LITERATURE

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. H. Rose') from the English historian John Holland Rose, writing, while on active service in France with the British Expeditionary Force, to Alfred Tresidder Sheppard to commend his latest novel.

Author: 
J. H. Rose [John Holland Rose] (1855-1942), English historian best-known for his biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, Reader in Modern History, Cambridge University [Alfred Tresidder Sheppard (1871-1947)]
Publication details: 
On Y.M.C.A. letterhead, 'On Active Service | With the British Expeditionary Force', 15 September 1917.
£65.00

2pp., 4to. 53 lines. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of previous mounting at head, and a light and unobtrusive water stain. The letter is headed by Rose 'Y.M.C.A. B.A.P.O.2 B.E.F. France'. Regarding Sheppard's recently-published 'Quest of Ledgar Dunstan', Rose writes: 'You have a wonderfully keen mental eye which sees everything with extraordinary sharpness, & you have a literary hand which etches with just & delicate touch. The book is also one of singular intensity of feeling which carries the reader along fascinated & thrilled.

Autograph Letter Signed ('M. Hewlett') from the novelist and poet Maurice Hewlett, complaining that he has been underpaid for two pieces of writing.

Author: 
Maurice Hewlett [Maurice Henry Hewlett] (1861-1923), novelist and poet
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Broad Chalke, Salisbury. 5 December 1922.
£45.00

1p., 16mo. Fair, on aged paper, laid down on piece of card. '1349' in blue pencil at head of page. The letter reads: 'Thank you for the cheque. He ought to have paid for two, as both appeared in November. | - | Yes, I have another copy of . | - | [signed] M. Hewlett'.

Printed Victorian handbill poem in Yorkshire dialect, titled 'On the Wing. By John Lawton.', speculating in a humorous style on the effects of successful transport by air.

Author: 
John Lawton, Victorian Yorkshire dialect poet [aircraft; air transport; aeroplanes; fixed-wing flying; manned flight; ballooning]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Yorkshire, 1850s?]
£160.00

1p., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper, with slight wear and loss at head. The leaf has been trimmed down to 21 x 16 cm., with rounded corners, around the poem's decorative border. The poem consists of 96 lines, in twelve eight-line stanzas; it is arranged in two columns beneath the title: 'ON THE WING. | BY JOHN LAWTON.' First stanza reads: 'I wor thinkin one neet wol sit i mi cheer, | Wot thowts enter sum people's pates; | Wot useful invenshuns they'n plan'd everywheer | To benefit people un states.

Autograph Signature of the novelist Gilbert Frankau, cut from letter.

Author: 
Gilbert Frankau (1884-1952), popular British novelist
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£23.00

On 12 x 21 cm rectangle, cut from the base of a 4to leaf. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with part of the card mount adhering to the reverse. A firm flowing signature which reads: 'Yours sincerely | Gilbert Frankau'.

[Handbill; verse] Colored Cavalier

Author: 
[H. de Marsan, publisher & bookseller; E.A. Sparks, illustrator]
Colored Cavalier
Publication details: 
H. de Marsan, Songs, Ballads, toy books. 60 Chatham St, NY. "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by H. DE MARSAN [...] Clerk's Office [...] for the Southern Dustrict of New York".
£120.00
Colored Cavalier

Handbill, one page, crudely coloured border with images of a black troubadour with banjo[?] , a native American, and a trapper [?], 26 x 17cm, three stanzas each eight lines plus chorus, edges chipped, laid down on a larger page. Commences, "Oh! listen a while., a story I will tell; | It will please you to death, I know berry well [...]" Decorative border signed "E A Sparks" ("Printed within colored pictorial border (De Marsan trapper border J, in Wolf, E. Amer. song sheets)." One copy of this imprint listed by WorldCat, two of another imprint (later).

Autograph Letter Signed from the novelist Eden Phillpotts to an unnamed woman, discussing the handling of socialism in his 1926 play (with his daughter Adelaide) 'Yellow Sands', as well as his own political views, sympathetic to Italian Fascism.

Author: 
Eden Phillpotts (1862-1960), English novelist, strongly associated with Dartmoor, Devon, his daughter Mary Adelaide Eden Phillpotts [later Ross] (1896-1993)
Publication details: 
Torquay, Devon. 4 May 1927.
£95.00

2pp., 4to. 41 lines. In fair condition, on aged paper. He begins by stating that 'Yellow Sands' 'only touches social questions by the accident of the plot. Socialism is a word the definition of which no two people appear to agree about. Ask a dozen Socialists what they understand by their faith & they will each tell you something different.' The opinions depicted in the play are both 'clear' and 'foggy', 'but it is [in] no sense propagandist - I hate propaganda in art.' He goes on to discuss his own views: 'I am not a socialist.

Holograph essay by the Nantwych antiquary T. W. Jones, entitled 'Notices of Richard Brathwayte and his Works.' Accompanied by an Autograph Letter Signed ('T: W: Jones.') from Jones to Rev. Henry Green, regarding Brathwaite.

Author: 
T. W. Jones, Attorney at Law, Barker Street, Nantwich, antiquary [Rev. Henry Green; Richard Brathwaite [Brathwait; Brathwayte; Brathwayt] (1587-1673), English poet, Shakespeare contemporary]
Publication details: 
Holograph essay dated 'T. W. J. | June 1866.' Letter: Barker Street, Nantwich. 3 July 1866.
£400.00

Both essay and letter on aged and brittle paper, with some chipping to extremities (not affecting text). Both are written in a tight, close hand. The letter: 2pp., 12mo.

Typed Letter Signed from the Anglo-Jewish novelist Emanuel Litvinoff, thanking Derek Stanford for a review, and discussing the novelist Angus Wilson ('one of the few writers to whom I've written a fan letter') and short story writing.

Author: 
Emanuel Litvinoff (19150-2011), Anglo-Jewish novelist [Derek Stanford (1918-2008), Anglo-Jewish author and critic; Angus Wilson (1913-1991), English novelist]
Publication details: 
36 Byron Court, Mecklenburgh Square, London. 2 July 1973.
£165.00

1p., 4to. He thanks Stanford for sending 'the carbon' of his 'warm review' of Litvinoff's novel ('A Death out of Season'). He missed the article and the note Stanford wrote 'about my autobiographical sequence' in the Scotsman, but is now iinterested to see from the review that Stanford is 'nursing the idea of a 'Forties memoir. Amazingly, few of us have written about the decade. I shall be getting around to it one day also, I hope.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Chauncey B. Tinker') from the Boswell scholar Chauncey Brewster Tinker, Professor of English Literature at Yale University, concerning the proposed presentation of a manuscript by Charles McCamie of West Virginia.

Author: 
Chauncey Brewster Tinker (1876-1963), Professor of English Literature at Yale University, and authority on James Boswell and Doctor Samuel Johnson
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Yale College Department of English. 8 October 1924.
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. With stamped and postmarked envelope, addressed by Tinker to 'Chas. Mc.Carnie, Esqr., | Natl. Bank of W. V. Bldg, | Wheeling, W. V.' Tinker considers that 'The MSS.

Autograph Letter Signed from the American critic and biographer Eugene Parsons to C. J. Caswell,

Author: 
Eugene Parsons (1855-1933), American author and critic, biographer of George Washington and editor of Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Publication details: 
3612 Stanton Avenue, Chicago. 21 November 189<2>.
£120.00

4pp., 12mo. Worn and stained on four leaves with wear to extremities resulting in slight loss of text, and with at least one leaf lacking. Parsons begins by informing Caswell that he is sending him a copy of the Examiner containing his article on 'Tennyson's Literary Career': 'It was sent to the Editor only a few days after the poet's death when I knew nothing about the title or contents of the new book of poems.' He discusses his plans to insert the article when he republishes his pamphlet (Parsons' 'Tennyson's Life and Poetry' appeared in 1892, with a revised edition the following year).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Louisa Parr') from the Victorian novelist Mrs Louisa Sarah Ann Parr (pseudonym 'Mrs. Olinthus Lobb'), regarding the translation into French by the neice of the unnamed female recipient of her novel 'Dorothy Fox'.

Author: 
Louisa Sarah Ann Parr [née Taylor] (c.1848-1903), Victorian novelist under the pseudonym 'Mrs. Olinthus Lobb'
Publication details: 
18 Upper Phillimore Place, Kensington. 27 July 1872.
£40.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium, with leaf dimensions 18 x 11cm. The letter appears complete, in good condition on lightly-aged paper, but a rectangle of about 5.5 x 11cm. (perhaps carrying the recipient's name) has been torn from the bottom of the second leaf.

Manuscript Memorandum of Agreement between J. Hain Friswell and the London publisher Henry S. King, setting out the terms of publication of Friswell's 'The Better Self'. Signed 'J. Hain Friswell'.

Author: 
James Hain Friswell (1825-1878), English essayist and novelist [Henry S. King & Co., publishers, 65 Cornhill, London]
Publication details: 
22 October 1874.
£56.00

1p., foolscap 8vo. On laid paper, with red embossed tax stamp in top left-hand corner. In fair condition, lightly-aged. The memorandum is seventeen lines long, and begins: 'Memorandum of an Agreement made this twenty second day of October One thousand eight hundred and seventy four. Between Mr J. Hain Friswell of Fair House, Bexley Heath, Kent, of the one part and Messrs. Henry S. King & Co. of 65 Cornhill London publishers of the other part. | The said Mr J. Hain Friswell has written a Work entitled "The better self" which he herby assigns to Messrs. Henry S.

Autograph Letter Signed"T. Crofton Croker" to "Wansey".

Author: 
T. Crofton Croker, Irish antiquarian (1798-1854).
Publication details: 
3 Gloucester Road, Old Brompton, [London], 25 Sept. 1848.
£85.00

Three pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition.

Autograph Leytter Signed Max Plowman to Robert Lynd, essayist anfd Irish Nationlist.

Author: 
Max Plowman (1883-1941), author.
Publication details: 
Letterhead of Lochnagar, Bycullah Park, Enfield; 17 December 191
£75.00

ALS, on letterhead of Lochnagar, Bycullah Park, Enfield; 17 December 1912, 3pp., 12mo. He thanks him for the 'letter & all its encouragement [...] The book represents rather under a year's work at verse & I only hope I shall not someday have to wish it had never been other than firelight.

Keywords:

Autograph Letter Signed Violet [Paget] to Robert Lynd, essayist and Irish Nationalist.

Author: 
Violet Paget ['Vernon Lee'] (1856-1935), author.
Publication details: 
Letterhead of 36 Chepstow Place, London; 24 September [1935
£150.00

ALS, on letterhead of 36 Chepstow Place, London; 24 September [1935], 2pp., 8vo. 'I have just come back from seeing Winifred Holtby in the nursing home where she is lying ill, & I fear there is no hope whatever for her. Her friends are very anxious that she shd. be adequately written about in the News Chronicle when the time […] & have asked me to ask you to see, if you wd.

Typed Note Signed from the novelist Naomi Mitchison to 'Miss Steele', asking her to forward a letter.

Author: 
Naomi Mitchison [Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, née Haldane], Lady Mitchison (1897-1999), novelist and social activist [The Bournemouth Little Theatre Club, founded 1919]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of River Court, Hammersmith Mall, W6. 12 December 1932.
£40.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She writes that she is enclosing a letter, which she would like sent on 'to the Manager of the Bournemouth Little Theatre Club if you will, as I do not know the address'.

Nine Autograph Letters Signed from the poet Herbert Palmer to Rev. Harry Escott of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, editing a book of Escott's poetry, discussing Christian verse, and attacking T. S. Eliot, the Faber poets and modernism.

Author: 
Herbert Palmer [Herbert Edward Palmer] (1880-1961), English poet and critic [Rev. Harry Escott (1905-1987), MA, Congregational Minister at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire]
Publication details: 
All from 22 Batchwood View, St Albans, Hertfordshire. One from 1938, two from 1942, one from 1943, and the rest undated.
£280.00

Totalling 36pp., 4to. In fair condition, bound by Escott with brown paper into paper wraps, with the front wrap signed by Escott and bearing the typed label 'LETTERS from HERBERT PALMER on "Minstrels of Christ" and my second book of verse "Soar for Victory", amended in February 1948 to "Back to the Fountain."' An interesting correspondence, casting light on the workings of the mid-twentieth century publishing industry, from the point of view of a successful traditional poet strongly opposed to modernism.

Holograph Poem (signed 'Henry van Dyke') by the American author and educator Henry Jackson van Dyke, a sonnet titled 'Richard Watson Gilder'.

Author: 
Henry van Dyke [Henry Jackson van Dyke] (1852-1933), American author, educator and clergyman [Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) of New York City, poet and editor of 'The Century Magazine']
Publication details: 
Without place or date [written on Gilder's death in 1909].
£180.00

1p., 4to. A fair copy, on a piece of aged high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to edges (not affecting text). Signed at foot. The poem begins: 'Heart of a hero in a poet's frame, / Soul of a soldier in a body frail, - / Thine was the courage clear that did not quail / Before the giant champions of shame'. Gilder is praised as a 'poet, patriot, friend', the poem concluding: 'Thou leavest two great gifts that will not die, - / Amid the city's noise, thy lyric cry!

[Printed Prospectus] New Ireland | Its Aims and Policy

Author: 
New Ireland: an Irish weekly review
Publication details: 
([1915]).
£400.00

Prospectus, 4pp., 4to, bifolium, damage to one corner, text complete. MS. annotation Proof copy, presumably submitted to Robert Lynd.The periodical was published by the New Ireland Publishing Company, Ltd, Dublin, 1915-22. The Prospectus anticipates contributions from many listed Irish luminaries (AE, Childers, Yeats, etc., but not Lynd). Copy in NLI. This item is listed in my catalogue, Printed and Other Material From the Papers of Robert and Sylvia Lynd, all of Irish interest. Hard copy available.

[Printed] Catalogue of Pictures By Constance Gore-Booth, Casimir Dunin-Markiewicz and George W. Russell.

Author: 
[Constance Gore-Booth, Casimir Dunin-Markiewicz and George W. Russell [AE]]
Publication details: 
Dublin, no year given.
£350.00

Catalogue of Pictures By Constance Gore-Booth, Casimir Dunin-Markiewicz and George W. Russell. Leinster Lecture Hall from Tuesday, 28th August to Saturday, 8th September, from Ten to Six o’Clock (Printed at the Tower Press, 38 Cornmarket, Dublin, [no year]. Pamphlet, 8pp, 12mo, stapled (rusty), dusted, some foxing, fair condition. Date unknown, but after 1904. No other copy traced. This item is listed in my catalogue, "Printed and Other Material From the Papers of Robert and Sylvia Lynd", all of Irish interest. Hard copy available.

Sinn Féin Pamphlets. – No. 2. Purchase of the Railways. Speech at the Meeting of the General Council of the County Councils on Oct. 18th, 1906,

Author: 
John Sweetman
Publication details: 
[1906]
£150.00

Sinn Féin Pamphlets. – No. 2. Purchase of the Railways. Speech at the Meeting of the General Council of the County Councils on Oct. 18th, 1906, by John Sweetman , Chairman of the Meath County Council, Vice-Chairman of the General Council of the County Councils. (Dublin: James Duffy & Co, Ltd; M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd.; The National Council, no date [1906]). Pamphlet, 8pp, 8vo, fair condition. Copies at NLI and Oxford. This item is listed in my catalogue, Printed and Other Material From the Papers of Robert and Sylvia Lynd, all of Irish interest. Hard copy available.

Printed keepsake, with 'An Old-Time Greeting' and a large swastika on the cover, containing a poem by 'J. S. M.' titled 'The Rune of the Swastika.'

Author: 
'J. S. M.' [swastika; gammadion; Fascism; the Nazis; Nazism]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Early twentieth-century.]
£120.00

On a 12mo bifolium of laid paper with 'DUNEDIN NOTE' watermark. Good, on lightly-aged paper. On the cover are a large black swastika and the words 'An Old-Time Greeting.' The poem, titled 'The Rune of the Swastika.' and signed in type 'J. S. M.', is on the recto of the second leaf.

Leaf from an early edition of John Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Lives, marked up with autograph emendations for a revised edition by the Victorian poet Arthur Hugh Clough, with leaf carrying longer emendation's in Clough's hand.

Author: 
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet, critic, translator and educationalist [John Dryden's translation of Plutarch]
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet
Publication details: 
Undated [early 1850s?]
£1,200.00
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet

The two leaves were evidently disbound from a copy of an edition of Dryden's Plutarch, in which the grey 4to leaf of writing paper following the 12mo printed leaf was one of those that interleaved the volume. In fair conditon, on lightly-aged paper. The two leaves are tipped in onto a larger leaf removed from an album. The printed leaf is 12mo, from volume 5 of Dryden's translation, with the pages numbered 511 and 612 [sic]. The two sides of the leaf carry a total of approximately 25 emendations and deletions.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Gordon Stables | MD - R.N.', from William Gordon Stables, Royal Navy surgeon and writer of boys' adventure books, regarding the postponement of a 'lecture on Caravan Life' due to his heavy workload.

Author: 
William Gordon Stables (1840-1910), Scottish Royal Navy surgeon and writer of boys' adventure books
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Jungle, Twyford, Berkshire. 10 December 1894.
£120.00

4pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with the second leaf neatly placed in a paper windowpane mount. He writes that he has been 'excessively busy', and this has delayed his 'coming to a decision re the lecture'. 'Since the 4th Oct. I have written two large books, besides any amount of magazine work &c.' As he has '4 books to write before May', he is afraid his 'lecture on Caravan Life will have to be deferred till another season'. He has been asked to 'lecture on Kindness to Dogs, &c with living specimens on the stage at Birmingham', and fears that 'even this will have to be put off'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('De Tabley') from the poet John Byrne Leicester Warren, Baron De Tabley [Lord De Tabley], to Mrs Kate A. Wright of Birmingham, giving her permission to include five of his poems in an anthology.

Author: 
John Byrne Leicester Warren, 3rd Baron De Tabley [Lord De Tabley] (1835-1895), English poet, numismatist, botanist and authority on bookplates
Publication details: 
62 Elm Park Rd, Chelsea. 20 June 1893.
£80.00

1p., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. In envelope addressed by De Tabley to 'Mrs. Kate. A. Wright. | Monona House | Small Heath | Birmingham.' In reply to her letter of 18 June, he states that he will have pleasure in permitting her to 'insert the five pieces' which she enumerates in her 'forthcoming Collection of Poems and Ballads of the Nineteenth Century'. Kate A. Wright's 'Dainty Poems of the Nineteenth Century' was published in Birmingham in 1895. The titles of the five poems are given in another contemporary hand [Mrs Wright's?] on the reverse of the second leaf.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C S. Calverley.') from the poet Charles Stuart Calverley [C. S. Calverley] to 'Mr. Stocker', with a description of the 'Johnian System of Marking' [St John's College, Cambridge?], and his use of it at Cheltenham College.

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley [C. S. Calverley] [born Blayds] (1831-1884), poet and lawyer [St John's College, Cambridge; Cheltenham College]
Publication details: 
17 Devonshire Terrace. 10 January 1884.
£65.00

Both letter and description on the same bifolium. Letter: 1p., 12mo. On recto of first leaf. Description (headed 'Johnian System of Marking'): lengthwise across the verso of the first leaf and recto of the second, and thus making 1p., 8vo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Calverley begins by wondering whether he has 'made the Johnian System [...] intelligible' in his description.

Autograph Letter Signed ('G. Colman') from the playwright George Colman the Younger, defending his imposition of a financial penalty on the recipient [apparently an actress] for non-attendance [at a performance at the Haymarket Theatre].

Author: 
George Colman the younger (1762-1836), playwright and manager of the Haymarket Theatre, London [James Winston (1773?-1843), acting manager at the Haymarket Theatre]
Publication details: 
Melina Place, London; 21 July 1814.
£80.00

1p., 4to. On aged and grubby paper. The letter provides an interesting insight into the niceties of Regency theatrical practice. Colman peremptorily addresses it to 'Madam', before expressing his displeasure and defending his imposition of a penalty, as a result of the non-attendance of the recipient (apparently an actress) at a performance at the Haymarket.

Typed Poem Signed ('Theodosia Garrison') from the American poet Theodosia Pickering Garrison (Mrs. Frederick J. Faulks), titled 'Pessimism'.

Author: 
Theodosia Pickering Garrison [Mrs. Frederick J. Faulks] (1874-1944)
Publication details: 
'Theodosia Pickering Garrison, | 32 Nassau Street, New York City.' Undated [1909 or before].
£125.00

1p., landscape 12mo. Good, on aged paper. Garrison's name and address are typed in the top left-hand corner. Her signature is written boldly beneath the poem, which is eight lines long, in two stanzas. It reads 'Because I snatched a pebble from the way, | And thought it priceless till that day my eyes | Filled with a clearer light, and knew my prize | Was worthless, poorer than the common clay; | Because of this shall I go clamouring, | "Behold, there are no diamonds!" and say, | "Look as ye will, ye find but pebbles"? Nay!

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. Judd') from the American novelist Sylvester Judd, expressing a desire to write for Maria Weston Chapman's abolitionist gift book 'The Liberty Bell'.

Author: 
Sylvester Judd (1813-1853), American novelist, best-known for his book 'Margaret' (1845) ['The Liberty Bell',abolitionist gift book edited by Maria Weston Chapman (1806-1885)]
Publication details: 
Riverside, Augusta; 28 August 1851.
£180.00

1p., 4to. Good, on aged paper. The letter (possibly addressed to the book's publisher) reads 'My dear Sir, | It would give me great pleasure to write for the "Liberty Bell," but I dare not at this moment say I could prepare anything in the time you mention. | Yours truly | [signed] S. Judd.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. Campbell') from Thomas Campbell, editor of the New Monthly Magazine, to fellow Scottish poet Allan Cunningham, introducing his 'Cousin and friend Mr Gray of Glasgow'.

Author: 
Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish poet and editor of the New Monthly Magazine [Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), Scottish poet and author]
Thomas Campbell
Publication details: 
10 Seymour Street West, London; 3 September [no year].
£65.00
Thomas Campbell

1p., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper, wtih two small unobtrusive closed holes to the paper. Placed in narrow paper windowpane border. The letter reads 'My dear Cunningham | This will be delivered to you by my Cousin & friend Mr Gray of Glasgow - He is ambitious of paying his respects to you - I need say no more - I am sure that you will soon be good acquaintances - With the greatest regard | Believe me | Yours truly | [signed] T. Campbell'.

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