LITERATURE

See Sewell's entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter reads: 'My dearest Annie | Eliza tells me you wanted a copy of the French Book. I am so glad I happen to have one by me. - for I want you to have it from me. Please accept the book with love. | Yours very affly | Elizabeth M Sewell | Bonchurch. July 13th. 1868'.

An interesting communication from one noted twentieth-century English-language poet to another, and of additional significance as a V-Letter written in the year of publication of Shapiro's first successful collection, the Pulitzer Prize winning 'V-Letter and Other Poems' (1944). (See Diederik Oostdijk, 'The Wartime Success of Karl Shapiro's V-Letter' (2006).) The present item is a V-Mail [Victory Mail] letter: a 13.5 x 11 cm photograph print of an autograph letter bearing the censor's stamp.

De la Mare's definitive answer to the oft-asked question regarding the meaning of his best-known poem - and also one of the most celebrated English poems of the twentieth century - 'The Listeners'. 1p, 4to, in good condition, lightly aged, folded twice. After thanking her for her 'kind letter', he adds: 'I am afraid you may not find my answer to your question a very satisfactory one.

[3] + 222pp. With additional page carrying two figures to be inserted in the text (the first a 'Bezel', the second two cartouches). Each page on the recto of a separate leaf. Autograph emendations throughout, including additional text on reverse of one leaf. Housed in grey-card punch-hold binder. The typescript and leaf of illustrations are in good condition, on lightly aged thick paper, the three pages of prelims are on creased and worn thin paper; the binding is heavily worn. Typed label on cover (pasted over other labels) from 'Apex Literary Agency, 293 Grays Inn Road, W.C.1.

On one side of what is clearly a fly-leaf removed from a book. In fair condition, aged and worn, skilfully placed in a windowpane mount of cream paper, to which a white stub still adheres. Written in a small hand at the head of the recto: 'Guillaume Shenstone | du College de Pembroke | en Oxford. | 1734.'

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, and folded twice. Small blot affecting two words on second page. Unpublished. According to Pinney, Coates had started work as Kipling's secretary in June 1909. Written in a hurried hand, in parts difficult to decipher. The letter begins 'Dear Miss Coates | I enclose herewith a note for Moore [the Kipling's chaffeur] which will you please forward to his address.' Kipling suggests that if Moore should 'care to come down & vote at Burwash' he will 'pay his travelling expenses'.

On one side of 7 x 11 cm slip of paper, possibly cut down. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. Reads: 'Have you any engagement on Tuesday 9th. (7/30) and will you come to a masculine dinner with | Yours always | W M Thackeray'. Addressed at bottom left to 'One Two Three Park Street Esqr.' The celebrated travel writer Richard Ford, best-known for his 'Handbook for Travellers in Spain' (1845), lived at 123 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, from 1849 to his death in 1858.

1p, 12mo. Folded twice. In good condition. Presumably in response to a request for an autograph, the central third of the page carries Patmore's signature ('Coventry Patmore.') beneath a four-line quotation from Patmore's best-remembered poem, 'The Angel in the House': 'Spirit of Knowledge, grant me this: | A simple heart and subtle wit | To praise the thing whose praise it is | That all which can be praised is it!'

In very good condition, on 12mo leaf, with light horizontal folds above and below the signature. Clearly written in response to a request for an autograph. Excellent underlined signature, firm and bold, centred on the page, and reading: 'Matthew Arnold. | February 1st, 1868.' Arnold is one of the great Victorian poets, author of 'Dover Beach' and 'The Scholar Gypsy'.

Three slips of paper cut from letters. All in good condition, lightly aged, and each with minor evidence of previous mounting. ONE: Hannah More. On both sides of 4 x 15.5 cm slip. On one side: '[…] I am this moment come from Charlotte she is vastly well only her eyes have some remaining weknesses | Adieu my dear Madam believe me with all possible regard your ever obliged and affectionate | Servant | H More'. Other side: '[…] the good People here enough to be all concerned any of their judgment or their Actions where Taste has any thing to do.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin stub from mount neatly adhering. A long, closely written letter of 116 lines, including eight-line postscript at head of first page. Addressed by Dyer on reverse of second leaf: 'To Lord Buchan | Dryburgh Abbey | Berwickshire | Scotland.' Buchan has annotated the reverse of the second leaf: 'George Dyer | Characteristic | while I reasoned with George Dyer in my Library at Dryburgh Abbey on the Economy of Nature and the Providence of God, I said Heaven itself will one day bear witness to my Words.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition. He has 'from week to week been purposing a visit to you to express my gratitude & sincere thanks for your kindness to me & the cure you accomplished'. He can only write his thanks, having been overwhelmed by 'the arrears of work that followed my illness', and leaving for Paris the following day.

One page, 12mo, sl rumpled, mainly good, written in haste. "I find I have a second copy of [Percival] Merritt's Piozzi Love Letters which you may care to have. See p.42. My accidental discovery of 'Exalt thy love - dejected heart in Parnell's poem clinched the matter."

32pp., 12mo. In blue-green card wraps with light blue-green printed label on front cover. In very good condition. Twenty-four poems in the Georgian idiom, some of which had previously appeared in Country Life, Chamber's Journal, Observer, Harper's Bazaar abd the Glasgow Herald.. Now uncommon. Six copies on COPAC.

32pp., 12mo. In blue-green card wraps with light blue-green printed label on front cover. In good condition, lightly aged. Florid ownership inscription in thick black ink at front: 'Margaret (Sackville) | to | Henrietta | with love | 1936.' A question mark has been deleted in one poem, presumably by Sackville. Twenty-four poems in the Georgian idiom, some of which had previously appeared in Country Life, Chamber's Journal, Observer, Harper's Bazaar abd the Glasgow Herald. Now uncommon. Six copies on COPAC.

28pp., 12mo. In printed blue-green card wraps. Shaken and aged, in worn wraps. Eleven poems in the Georgian idiom, eight of which, according to a note by the author, had previously been published by 'Messrs. Lewis' in 'The Lyrical Woodland'. From Sackville's own papers, and including some pencil markings, presumably by her, including the emendation of 'blank' for 'dank' and 'the' for 'that'. Now uncommon. Six copies on COPAC.

1p., 8vo. Signed at bottom right: 'E. V. L.' Sixteen lines of verse, divided into two eight-line stanzas, beginning: 'As I went down to Hertfordshire | To visit Hatfield Oak, | I met the prettiest girl, to whom | Courageously I spoke.' The conceit of the poem is that the girl is the 'Queen of Hearts', and the author is trumped in his suit of her by the king, the last two lines reading: 'The King strode in, the Queen to win, | And I – I lacked the Ace.' Charles Lamb, whom Lucas greatly admired and whose works he edited, had particular links with the county of Hertfordshire.

On 5 x 10 cm slip of paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'Yours faithfully | George du Maurier'. The first line lightly inked, the signature itself bold and strong. Nothing else on the card, except for the number '92' in a contemporary hand at top left above the signature.

On one side of 10.5 x 14.5 cm grey-blue card. In very good condition. Inscription in blue ink, beneath the letterhead (which includes email address and phone number): 'This is for the Autograph Auction next March. | Good luck, | Nina Bawden'.

An attractive item, in good condition, lightly aged and spotted. On one side of a piece of 17.5 x 25 cm landscape paper, with the autograph writing on the right-hand side and the 15 x 10 cm print of a studio portrait laid down on the left-hand side. Caine was a striking and instantly-recognisable individual, and the photograph shows him in characteristic style, bare-headed in his usual dress of long double-breasted coat with white cravat, staring intently at the camera, with a book in his right hand, and his right hand draped across his left thigh, his left leg being elevated on a chair.

According to the Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2006 (see the end of this description), Lady Margaret Sackville was 'a poet who mixed with writers such as W B Yeats and Wilfred Scawen Blunt, was a friend of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a leading member of the Bloomsbury Set'. 167pp., 4to. Each page on the recto of a separate leaf, the whole bound with green thread through punch holes in margins. The first page worn and with label (of literary agent?) removed from head, otherwise in good condition, lightly aged and worn.

1p., landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter reads: 'Dear Madam, | As far as I am concerned I shall be very glad for you to copy Cromwell into Braille, but I think you ought to get the formal permission of my publishers, Messers Sidgwick and Jackson, which I am sure that they will give you.'

1p., 12mo. On grey paper. Aged and with light discoloration and chipping along one edge. A somewhat barbed missive, reading: 'Sir, | I thank you for your offer, but I have so many subjects on hand just now that I fear I could not find room for your article even if I approved of it.' The Graphic was first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Limited, with Henry Sutherland Edwards (1828-1906) as editor. Locker had taken over the editorship only a few days before the writing of this note, on 1 May 1870.

Three 12mo letters in good condition, lightly aged and worn. An interesting batch of letters, in which one minor Victorian poet critiques the work of another, both to the author himself and to his publisher. The three books by Smith which are the subjects of Tupper's letters are 'Olrig Grange' (1872), 'Borland Hall' (1874) and 'Hilda Among the Broken Gods' (1878), all of which were published by the Glasgow publishers James MacLehose and Sons. ONE: Addressed 'To the unnamed Author of Olrig Grange'. 4 December 1874. On letterhead of Albury House, near Guildford. 4pp., 12mo.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Strip of glue from tape at head of page. Written in response to a request for an autograph. Centred in the page, and reading: 'Yours truly | James Payn | March 28th 1887.'

On a single 8vo half-title leaf removed from the William Clarke Russell's 'Nelson's Words and Deeds: A Selection from the Dispatches and Correspondence of Horatio Nelson' (London: Sampson Low, 1890). In fair condition, lightly aged and with a central horizontal crease. Printed at the centre of the page are the words 'NELSON'S WORDS AND DEEDS', and at the head Swinburne writes: 'Isabel Swinburne | from her affectionate brother | Algernon Charles Swinburne | November 1890'.

On a single 8vo half-title leaf removed from the front of her 1881 verse collection 'Honey from the Weed'. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor loss to one corner. Printed at the centre are the words 'HONEY FROM THE WEED'. At the head of the page is the presentation inscription, in a pleasing hand: 'George Frederick Martin Esqre. | with kind regards & good wishes from | Mary Cowden Clarke | July 1881.'

29pp., small 4to. Stitched into card covers. Internally in fair condition, in aged and worn covers repaired along the spine with brown tape. There are eleven hand-coloured engravings: one on the cover, a frontispiece, two vignettes (at the beginning and end of the poem) and seven full-page illustrations in the body of the poem (six of them with blank reverses). The cover illustration, frontispiece, and all but two of the full-page engravings are attributed to Chandler and Duran.

1p., 12mo. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged. She is returning Cond's bookplate, which she has signed with great pleasure, and is very glad Cond has enjoyed 'A Calabash of Diamonds', which 'really was a thrilling adventure and I don't suppose we shall ever experience anything quite so exciting again'. The book was subtitled 'An African Treasure Hunt', and involved the search for a Zulu chief's burial place. Apparently 'Eileen Cond was a book collector who sent out her bookplate to her favorite authors, many of whom signed and returned them to her.'

A collection of carols for 'Plygain' services at Christmas, plus memorial 'Englynion' by Breece, who was also a local preacher with the Wesleyans. 36pp., 12mo. Disbound pamphlet without wraps. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Beneath the 'Rhagymadrodd' in Welsh by 'E. B. | Llangadfan, | Hydref 28ain, 1846.' is the following note in English: 'The author of this little book of Welsh POEMS begs to return his sincere thanks to his esteemed Friends, who afforded him their kind assistance to publish his humble Compositions.' Two-page table of contents at rear.