THEODORE

See his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Despite the Prince of Wales’s endorsement, the novelist Sally Emerson (b. 1954) proved to be the last editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’, which followed the suicide of the proprietor Philip Dosse of Hansom Books. (See her article ‘Death of a Bookman’, in Standpoint magazine, October 2018.) 2pp, 4to. On two leaves stapled together, the first with letterhead in blue ink with biblical quotation and illustration of a cross and a crown of thorns. Signed ‘T Noffs’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine.

A good letter, not the least of whose interest lies in the fact that it provides first-hand information about the Duke of Wellington. See Martin’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Begins: ‘Dear Mrs. Thomas, / Your variant of the King Lear story will, I am sure, delight Mr. Furness. Unfortunately King Lear has already been dealt with by him. It forms one volume of his magnificent Edition. But he loves every thing that concerns old England.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Fifty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Begins: Dear M. Van de Weyer / Altho' I had been prudent enough to preserve the appeal of M. Derôme to the Times in its original form, not the less welcome was the glorified text which I found on my table yesterday on our return from a short visit to Brighton. That charming appeal acted as a mental Conserve alimentaire to me, when it first appeared, and it shall be placed with certain other valued opuscules, where I can offen turn it to the like account.

See the two men's entries, with that of Helena Faucit, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Addressed to 'Shirley Brooks Esq' and signed 'Theodore Martin'. Brooks has evidently asked for autographs and photographs of Martin and his wife, the celebrated actres Helena Faucit (1817-1898). The letter begins: 'My dear Brooks / Here are the autographs you wish. There is not in all The Lady of Lyons one line to which any reasonable being could wish to attach his name. It is only the situations which are good for anything.

An excellent slice of Georgian London history. See his entry, and Hook’s, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Fifty-five lines of text. On bifolium. In fair condition, on discoloured and lightly-worn paper, with closed tear at foot of gutter. Also present is a typed transcript. The letter concerns a proposed three-day ‘excursion to the Medway’. Hook has engagements that will interefere, but Thompson undertakes to land him ‘safe at the Tower by seven o’clock on Saturday’.

In good condition, lightly aged and creased. With fold for postage. Begins: ‘S.P.A.B. decided it could not take corporate action but I think A W G is doing so. We have therefore passed our papers to Mr Basil Oliver of 148 High St Kensington, who is the Hon Secty. Please write further information to him. / A R Powys.’ Note: Siblings included John Cowper Powys, Llewelyn Powys, Theodore Francis Powys and Philippa Powys.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, on an 11 x 14 cm piece of paper cut down from 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor traces of glue from mount adhering to the blank reverse. The letter reads: ‘My dear Barker / I shall be most happy to join your agreeable party - Croker to whom I was engaged for Monday goes on from Apethorpe to Belvoir instead of coming home[,] so I am at liberty - Milne is I believe on a visit to the Marquess of Bute at Luton. / Yrs most truly / Theodore S Hook’.

For Powys and his two literary brothers see the Oxford DNB. On 11 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. The paper is discoloured with heavy spotting aroudnd the signature. Clearly a response to a request for an autograph, neatly written and centred on the paper, the only writing is the signature: ‘Theodore Frances Powys’. See image.

Hook’s entry in the Oxford DNB descibes his novel ‘Gilbert Gurney’ (1836) and its sequel ‘Gurney Married’ (1838) as made up of ‘thinly disguised portraits and a string of anecdotes from real life’. 1p, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, folded twice. On wove paper with C. Ansell watermark of 1834. The signature ‘Theo E Hook’ does indeed have a strange ‘hook’ on the end of it, which has led to a pencil note on the blank second leaf: ‘try Thos. E. Boot / Booth / author of “Gilbert Gurney”’.

See his entry and Fry’s in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘G O Trevelyan’. He has received Fry’s letter ‘in support of an application made by Mr. M. Hedley, a Verterinary Inspr. in Ireland, for increase of pay’, and will submit his recommendation ‘to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant’. The second leaf carries the name of Trevelyan’s parliamentary constituency Hawick at the head of the recto.

Two Pages, 12mo, very good condition. In original envelope, Free [signed] Edith K. Roosevelt and stamped Received Unsealed at Beverly, Mass, then address in letter writer's hand. Text of letter: After looking thro' the book about Coleridge's daughter I found I did not like it as much as I thought, - and I am sure you would not care for it. Those Lake Poets wrote some [underlined] beautiful poetry | but a quantity has come to us which is just dull [...] Brentanos sends you a short life of [?De] Quincey, which is all that it should be , & I hope you will feel as I do.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn, but with slight water staining and damage to blank area at foot of second leaf. The male recipient is not named. The letter begins: 'My dear Sir | If you present the enclosed to the porter of the Garrick Club, I have no doubt all the Art Treasures of the Garrick will be open to your inspection.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn, but with slight water staining and damage to blank area at foot of second leaf. The male recipient is not named. The letter begins: 'My dear Sir | If you present the enclosed to the porter of the Garrick Club, I have no doubt all the Art Treasures of the Garrick will be open to your inspection.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. He begins by informing the unnamed recipient that the reason for the delay in answering his letter is that Selous has 'just returned to this country from a trip to Hungary'. For his part, Selous will be 'very pleased if you will quote anything you like from my book, “Travel and Adventure in S. E. Africa”. He presumes that 'the publishers, to whom the book I suppose really belongs, will have no objection either, as to quote any passage from a book is to call attention to the book itself, which may result in the sale of a copy'.

Grant published six novels between 1870 and 1882, four of them published by Chapman & Hall, and two by Bentley. 1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. She is enclosing (not present) 'Piccadilly's cheque for "Hilda"' The poem he has submitted 'is really too deep and sad for my frivolous paper - in which we want something to brighten us up'. She hopes that when he feels better he will 'do some little thing in this line - Something Short [last word underlined] & humorous'.

192pp., 8vo., on 188 letterheads of the Village of Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Irregularly paginated to 179d. Six pages (6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17) are lacking, but the missing text is supplied in an accompanying typescript, with two carbon copies, of the first 31pp. of the manuscript, each of the three copies being 11pp., 8vo. The author of this memoir, Arthur Gilbert Bedell (b.c.1851), was printer and proprietor, with his brothers Edwin Bedell and George Canfield Bedell, of the Westchester Times.

79pp., 8vo. Tipped-in at front is an engraved plate of a bibliomaniac sitting reading in his crammed library, captioned 'MY DEN.' In good condition, lightly aged, in fake-vellum wraps, with medallion and title in gilt on lightly-worn cover. Inscribed by the book's printer Theodore De Vinne on front free endpaper: 'To David Douglas | With love of D V | Aet 1894'. No copy at the British Library, and none traced on COPAC.

On both sides of 7 x 11 cm. piece of paper, cut from a letter. On one side is the address: 'Monsr. Ventouillac | to the care of Master Morgan | From Miss Porter -'. And on the other a fragment of the letter: '<...> that the same volume will be so presented to him, by the Revd Mr. Pole and Mr. Ventouillac. Miss P - hopes Mr. V - <...> success in his <...>'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, with small printed slip from catalogue pasted above letterhead. The recipient is named as 'Mr. Green | Claremont House | Clapton'. Reads: 'Madam | My autograph can be of little value to any one, but in compliance with your wish so courteously expressed I enclose it & am | Madam | Faithfully yours | Theodore Martin'.

viii + [1] + 77pp., 8vo. In purple cloth binding, gilt. Internally good, on aged paper, in worn binding, with dulled gilt title on spine. Inscribed on flyleaf 'To | G. A. R. FitzGerald Esq | With the kind regards of | Theodore Martin | 3d April 1886.' Above this the ownership signature of 'R G E Sandbach', whose bookplate is on the front pastedown.

6 x 8 cm black and white photograph. In fair condition, lightly faded, with crease to one corner. Proctor's caption, in pencil on the reverse, reads; 'A group at Yerkes Obsy, Dec. 10, 1925. | Left to right | Otto Struve (Dr.) | N. T. Bobrovnikoff (student) | E. Zabler (janitor) | Mis Elizabeth Struve (Computer) | Alice Farnsworth (Dr); Margrethe Jorgensen (Computer) | Mrs. Sullivan (asst. in photo. dept.) | Mrs. Lee (Office Secretary) | Lela Cable (Computer) | This photo was made on a day when Messrs.

Each of the six issues in its original card wraps, the first four with cover design by Wyndham Lewis. Internally good, on lightly aged paper, in aged and worn wraps. A total of 176pp., 8vo. No.10 (May 1938), pp.29-54. No.11 ('Long poems by George Barker and Kenneth Allott', July 1938), pp.55-78. No.12-13 ('an attempt to get inside the covers of a small magazine a number of the best, and most representative, living poets born in America', October 1938), pp.79-118. No.14 (December 1938), pp.119-142. No.17 (April/May 1939), pp.1-26. No.18 ('A Special Number', June/July 1939), pp.27-62.

Piece of paper cut from letter, c.10 x 3.5cm, good condiiton. Part of text, posibly about travels, survives on verso, "town incur such a large [expenditure?] - on such a secondary question as good drinking water. I told him we would [word lost] him, his action being". On the recto, the subscription reads, "my [wife?] yours in kindest regards | Sincere [?] | H Blanc".

[4] + 47pp., 8vo. In printed wraps. Internally in fair condition, on aged paper, with slight staining to the corners; in worn and chipped wraps. A handsome production, as one might expect from one of the nine founders of the Grolier Club, with a two-page introduction followed by a full-page reproduction of the Ascensius printer's device, and 47 examples of pages set in various point sizes of Cushing, Ancient Roman, Jenson, Satanick, Louis XV, and Century Roman. No copy on COPAC, six American and one French on WorldCat.

192pp., 8vo., on 188 letterheads of the Village of Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Irregularly paginated to 179d. Six pages (6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17) are lacking, but the missing text is supplied in an accompanying typescript, with two carbon copies, of the first 31pp. of the manuscript, each of the three copies being 11pp., 8vo. The author of this memoir, Arthur Gilbert Bedell (b.c.1851), was printer and proprietor, with his brothers Edwin Bedell and George Canfield Bedell, of the Westchester Times.

6pp., 12mo. In very good condition, adhering to leaves removed from an album. Helps begins: 'My dear Martin, | This is one of the things you excel in - the giving, in a comparatively short memoir, the real aim and end of a life: so that after reading your "In memoriam", one does not care to hear any more details.' Helps 'really cannot find any fault' in Martin's piece. 'H[er]. M[ajesty] [i.e. Queen Victoria] must, I think, be exceedingly pleased with the book - I mean your work.

2pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. In worn envelope, with stamp and postmark, addressed by Martin to 'John T. Baron Esq | 48 Griffin Street | Witton | Blackburn'. He begins by explaining that he has 'had every minute so fully occupied of late', that he has not been able to comply with Baron's request. 'Lady Martin has done what she is now most reluctant to do - written the name she once bore with a few lines from Cymbeline. I have copied the verse you wish from the little Bon Gaultier Poem'.

The five items are in good condition, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Items One and Two: Typed drafts of a 'Statement of Qualifications', headed 'Lord Chorley's application for appointment to the lectureship in Evidence, Procedure and Criminal Law.' Both 2pp., 4to. Slightly different in layout, and with few (if any) textual differences. After describing his career Chorley writes: 'Although my chief legal study has been commercial law I had experience of teaching Evidence, Procedure and Criminal Law at the Law Society's School.