MOXON

[Edward Moxon, publisher and poet, son-in-law of Charles Lamb.] Holograph 'Sonnet' on William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, beginning 'There is in Rydal's vale a river sweet', signed 'Edward Moxon'.

Author: 
Edward Moxon (c.1801-1858), publisher and poet, son-in-law of Charles Lamb, associated with Wordsworth, Tennyson and the printers Bradbury and Evans
Publication details: 
London. 5 January 1847.
£450.00

See Moxon's entry in the Oxford DNB, which describes his association with William Wordsworth as 'arguably his most important publishing relationship'. The present poem was published as 'The Two Streams' in the 'Literary Souvenir' of Alaric Watts in 1830, a year before Moxon published his first volume of Wordsworth's verse. The present item is 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, and laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Folded three times. Entirely in Moxon's autograph, titled 'Sonnet', and signed at the end 'Edward Moxon | London Jan. 5th | 1847'.

[James Bertrand Payne, fraudster who brought down the London publishing house Edward Moxon & Co.] Four Autograph Letters Signed to H. Cholmondeley-Pennell, one explaining his retirement from the firm, and two about Pennell's book 'Crescent'.

Author: 
James Bertrand Payne (1833-1898), editor, author and fraudster [Henry Cholmondeley-Pennell (1837-1915), poet and writer on angling]
Publication details: 
The first two on letterhead 44 Dover Street, Piccadilly, London, W. [i.e. the premises of Edward Moxon & Co.], 17 and 26 October 1868. The third from The Grange, Brompton, 22 February 1869. The fourth with no place, 23 May 1869.
£200.00

The four letters are in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Written in Payne's neat and mannered hand, and all four signed 'J Bertrand Payne'. For the background to the correspondence see Jim Cheshire's article 'The Fall of the House of Moxon', Victorian Poetry, Spring 2012. Payne was manager of the London publishing house Edward Moxon & Co., celebrated for their association with poets.

[James Bertrand Payne, editor and author.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to H. Cholmondeley-Pennell, written around the time of his prosecution by the London publishers Edward Moxon & Co., and launch of his magazine 'The King of Arms'.

Author: 
James Bertrand Payne (1833-1898), editor, author and fraudster [Henry Cholmondeley-Pennell (1837-1915), poet and writer on angling]
Publication details: 
All three on letterheads of Tempsford House, the Grange, Brompton, S.W. [London] One from 1871 and two from 1873.
£220.00

The three letters are in good condition, lightly aged. All three signerd 'J Bertrand Payne'. The first has a letterhead in red, the other two have a different letterhead in blue. Both designs feature exuberant monograms and lettering in Victorian Gothic type, which, together with Payne's exuberant handwriting (the last letter also being written in purple ink), accurately reflect the character of the man Tennyson angrily dismissed as 'peacock Payne'. Three excellent letters, the background to which is of interest.

[ 'Smith Payne & Co.' [John Moyr Smith and James Bertrand Payne].] The Anglican Mysteries of Paris, Revealed in the Stirring Adventures of Captain Mars and his two friends Messieurs Scribbley & Daubiton.

Author: 
'Smith Payne & Co.' [John Moyr Smith (1839-1912), Scottish Arts and Crafts artist; James Bertrand Payne (1833-1898), author; Edward Moxon (English, 1801-1858), London publisher; Gustav Doré]
Publication details: 
London: E. Moxon, Son & Co., 1870.
£220.00

The author of the text of the present volume, J. B. Payne, was manager of the book's publisher Moxon, and ruined the firm with his sumptuous editions, including one of Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King' with illustrations by Gustav Doré, which determined Tennyson to forbid future illustrated editions of his work. The market for the present volume would have been limited, and the cost of producing it so high, that it is hard to see how it can have covered its costs. [3] + 53pp., 4to. Each of the 56 pages is lithographed in black against a light-brown background, on thick art paper.

Newspaper cutting from The Times, 15 November 1852, of an article titled 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. By Alfred Tennyson.' [Predating the publication of the poem by a day, and quoting more than half of it.]

Author: 
[Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), Poet Laureate; Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852); Edward Moxon; The Times of London]
Publication details: 
From The Times, Monday 15 November 1852.
£50.00

Original cutting, 53 cm long, from The Times, of an article titled 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. By Alfred Tennyson.' This poem, one of Tennyson's finest and best-known, was published on 16 November 1852 (two days before Wellington's funeral) by the London publisher Edward Moxon, who had offered Tennyson £200 for 10,000 copies. As Edgar F. Shannon, Jr.

Autograph Letter Signed to De V. Payen-Payne.

Author: 
Georges Lafourcade.
Publication details: 
a Negrepelisse, Tarn-et-Garonne, 22 June 1933.
£200.00

Poet and biographer (La Jeunesse de Swinburne, 1837-1867. [With a bibliography.]) Four pages, 8vo, good condition. A very detailed defence of his work on Swinburne. For example, "[I] want first to assure you that there is here some misunderstanding: in my opinion, you have no real justification for speaking of" the unfair treatment I have meted out to your Father". If I have had to quote contemporary documents in which unfavourable comments are made, it's always clear that I do not profess to share those views". He has in fact suppressed material in Swinburne's correspondence with W.M.

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