Literature

One page, folio, 22 x 35cms, a trifle battered but clear and complete, with three minor additions in Condon's hand, along with bracketing and underlining of sentences and phrases perhaps the work of Davies. As well as having the Dial Press Address it has a printed advertisement for Condon's New novel 'Arigato'. See Image.

44[3]pp., 4to (25.3cm), in three 8-leaf gatherings, not bound, browning of the edges of several pages, commencing with half-title and concluding with printing information and number of copies (this not numbered!) ([3v] and a blank ([3r]). Preface by Christopher Sykes and Postscript by Christopher Wood. The statement As proofed 8-7-82 is written on the first page of all gatherings (hand unidentified, see below), and there are occasional marginal corrections (not in Waugh's hand).

One page, 26 x 20cm, pronounced fold marks, small hole not affecting the text, card backing half the page, top edge stained with remnants of backing[?], text clear and complete. Entitled Lines Written in Depreciation, Commences: Just as a play by Aeschylus or Ibsen | Doesn't inspire one to compose charades, | So am I loth to follow Mr Gibson | With one of my ignoble pasquinades. [Two further verses, concluding]: Though Burns has (doubtless) said 'All men are brothers' | Let me not spoil your lovely album [withers?] | By | Max Beerbohm | J.D. See image for full text.~ ~ ~

An apparent forgery of a letter the text of which is quoted in Hallam Tennyson’s 1897 memoir of his father. 1p, 12mo. On discoloured wove paper. Aged, and with repair with archival tape at extremities on reverse. Folded twice for postage. Reads: ‘Aldworth / Oct 25 - 76 / My dear Mrs Gladstone / On Monday then - if all be well. As you are good enough to say that you will manage everything rather than lose my visit - you must manage that I may have my pipe in my own room whenever I like? / Yours ever / A Tennyson/’.

Postcard, 13.5 x 8.5cm, good conditiuon. Text: You asked me to let you know when any English writers are here - Anthony Powell & his wife are at the Hotel d'Angleterre, [word not deciphered] Jacob. | I'm too busy with my party etc to organize anything at the moment, but I'm sure you would enjoy a chat with him & so would he. If not [word undeciphered] do ring him up [de ma part?]. See you I hope on Wednesday & Madame Antonini - it will be the world & his wife!

Letter One: [No envelope; undated] One page, 8vo, good condition. Text: Forgive me for not having written before to thank you for your very kind letter, but I have had something like five hundred letters & telegrams of congratulation & they have been a job to deal with. It was very kind of you to write. I am just off to England to receive the insignia. [Maugham was made a Companion of Honour in 1954 if that indicates the date of the letter(?)]; Letter Two: Postmark 24 Oct. 1934 and dated Oct. 34 (though the '3' looks like a '2'), Two pages, 8vo, good condition.

Pamphlet, 16pp., 8vo, sl. grubby, inside cover, sl. strained, with a number 'R30668' at bottom. Only one copy recorded on WorldCat (none on COPAC) with inaccurate publishing data (Print Book, English, [1953?]Publisher: [Notts. Newspapers], [Hucknall, Notts.], [1953?]). See Images of front cover of pamphlet.

Thirty (30) pages (some material on the verso also), 8vo, good+ condition, an attractive handwriting. The first nine page are paginated; the last 21 not. [[P.18] announces "INTERVAL" after a few lines, and [P.19] commences "PART TWO. It comprises substantial and attractive transcriptions (quotations from) of Byron's letters and poems, reflecting Byron's life and relationships in his own words. I.e. autobiographical.  I would theorise that, given the length of the work, it was a lecture/performance to/for dedicated students of Byron, perhaps even The Byron Society.

The second of these ballads, 'Silver Threads Among the Gold', by the American Eben Eugene Rextord (1848-1916), was immensely popular on its release in 1873 with music by Hart Peas Danks (1834-1903). The earliest reference to the first ballad, 'Could you lend my mother a saucepan?' is in an 1885 number of 'All the Year Round'. The song is an absolute hoot, but its text is not to be found anywhere on the internet.

Bailey’s entry in the Oxford DNB describes the ‘remarkable popularity’ of the second edition of Festus in America: ‘seventeen ‘editions’ of a version pirated in Boston were called for in the first nine years, and it was also reprinted numerous times in Philadelphia, Louisville, and New York. Bailey became something of a 'lion' for visiting Americans of the transcendental stamp’, with Hawthorne visiting in the 1850s. 1p, 8vo. On brittle woodpulp paper, now discoloured with chipping to edges (resulting in loss to the word ‘Festus’ at the head) and with closed tears to the two folds.

An interesting letter regarding the man who was regarded as Ireland's national poet before the appearance of William Butler Yeats. See Croker’s entry, and that of Thomas Moore, in the Oxford DNB. The former contains a paragraph discussing the association between the two men, the conclusion of which explains the context of the present item: ‘At the end of his life Croker (by his own account) was working on a biography of Moore, whom he termed 'an actor—a hypocrite—a swindler—a sensualist and a habitual liar' (Irish Book Lover, 50).

See his entry, those of his sons Philip and Robert, and that of Taylor, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on discoloured and lightly-worn paper. Addressed to ‘My Dear Mr Taylor’ and signed ‘Alfred P. Graves’. He begins by enquiring after the state of the recipient’s health, before giving details of when Parliament ‘will probably be up’: ‘Otherwise I have no political news to interest you.

See Sitwell’s entry in the Oxford DNB. In his 1999 biography Philip Ziegler describes how the ‘doggerel polemic Rat Week’ ‘excoriated’ the supporters of the Edward VII and Mrs Simpson: ‘Osbert realised that this diatribe, if published, might land him in a flurry of libel actions, but he could not resist having a few copies made and distributed to his closer cronies; Mrs. Greville, Lady Aberconway, Lady Cholmondeley and Philip Frere among them.

Although there is no clear connection, the present unpublished poem dates from around the same time as Edward Lear was drawing watercolours in the place referred to in it. Vidya Dehejia’s‘Impossible Picturesqueness / Edward Lear’s Indian Watercolours, 1873-1875’ (1989) describes how Lear visited ‘The two small hill-stations of Matheran and Mahabaleshwar near Bombay’. Of the former Lear wrote: ‘Matheran by the bye, has most probably been the original Eden - I don’t mean the first Lord Auckland, - but Paradise -’.

Holograph of sixteen-line poem in four four-line stanzas, headed ‘Il tramonto’ and signed at bottom right ‘Andrea Maffei’. 1p, 16mo. Text entirely clear and complete, on discoloured laid paper with chipping and slight loss at right-hand margin. Begins: ‘Amo l’ova del girono che muore / Quando il sole già stanco declina,’. No variations from the version printed in the 1864 Florence edition of Maffei’s works, apart from ‘Una età’ beginning l.6 here, as opposed to ‘Un' età’ there.

See his entry and Chantrey's in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a trimmed-down piece of paper, roughly 11 cm square. Discoloured, and with damage to the corners (affecting one word at top right) from removal from mount. With postage folds, and evidence on otherwise-blank reverse that Cunningham was re-using an envelope: part of address in another hand to 'Mrs Pa[...]'. Reads: 'Mr. Allan Cunninghams respects to Mr. Tindal and begs to inform him that Sir Francis Chantrey is at Holkham at present and will not likely be back till after Christmas: should he come sooner Mr A. C.

Two pages, oblong 12mo, pencil markings, grubby in parts, text clear and complete.Down with a touch of Influenza, busy with letters & work, I'd no time to answer you. I hadn't time to think of any article. I've written Peace messages to Moscow, New Yor, Paris, Plymouth & Melbourne; so, you see, I've not been standing idle in the market place. | I was very, very sorry to hear of your father's (Bob) death. All in all, he was a grand generous lad. Too fond of Ulster, maybe, but none the worse of that same. | My sympathy to you, dear lass.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On the front cover of a 12 x 7 cm envelope, from which the seal has been torn away on the reverse. Otherwise in very good condition. A pleasing piece of calligraphy, with the word ‘Private’ centred and underlined at the head, and the address to ‘The Honble. Spencer Ponsonby. / Foreign Office’ across the central band, with the signature at bottom left: ‘Alaric Watts.’ See Image.

Pp.[VII][158], 4to, 1/4 lea, green boards, spine rubbed, contents good. Scarce. Ownership signature front free endpaper. John Carter | August 28, 1972. in red ink and with corrective annotations by Carter of the three page Preface , also in red ink. WITH related enclosed ALS, TLS, four pamphlets, and a brochure. A. Autograph Letter Signed Takata Takeuchi, author of the above, 2pp., 4to, to John Carter, 27 May 1972, asking after Carter's health, and explaining the delay in responding to Carter's letters.

Novelist. One page manuscript, c.6 x 8, presumably from Miss Mitford's letter book (numbered p.247), poor condition but the text is clear apart from two or three words. The page comprises the conclusion of one draft letter with her full signature, all with a line through, and the first fourteen lines of a draft letter to Sir William Elford, banker, politician, and amateur artist, 1 Dec. 1810, thanking him for his flattering comments and obviously responding to his idea that her poetry has caused illness in him.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 9 x 6 cm piece section from a letter and laid down on slightly larger and thicker piece of paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: '[...] / to subscribe myself / Your faithful Servant / W. Harrison Ainsworth. / Kensal Manor House, / Harrow Road. / March Four. 1843.' See IMage

The subject of this article is discussed by William M. Johnston, in his article ‘William Kinglake’s “A Summer in Russia”: A Neglected Memoir of Saint Petersburgh in 1845’ (TSLL, Spring 1967). The memoir was published anonymously by Ainsworth in the New Monthly Magazine, of which he was editor and proprietor, in three parts, but a German translation in the same year revealed Kinglake’s identity. See the entries for Ainsworth and Kinglake in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, casting light on Victorian journalistic practices. 4pp, 12mo. Forty lines of text. On a bifolium.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of Philip Dosse, proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018; and Michael Barber, 'What was Books and Bookmen?', Literary Review blog, 18 August 2023. On one side of a 14 x 10 cm compliments slip in red ink, which has 'Sir JOHN BETJEMAN' at top left, and 'With Compliments' centred.

See his entry, and those of Clarendon and Lister, in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of the Earl’s sister Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who was married to Lister. (See their entries in the Oxford DNB.) 1p, 12mo. Cochrane’s note is on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the list of books on the recto of the second. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to ‘Rt Hon The Earl of Clarendon’. Adopting a diplomatic approach, Cochrane writes: ‘My Lord, / Annexed is a list of the books had from the Library by Mr Lister, which have not been returned.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a 9 x 12.5 cm piece of paper: formerly the first leaf of a bifolium card, the second leaf, which carried the actual book token, having been detached by perforation. In good condition, lightly aged, but with traces of mount at the corners of the reverse, which carries a colour reproduction of a painting by Leonard Richmond. The page with the inscription is a printed form, and Masefield has written 'For Grace.' and 'John Masefield. / August the 31st. 1956.' See Image.

Talfourd’s entry in the Oxford DNB notes that he was ‘particularly loved’ by Dickens, and that he ‘provided the archetype of the idealistic Tommy Traddles in David Copperfield; his children Frank and Kate gave their names to two youngsters in Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby.’ The subject of the letter is the actor Henry Thomas Betty (1819-1897), son of ‘the young Roscius’ Henry Betty (1791-1874), whose entry in the ODNB also see. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, and with slight traces of mount on reverse. Folded for postage. Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Mr.

As John Cannon writes in Francis’s entry in the Oxford DNB, ‘The authorship of the Junius letters has been the subject of innumerable publications of various merit’, with the case for Francis, first proposed by John Taylor in 1816, ‘far the most probable’. The present item is of double interest: handwriting analysis has played a significant part in a number of publications, e.g. ‘The handwriting of Junius professionally investigated by Charles Chabot, expert; with preface and collateral evidence, by the Hon. Edward Twisleton’ (London, 1871).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of the recipient Lady [Maria] Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), Bart, Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). The three items are in good condition, lightly aged. Written in a difficult hand. ONE (13 June 1850, ‘Rolls House’): AL in the third person. 1p, 12mo. ‘Sir F.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is not named, but the item is from the papers of the author Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), successively wife of the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842) and the Liberal politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), all with entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Reads: ‘Many, many thanks for thinking of me! When I came to myself in the morning, I remembered something of a kind proposition you had made to me & resolved to call & learn more about it. / Monday the 9th.

The recipient Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865) was successively wife of the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842) and the Liberal politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863), all of whom have entries in the Oxford DNB. The present item is an 11.5 x 8 cm panel of light-brown paper from the front cover of an envelope. Part of a large Boston postmark is at the left, with a manuscript ‘2’ written over a few letters of the address. All in Ticknor’s hand, it reads: ‘Lady Teresa Lewis / South Place, / Knightsbridge / London, SW.’, with the signature ‘Geo: Ticknor’ at bottom left.