie Corelli'.

Good, firm signature, on 5.5 x 14.5 cm piece of paper. In good condition, lightly aged, on card backing bearing traces of mount on reverse. Reads simply: 'Florence Marryat.'

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with tiny stain in margin. He thanks him for his letter, and invites him to 'call again' at 'this enchanting place'. He has 'finished Octave 5' and is 'at work now on another Ben Nevis story'. He has asked his publishers Chatto & Windus to send him 'Octave 3'. A letterhead with Mackenzie's Edinburgh address is printed upside down on the reverse.

34 lines of typed text on air mail letter on blue paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Addressed to Malcom at Paisley, Renfrewshire.

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter is 2pp., 4to, and is written in a playful tone. Escaping the accompanying spoof Steward writes: 'Your remark that Glasgow was as alien to you as Mars got me thinking along the lines of the attached headline . . . . . It would be a good idea for a story if it hadnt been done about three thousand times already (See Robert Bloch (Report on Sol III) and others).

Each letter 1p., 4to, Bickerstaffe-Drew's on reverse of Wood's. In fair condition, on aged leaf of paper with strip torn from head. The two letters cast an interesting light on English publishing practice in the late nineteenth century. Wood's letter, signed 'J. S. Wood', is written by a secretary, and addressed to 'The Right Rev Mgr Bickerstaff Drew'.

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The menu is written out in faint pencil on one side, beneath the letterhead. On the other side, and headed with the date 4 June 1919 is the following playful address: 'Dear Jerrold, | "Carry on"! | This has no reference to the food we have just eaten. | You Walter [pun on 'ought to'] be here because you're a Jerrold [pun on 'dear old'] fellow. | And so say all of us.' Beneath this are nine signatures, two of which are undeciphered.

Ford's first book of verse was 'Sung by the Way', published in Blackburn in 1905. She published several volumes of patriotic poetry: 'Poems of War and Peace' (1915), 'A Crown of Amaranth' (with Erskine Macdonald, 1915), 'Our Heroes' (1916); 'A Fight to a Finish' (1917). Other volumes include 'Lyric Leaves' (1912) and 'The England of my Dream' (1928). She edited the series of 'Little Books of Georgian Verse', 1915-1916. Her 'Lessons in Verse-Craft' was published in 1919 with a second edition in 1923. Her song 'In the Twilight' (1923) was set to music by Harry Brookes.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. She apologises for the delay in writing, explaining: 'my hand has been dreadfully lame, & I have no secretary'. She explains that she has spoken to 'Mr. Craufurd' regarding the cottage, but that there is 'an old lady here, the widow of a farmer, a certain Mrs. Mead, who is supposed by Mr. Craufurd to have a prior claim'. She discusses whether Mrs Mead truly wants the cottage, and the possibility of making alterations to it, ending with remembrances to the recipient's father and mother.

32pp., 8vo, pale blue printed wraps, partly detached at spine, some foxing, mainly good. Inscribed, front wrap, "With the Author's Christian love". Several copies listed on WorldCat including main British Libraries. No other copy currently on the market.