PUBLISHING

Autograph Letter Signed ('M Berry') from the diarist Mary Berry, sister of Agnes Berry and friend of Horace Walpole, [to her publishers Longman & Co] regarding proofs [of her book 'A Comparative View of the Social Life of England and France'].

Author: 
Mary Berry (1763-1852), author and diarist, sister and companion of Agnes Berry (1764-1852), and friend of Horace Walpole [Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, publishers, of Paternoster Row, London]
Publication details: 
'Petersham Wedy. Mony' [1828].
£180.00

1p., 12mo. 12 lines. Good on lightly-aged paper. She is requesting 'an alteration to be made in the Contents of Chapr 9. to the necessity of which I had not adverted till I saw that Chapr. in Print'. After correcting the chapter she 'desired a Revise', but 'foolishly forgot to Revise the Contents of the Chapr.' 'It cannot however be too late & must be done, as the Chapr: ends with Mr Fox'. The work referred to is clearly Miss Berry's 'Comparative View', published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green in 1828, the ninth and last chapter of which does indeed end with Charles James Fox.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ada Ellen Bayly / "Edna Lyall."') by the novelist Edna Lyall (real name Ada Ellen Bayly), on the part played by illustrations in novels.

Author: 
'Edna Lyall', pseudonym of the novelist Ada Ellen Bayly (1857-1903)
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 6 College Road, Eastbourne. 11 January 1893.
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. Fifteen lines. On bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. The male recipient is not named. She apologies that 'the crowd of Christmas engagements' has meant that his letter has gone unanswered until now. 'With regard to the question you ask, my feeling is that where an artist and an author can contrive to work well together illustrations are a decided improvement to novels. But it is most trying to an author to see his characters presented to the public in a way utterly unlike his own conception of them.' In her view it is 'clear gain' if a book can be 'well illustrated'.

Typed Letters Signed from Frank E. Wright, President, and W. T. Adair, Vice President and General Manager, Syndicate Publishing Company, New York, to Sydney Walton (later Lloyd George's spin doctor), on his employment in the firm's London office.

Author: 
Frank E. Wright, President, Syndicate Publishing Company, New York; W. T. Adair, Vice President and General Manager [Sydney Walton (1882-1964), journalist and spin doctor]
Publication details: 
Both on letterheads of the Syndicate Publishing Company, New York. Adair's letter: 2 December 1914. Wright's letter: 30 March 1915.
£280.00

The letters provide a fascinating insight into the development of the transatlantic publishing industry. They are closely typed with single spacing, and both centre around Walton's employment situation and his complaints about the sending over from America of 'Mr. Russell', about whose 'absolute worthlessness to the business' he complains. Adair's letter: 2pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper.

Autograph Letter Signed from the journalist and literary biographer George Barnett Smith to J. T. Baron of Blackburn

Author: 
George Barnett Smith (1841-1909), English author, journalist and literary biographer
Publication details: 
Cuba Villa, Bickerton Road, Highgate, N. 6 March 1882.
£56.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium.Good, on lightly-aged paper. In stamped envelope, with London and Blackburn postmarks, addressed by Smith to 'J. T. Baron, Esq. / 18, Griffin Street, / Witton, / Blackburn.' He is only able to reply to Baron's not now, having been 'ill & confined to bed'. He thanks him 'for the kind expressions you use respecting my Life of Gladstone, which I am glad you like so much. I suppose you are aware that I have recently published (through Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton) a companion work, the Life of Mr.

Autograph Note Signed "George Bentley", publisher, to George Cruikshank, caricaturist.

Author: 
George Bentley, Publisher, Richard Bentley and Son.
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] New Burlington Street, W. [London], 7 Oct. 1863.
£90.00

One page, 12mo, some marking but mainly good, clear and complete. "Dear Sir, | Please deliver to the bearer the design for The Merchant of Venice | Yours truly | George Bentley | George Cruikshank Esq,". There are pencilled notes and figures on the verso, probably in Cruikshank's hand (figures from 1-10 repeated, then 1-7, then notes including the words large and small and a name, the meaning of which escapes me.

[Printed pamphlet.] An Address to Bachelors. By a Bird at Bromsgrove.

Author: 
'A Bird at Bromsgrove' [pseudonym of John Crane of Bromsgrove] [Grafton & Reddell, printers, Birmingham]
 An Address to Bachelors. By a Bird at Bromsgrove.
Publication details: 
The Seventh Edition, with Additions. Birmingham: Printed by Grafton & Reddell; for the Author. 1801.
£120.00
 An Address to Bachelors. By a Bird at Bromsgrove.

36pp., 18mo. With frontispiece (preceding half-title) of 'I. CRANE / BROMSGROVE', showing a crane and a carriage lamp, within a circular border reading 'To make the Watch go faster turn the Regulator to the right & Slower the Contrary'. Side stitched in original pink printed wraps. In fair condition, in worn and lightly-stained wraps. Nicely printed on wove paper with 'LLOYD 1795' watermark. Poem titled 'Introduction' on p.5, followed by the title poem on pp.7-36. No copy of this attractive edtion on either COPAC or WorldCat, nor of any other printed by Grafton & Reddell.

Autograph Letter Signed from Emma Roberts, author of 'Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan', to William Jerdan, editor of the 'Literary Gazette'

Author: 
Emma Roberts (1791-1840), author and traveller in India [William Jerdan (1782-1869), editor of the 'Literary Gazette'; Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834), London publisher]
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but between 1826 and 1829.
£280.00

1p., 8vo. 22 lines. Fair, on aged and worn paper. Addressed on reverse to 'William Jerdan Esqr | Grove House'. On wove paper watermarked 'G & R TURNER | 1826'. The letter can thus be dated from between 1826 and 1829, the year 'Ackermann's Repository of the Arts' ceased publication. Written in a difficult, hurried hand. She has received a letter from 'Mr Ackermann', saying that the package which Jerdan was 'kind enough to promise should go in your bag yesterday I having given it to you too late for the boy on Monday, has not reached him'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. C. Hare') from Julius Charles Hare, Archdeacon of Lewes, to James Fraser, proprietor of 'Fraser's Magazine', complaining of Fraser's handling of his 'Vindication of Coleridge', with reference to Thomas De Quincey.

Author: 
Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855), Archdeacon of Lewes [James Fraser (c.1805-1841), London bookseller and publisher of 'Fraser's Magazine'; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Thomas De Quincey]
Publication details: 
'Hurstmonceux Battle' [Sussex]; 2 December [1834].
£180.00

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. 21 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of mount adhering to corners of verso of second leaf. Addressed, with red wax seal and postmark, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Mr Frazer [sic] | 215 Regent Street | London'. A significant letter, which shows Hare in conflict with Fraser over the publication his 'Vindication of Coleridge' a full year before the article appeared in the British Magazine (January 1835). The letter begins: 'I am very much annoyed at finding that you have put off my article for another month.

Autograph Letter Signed from the New Hampshire almanac maker Dudley Leavitt ('Old Master Leavitt') to the bookseller Charles Norris of Exeter, New Hampshire, publisher of his 'Scholar's Review', discussing it and giving the text of an advertisement.

Author: 
Dudley Leavitt (1772-1851), New Hampshire almanac maker for over half a century, known locally as 'Old Master Leavitt' [Charles Norris (1782?-1847), bookseller and publisher, Exeter, New Hampshire]
Publication details: 
Meredith [New Hampshire]. 3 September 1811.
£160.00

2pp., folio. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Signed twice. In the body of the letter, consisting of twenty-two lines, Leavitt writes that he is forwarding to Norris 'the Register with such additions and corrections as appeared necessary'. He will insert any further information in a few weeks. Regarding 'the sitting of the Courts' he states: 'If the Legislature of this State altered none of the sitting last June, they are correct in your Register for 1811. I think there is no alteration.' As his 'local situation is such' that he cannot soon ascertain particulars, he suggests George Sullivan.

Autograph Letter Signed ('William Huggins') from the astronomer Sir William Huggins, President of the Royal Society, to 'Mr. Viney' [of printers Hazell, Watson & Viney?], regarding the printing [of Huggins' 'Atlas of representative Stella Spectra'].

Author: 
Sir William Huggins (1824=1910), astronomer, President, Royal Astronomical Society (1876-1878), British Association for the Advancement of Science (1891), and Royal Society (1900-1905) [J. E. Viney?]
Publication details: 
Upper Tulse Hill, S.W. [London]; [circa 1899?].
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The paper appears to have an 1890s watermark, and the correspondence may relate to the publication of Huggins's 'Atlas of representative Stellar Spectra', printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney for William Wesley & Son in 1899. Apparently impressed by the speed of Viney's response to his last letter, Huggins begins 'Your lightning is treble-greased.' He is returning the corrected proof, and sent 'a new copy with your name written on, by this morning's post as yr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S Southwick') from the printer and editor of the 'Albany Register' Solomon Southwick the younger to Erastus Corning, describing recent unsuccessful ventures, and planned educational publications.

Author: 
Solomon Southwick (1773-1839), printer and editor of the 'Albany Register' [Erastus Corning (1794-1872), Mayor of Albany, New York, and railway pioneer]
Publication details: 
Albany [New York]; 16 February 1838.
£220.00

3pp., folio. Bifolium. Fair, on aged paper with slight wear to edges.

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'.

Manuscript itemised bill for books from 'Mr. John Nourse to Thomas Longman', with signed receipt by Longman at foot.

Author: 
Thomas Longman (1730–1797), London bookseller and publisher, nephew of the founder of the business Thomas Longman (1699-1755); John Nourse (1705-1780) bookseller at 138 Strand, London
Publication details: 
Nourse's bill is dated from London, for items purchased between 13 February and 5 October 1770. Longman's receipt is dated 4 April 1771.
£120.00

1p., landscape 8vo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with small spike-hole (not affecting text), and minor traces of previous mount on reverse, which is docketed 'J. Nourse to T. Longman, 1770.' The bill lists five items, from 'Johnsons Dicty 2 V. folio' to 'Sherwin's Tables', with the date of purchase and price, coming to a total of £14 8s 4d. The receipt at the foot of the page reads 'April 4. 1771 Received the Contents - | [signed] Thos Longman'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('E Ray Lankester. | MA. FRS. Professor of Zoology in University Coll. London.') from Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, requesting a copy of Sedgwick's translation of Claus from the publishers [Swan Sonnenschein & Co, London].

Author: 
E. Ray Lankester [Sir Edwin Ray Lankester] (1847-1929), Professor of Zoology in University College, London [Adam Sedgwick (1854-1913); Professor Carl Claus]
Publication details: 
11 Wellington Mansions, North Bank, N.W., on cancelled letterhead of the Savile Club, Piccadilly; 20 January [no year]
£120.00

3pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper with a thin strip of glue in gutter from previous mounting. Lankester complains that he has 'not received a copy of Mr. Sedgwick's translation of Claus' Handbook of Zoology'. He has 'a large number of students (annually over 60) at University College' to whom he would recommend the book if he had it. 'I should wish to be able to place it on the lecture table for them to see.' He claims that it is 'usual for publishers to enable teachers to do this kind of thing - by sending them copies of works likely to be recommended'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the New York publisher Henry Holt to 'Professor Platt' [Johnson Tuttle Platt of Yale Law School], enquiring as to the merits of a text book.

Author: 
Henry Holt (1840-1926), New York bookseller, publisher, editor and author [Professor Johnson Tuttle Platt (1844-1890) of Yale Law School]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 25 Bond Street, New York; 2 February 1876.
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with short unobtrusive closed tear along crease line. Holt writes that he is mailing the book which they discussed. 'The specimen appears to contain a trifle over a quarter of the scheme. Whether the bulk would correspond to the theoretic divisions, you can guess better than I.' Holt presumes that 'glancing' at the book will interest Platt, and asks for 'an idea of it's [sic] probable use fulness and the extent of the class, whether practitioners or students, apt to be interested in it'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mary H. Catherwood') from the novelist Mary Hartwell Catherwood to her publisher Charles F. Chichester of the Century Company, requesting correction of statement 'according to "White Islander" contract'. With two portraits.

Author: 
Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847-1902), American author of historical romances, mostly set in set in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois [Charles F. Chichester, Treasurer of the Century Company, New York]
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but answered by Chichester on 1 January [1883].
£120.00

1p., 12mo. Very good, within thin paper windowpane mount. She writes 'Dear Mr. Chichester:- | I return statement. Please have it corrected according to "White Islander" contract, and send me the check early in February. And I shall be obliged.' Docketed by Chichester 'Ansd. 1. 30' and 'Corrected State. sent | Sent Ck $186.66'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Cs. Redding') by Cyrus Redding, expressing regret at not being able to assist William Shoberl, son of the journalist Frederic Shoberl, and bewailing the state of English publishing, and of his own affairs.

Author: 
Cyrus Redding (1785-1870), journalist and author, editor, Galignani's Messenger, and working editor, New Monthly Magazine [William Shoberl, son of Frederic Shoberl [Schoberl] (1775-1853), journalist]
Publication details: 
"Hill Road, | Thursday'. [No date, but on paper watermarked 1855.]
£80.00

3pp., 12mo. 55 lines, neatly and closely written. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'Mr W. Shoberl.' An excellent letter, giving an experienced and knowledgable view of the state of the mid-Victorian British booktrade. Redding begins by stating that he is 'indeed concerned to hear the statement' Shoberl has communicated to him. He wishes it was in his power to forward Shoberl's wishes.

Autograph Letter Signed from the Irish poet Aubrey de Vere, containing an appreciation of the theologian Richard Holt Hutton, with references to the new edition of his poems, the publishers Macmillan & Co, Baron von Hugel, and the Tennyson family.

Author: 
Aubrey de Vere [Aubrey Thomas de Vere] (1814-1902), Irish poet [Richard Holt Hutton (1826-1897), writer and theologian]
Autograph Letter Signed from the Irish poet Aubrey de Vere
Publication details: 
August 1895; on letterhead of the Athenaeum, Pall Mall, London.
£130.00
Autograph Letter Signed from the Irish poet Aubrey de Vere

16mo, 4 pp. 64 lines. Text clear and complete. Hutton was a friend of both de Vere and his correspondent, and 'this will always remain a link between us; for no one who ever knew him can forget him; & no one who remembers him can ever cease to honour him'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Hugh') from Hugh Cudlipp, as Managing Editor of the Sunday Express, to 'My dear Popie', the theatre critic W. Macqueen-Pope.

Author: 
Hugh Cudlipp [Hubert Kinsman Cudlipp] (1913-1998), editor of the Daily Mirror, 1952-1973 [Walter James Macqueen-Pope (1888-1960), theatre manager and historian]
Typed Letter Signed ('Hugh') from Hugh Cudlipp
Publication details: 
2 January 1952; on Fleet Street letterhead of the Sunday Express.
£38.00
Typed Letter Signed ('Hugh') from Hugh Cudlipp

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He had meant to write to him 'at the end of the series' (of articles by Macqueen-Pope?): 'We took a great deal of trouble in putting the series over well, and I am glad you liked the results.' The 'nonsense at the beginning' was caused by 'a series of misunderstandings'. Ends: 'No doubt we will knock into each other shortly.'

Galley proofs of an article by the violinist Yehudi Menhuin entitled 'A Chivalrous Tradition', with a couple of minor corrections, for a volume celebrating Benjamin Britten's fiftieth birthday.

Author: 
Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999), Anglo-American violinist and conductor of Russian-Jewish extraction [Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), English composer]
Galley proofs of an article by the violinist Yehudi Menhuin
Publication details: 
Published in 'Tribute to Benjamin Britten on his Fiftieth Birthday' (London: Faber & Faber, 1963).
£80.00
Galley proofs of an article by the violinist Yehudi Menhuin

On two slips, both 15.5 cm wide, and totalling 59 cm long. Fair, on aged paper, with minor rust marks from a paperclip. The second slip headed with pagination '48', and running title 'Festschrift in Honour of Benjamin Britten'. He is grateful 'for the eerie fog, for the rain, as for the sixth sense, rich imagination and irrepressible humour of this people, as I am for all that has been absorbed of outlandish and exotic rendered proper, of wisdom and experience rendered intuitive - as I am particularly for their having absorbed and adopted me.' With one of Menuhin's compliments slips.

Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.', ostensibly requesting a book for review, but in fact the work of a fraudster.

Author: 
J.B. Eardley-Wilmot
Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.'
Publication details: 
20 May 1850; 133 Upper Grove Street, Gloucester Gate.
£65.00
Autograph Letter Signed by 'J. B. Eardley-Wilmot L.L.D.'

12mo, 1 p. 15 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He requests 'the favour of a copy of Dr 's work "The Hoe & the Canoe," for review'. He claims to be 'a friend of Lord Elgin the Governor', and to have been 'a long resident in the Canadas' in his 'official capacity', ending: 'it will afford me the utmost pleasure to say all I can in behalf in [sic] the reviewing publication with which I have the honour of being connected, of Dr 's work'. The truth about 'J. B.

Collection of papers relating to the editing and design by Montague Shaw of Michael Simonow's two books on the Polish artist Zdzislaw Ruszkowski ('Unofficial War Artist' and catalogue raisonné), with correspondence by the artist and photographs.

Publication details: 
1984 to 1987. Both books were published in London by Mechanick Exercises: 'Unofficial War Artist' in 1985 and the catalogue catalogue raisonné in 1987.
£500.00

The collection is in very good condition, containing four items of autograph correspondence from Ruszkowski to Shaw, all signed 'Zdzis'. One: Autograph Letter Signed. Undated. 8vo, 3 pp. Expressing his extreme disappointment with 'the proposed arrangement of the double-page and the suggested treatment of the illustrations. 'Nearly one third of the drawing [sic] is left out and alters the sense of the theme. Each illustration is composed to stress the situation and can't be mutilated at the will to suit the arrangement at the page.

[Printed pamphlet.] Wood-Engraving.

Author: 
[Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts, W. and R. Chambers, Edinburgh]
[Printed pamphlet.] Wood-Engraving.
Publication details: 
[Circa 1845.] [Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts. No. 85.] Printed and Published by W. and R. Chambers, Edinburgh.
£125.00
[Printed pamphlet.] Wood-Engraving.

12mo, 16 pp. Unbound, unstitched and unopened. A half-sheet folded three times to make eight leaves. Reproduction of early engraving on first page, vignette of country scene on last page, three illustrations of tools and a further thirteen numbered figures in text. Text and images clear and complete. Publishing details, with price of '1/2d' printed upwards along inner margin of last page. On aged paper, with slight damage to the margin of the first leaf. This single issue scarce: no copy on COPAC. Chambers Miscellany was originally published between 1844 and 1847.

Original finished coloured comic drawing, showing a large penguin [Jan Tschichold?] dragging a bearded man [Montague Shaw?] who clutches a set of letters spelling 'Fabers', signifying the man's move from the publishers Faber & Faber to Penguin Books.

Author: 
[Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd; Jan Tschichold, typographer for Penguin Books]
Original finished coloured comic drawing
Publication details: 
[London.] 1966.
£200.00
Original finished coloured comic drawing

Dimensions 29 x 12 cm. Pasteboard mount, 31 x 14.5 cm. In blue, black and white. In good condition on lightly-aged paper. In front of a background of ricketty railings, a jolly bespectacled penguin [with Tschichold's sprightly eyes], with a Penguin book under his left arm, and preceded by a letter P and followed by an n, drags a bespectacled, bearded man (looking a little like a young Michael Bentine) towards the right of the drawing.

Corrected galley proof of nonsense poem by 'M. S.' [the Faber & Faber production manager Montague Shaw?] entitled 'Cowkeeper's Tune'.

Author: 
[Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd]
Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd
Publication details: 
[Undated. London: Faber & Faber, 1950s?]
£50.00
Montague Shaw, production manager, Faber & Faber Ltd

The text area is about 13.5 x 30 cm, on the top half of a slip of paper around twice as long. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The lower half of the slip is blank apart from the pagination 196. Headed 'EPILOGUE | COWKEEPER'S TUNE', and beginning 'Unless your window is fitted with very strong iron bars and, just to make sure, your window locks, | Do not attempt to keep a Dexter cow in your window box.' Signed in type at end 'M.

[Printed handbill.] Books Printed for and Sold by Cornelius Crownfield at the University-press in Cambridge.

Author: 
Cornelius Crownfield (fl.1710-1740), Inspector of the Press, Cambridge University [Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; Cambridge University Press]
Books Printed for and Sold by Cornelius Crownfield at the University-press in Ca
Publication details: 
Cambridge. [Circa 1716.]
£380.00
Books Printed for and Sold by Cornelius Crownfield at the University-press in Ca

12mo, 2 pp. On disbound leaf. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Drop-head title. First page with, and second page without, catchword. Ten learned works are listed, beginning with the ill-fated 'Suidae Lexicon, Graece & Latine' ('3 Vol. Folio, 1710'). The earliest dates from 1706 and the latest from 1716. According to the Victoria County History, it was under Richard Bentley that 'Crownfield ('a Dutchman . . .

Nine Typed Letters Signed, one Typed Note Signed and one Autograph Card Signed (all eleven 'Nicolette') from the author and artist Nicolette Devas to the military historian Antony Brett-James.

Author: 
Nicolette Devas [née Macnamara; other married name Shephard] (1911-1987), author and artist [Antony Brett-James (1920-1984), military historian and Sandhurst lecturer]
Nicolette Devas
Publication details: 
[1960-74?] All from West London. Card postmarked 11 October 1960, on cancelled letterhead of Anthony Devas, 12 Carlisle Square. Three items (none with year) on letterhead 18 Wetherby Gardens; seven (two from 1974) on letterhead 68 Limerston Street.
£550.00
Nicolette Devas

Apart from the card (12mo, 1 p), totalling 4to, 10 pp; 12mo, 2 pp. All items in good condition, with text clear and complete, on lightly-aged paper. All post-1960. Two of the eleven (20 January and 13 June 1974) are fully dated by Devas; another four have day and month. The card from 1960 is the earliest item; the three from Wetherby Gardens date from between this point and Devas's second marriage to Rupert Shephard in 1965, and the seven from Limerston Street from after the marriage. A good-natured correspondence, written in a chatty style.

Galley proofs of Damon Knight's 1962 anthology 'A Century of Science Fiction'.

Author: 
Damon Knight (1922-2002), American science-fiction writer and editor
Publication details: 
New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1962.
£350.00

126 galleys, numbered in type, each 60 x 15 cm, and containing the text of two pages. Text clear and complete. On aged paper, with fraying and light staining to some extremities. Red Simon and Schuster label, with typed publication date and price, on reverse of last leaf. Under seven headings from 'Robots' to 'Marvelous Inventions', and featuring the work of authors from Jules Verne to Brian W. Aldiss. Introduction and linking passages by Knight himself. Although present in the proofs, one story - 'The Mindworm' by C. M.

Autograph Letter Signed ('John Murray') from the London publisher John Murray IV to Colonel Spencer Childers, regarding his biography of his father the Liberal Chancellor Hugh Culling Eardley Childers.

Author: 
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher [Colonel Edmund Spencer Eardley Childers (1854-1919), son of Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-96)]
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher
Publication details: 
April 1901; on letterhead of 50 Albemarle Street.
£56.00
Sir John Murray IV (1851-1928), London publisher

12mo, 4 pp. 40 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Spencer'. He is sorry to have missed Childers: 'I came back early on Sat: morning fairly driven home by the weather.' Reports that 'Better reviews of the book are now appearing Athenaeum - evidently by Dilke: Tablet: Pall Mall &c.' Thinks 'Clarke will use his influence with the Times', the idea that 'King' has done so being 'entirely out of the question'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Fred Norgate') from the London publisher Frederick Norgate (of the firm Williams & Norgate) to [John] Lawler, concerning the printer William Caxton and bookseller Bernard Quaritch.

Author: 
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher, of the firm Williams & Norgate [Bernard Quaritrch; William Caxton; John Lawler]
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher,
Publication details: 
29 July 1902; 7 Edith Road, London.
£56.00
Frederick Norgate (1817-1908), British publisher,

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. 47 lines. Text clear and complete. On aged paper, wear and fraying to extremities. The cutting which Lawler leant him 'has helped me to trace one stage further in the wanderings of more than one vagabond Caxton'. Refers to John Winter Jones's discovery of a copy in the British Museum of the 'Quatre Derrenieres Choses', 'now more than 50 years ago [...] it has remained absolutely unique until our old friend at 15 Piccadilly [Bernard Quaritch] came upon a 2nd copy'.

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