Literature

THE PELICAN PRES: A small collection from the Papers of Walter Corrie, Sign and Glass Writer, formerly with Victoria House/Pelican Press

Author: 
Francis Meynell; Stanley Morison; and later]
Publication details: 
[1918-1927 and Christmasses beyond]
£350.00

1.Of Printers' Flowers ("Contributed to the B. Franklin No. of the AMERICAN PRINTER", Pelican Press, 1922)2.[FOUR SPECIMEN PAGES] "IN THE FOUR SPECIMEN PAGES WE SHOW […]"3.New Year's Card (Pelican Press, 1923)4.[Programme] Victoria House & Pelican Press Annual Outing to Margate on Eleventh June MCMXXVII 5."A Christmas Greeting sent by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Meadem and Family […] (Printed by A.H.M [Arthur Meaden, Works Manager] at the Pelican Press […]).6.Sundry Christmas Cards to Walter Corrie & Family, many sent by people (and families) listed on 5. (Programme for Outing), i.e.

Autograph manuscript of the poem 'To Helena on her Birth day' by the English author Thomas Haynes Bayly, addressed to his wife, and apparently unpublished.

Author: 
Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), English poet, after Thomas Moore the most popular songwriter of his period in England
Publication details: 
Without place. [1830]
£120.00

1p., 4to. On laid paper watermarked 'G & R TURNER | 1829'. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Docketed on the reverse 'Bayley [sic] | 1830' and 'By Thomas Haynes Bayly, Poet | Author of "I'd be a butterfly etc etc'. The poem is sixteen lines long, and begins: 'My own Love! my true Love! here's health & joy to you Love, | A happy year without a tear & sweet smiles not a few Love! | Of all my anniversaries, I prize your Birth day best.

Autograph Letter Signed from Welsh poet Richard Llwyd, 'The Bard of Chester', to Sir Foster Cunliffe of Acton, sending 'the Blackburnian poem' and hoping for a reparation of 'the breach' [with John Blackburne, Tory MP for Lancashire?].

Author: 
Richard Llwyd (1752-1835), Welsh poet and antiquary, known as 'The Bard of Chester' [Sir Foster Cunliffe (1755-1834) of Acton Park, near Wrexham; John Blackburne (1754-1833), of Hale Hall]
Publication details: 
Bank Place, Chester. 27 April [1821?].
£150.00

1p., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed, with broken seal in red wax, on reverse of second leaf to 'Sir Foster Cunliffe Bar - | Acton | Wrexham'. Chester postmark dated 27 April [1821?]. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He is enclosing 'the Blackburnian poem which arrived this morning by the Carrier -' (the poem is not present). The second paragraph reads: 'Classical Rats are voracious - they read with a vengeance - yet I hope that the breach is not beyond the powers of reparation'. From the papers of John Blackburne, through the antiquary Dr James Kendrick.

Autograph Letter Signed from the New York printer Walter Gilliss, presenting the journalist Clement Shorter with 'a little book written and made by me many years ago'.

Author: 
Walter Gilliss (1855-1925), New York printer [The Gilliss Press; Clement King Shorter (1857-1926), British journalist and literary critic]
Publication details: 
On Gilliss's own letterhead (with device of The Gilliss Press), Room 903, Mohawk Building, 160 Fifth Avenue, New York. 8 December 1923 [amended by Gilliss from 21 November 1923].
£120.00

1p., landscape 12mo. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. The letter reads: 'Dear Mr. Shorter: | You were so good as to admire the Stevenson printed by Doubleday, Page & Co., which was my handiwork to a large extent, and so, I am sending you a copy of a little book written and made by me many years ago, which I hope may interest you for an idle quarter-hour, (if you ever have one at your disposal). | Wishing you all the compliments of the season. | Yours sincerely | Walter Gilliss'.

[Printed handbill poem.] "La Belgique Martyre." Poème du maître belge Emile Verhaeren, dont la publication a été autorisée par l'auteur comme contribution a l'oeuvre "Asiles des Soldats Invalides Belges."

Author: 
Emile Verhaeren [Asiles des Soldats Invalides Belges; German war crimes in Belgium; the First World War]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Circa 1918.]
£220.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. The poem, of 60 irregular lines, is placed (with a facsimile of Verhaeren's signature at the foot) within a thick floral border, reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts movement. It begins: 'Ce n'est qu'un bout de sol dans l'infini du monde. | Le Nord | Y déchaîne le vent qui mord. | Ce n'est qu'un peu de terre avec sa mer au bord | Et le déroulement de sa dune inféconde.' Scarce: no copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale, on COPAC or in the Imperial War Museum.

Autograph Letter Signed from the American artist Edwin Howland Blashfield to 'Mr. Thomas' [the playwright Augustus Thomas], regarding the National Institute of Arts and Letters [later the American Academy of Arts and Letters].

Author: 
Edwin Howland Blashfield (1848-1936), American artist, President of the National Institute of Arts and Letters [Augustus Thomas (1857-1944), American playwright; American Academy of Arts and Letters]
Publication details: 
On his letterhead of 48 Central Park South, New York City. 14 November [1915?].
£120.00

1p., 12mo. 25 lines, neatly and tightly written. In good condition, lightly-aged, and with pin hole to one corner. Blashfield declares himself 'much disappointed' that Thomas will not be presiding 'at the joint meeting on the 17th. Nov.', stating that he has been urging 'from the beginning' that Thomas should 'so preside'.

Autograph Card Signed ('Edmund C. Stedman') from the American poet Edmund Clarence Stedman to 'Mrs. Ferris', regarding the marriage of the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson to Emily Sellwood.

Author: 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), American poet, writer and scientist, educated at Yale University
Publication details: 
New York. 14 November 1890.
£90.00

On one side of a 9 x 11.5 cm piece of card. In good condition, lightly-aged and with a couple of minor spots. Reads: 'New York, Novr. 14th. 1890 | Dear Mrs. Ferris, | In 1850, [date underlined] Alfred Tennyson married Miss Emily Sellwood, daughter of Henry Sellwood, of Horncastle, & took up his residence at Twickenham. He was made Poet Laureate the same year, & was then 41 years old. | Sincerely yrs., | Edmund C. Stedman.'

Cabinet Photograph, head & shoulders, Signed "Charlotte Mary Yonge"

Author: 
Charlotte M. Yonge
"Charlotte Mary Yonge"
Publication details: 
Elliott & Fry, no date
£135.00
"Charlotte Mary Yonge"

110 x 150mm, albumen print laid down on larger card, very good condition

Manuscript Fair Copy, in an eighteenth-century hand, transcribing two poems: 'Prize Monody on the Death of David Garrick Esqr. ffor the Vase at Bath-Easton, By Miss [Anna] Seward.' and 'To Miss Seward | Impromptu' by 'W[illiam] H[ayley].'

Author: 
Anna Seward (1742-1809), poet known as 'The Swan of Lichfield'; William Hayley (1745-1820), poet and patron of William Blake [David Garrick (1717-1779); Bath Easton, villa of Sir John Riggs Miller]
Publication details: 
Seward's poem dated 'Bath-Easton (the Villa of Sir John Miller,) near Bath | ffeb. 11. 1779.' Hayley's poem without place or date.
£220.00

Totalling 5pp., 4to, with Seward's poem on the first 3pp., and Hayley's on the following 2pp. Disbound from a notebook. In good condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper which has been cropped at the foot, resulting in the loss of two lines of text from Hayley's poem, and with the strip with the trimmed line from the foot of the first page of Seward's poem laid down at the head of the second page.

Printed collection of four Irish poems, with scores and illustrations, headed 'A Broadside': 'Pharao's Daughter' ['attributed to Michael Moran - 'Zosimus'']; 'The Riddle Song'; 'The Rose Tree' by W. B. Yeats (music by Arthur Duff); 'Famine Song'.

Author: 
[Irish ballads; Cuala Press; Colm O Lochlainn]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Ireland, 1960s?]
£100.00

4pp., 4to. Printed on brown paper. In good condition, lightly-aged and with one corner dogeared. The only copy traced on OCLC WorldCat in the Thomas P. O'Neill Library at Boston College, in whose entry it is tentatively dated to the 1960s, with the note about the series to which it belongs: 'Primarily a selection and reprinting from Cuala Press' collected edition of Broadsides (new series), originally issued Jan.-Dec.

Memorandum, signed twice by Rudyard Kipling, of a deposit made by him at the London City and Midland Bank Limited's Newgate branch, with corresponding receipt signed for the branch manager by J. H. Coulson.

Author: 
Rudyard Kipling [Joseph Rudyard Kipling] (1865-1936), English writer and poet; J. H. Coulson, Manager, London City and Midland Bank Limited, Newgate Street, London
Publication details: 
The London City and Midland Bank Limited, Newgate Branch [London]. Both documents dated 7 December 1910.
£250.00

The two documents were originally attached along a perforated line, and both bear the serial number 115476. Having been detached, they have been reattached by a strip of light brown paper. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Both are forms, printed in red and black, and both are filled in by Coulson, regarding a deposit by Kipling of '£500 (Five hundred pounds) Grand Trunk Pacific Branch Lines Co. First Mortgage Sterling Bonds' and '$2500 (Two thousand five hundred dollars) Northern New Brunswick & Seaboard Rly Co. 4% Gold Bonds'.

Ten loose uncoloured india-paper proofs of the steel engravings of illustrations (from designs by the Marchioness of Waterford) accompanying the poem 'The Babes in the Wood', published in London by Joseph Cundall.

Author: 
[Joseph Cundall (1818-1895) of 12 Old Bond Street, London publisher and photographer; Louisa Anne Beresford [née Stuart], Marchioness of Waterford (1818-1891), watercolour painter and philanthropist]
Publication details: 
London: Joseph Cundall, Mdcccxlix. [1849.]
£320.00

Each proof is on 29 x 23 cm paper, and each is laid down on a piece of 38 x 31.5 cm card. In good condition, on lightly-aged and spotted paper, with wear and bumping to mount. The first engraving The Spectator for 23 December 1848 carried an advertisement by Cundall for 'ILLUSTRATED WORKS BY LADY AMATEURS', at the head of which was 'THE BABES IN THE WOOD. Illustrated with Ten Original Designs, Etched on Steel. | Colombier 8vo. price 1l. 1s.; or Coloured after the Drawings, 2l. 2s.

Byron painted by his Compeers; or, All about Lord Byron, from his marriage to his Death, as given in the various newspapers of his day [...]

Author: 
[Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lady Byron, etc.]
Publication details: 
London: Samuel Palmer, 20, Catherine Street, DStrand [London], 1869
£200.00

112pp., 8vo, printed paper wraps, 4pp. insert (advts) at back, wraps grubby, slight chipping, spine worn. Information (about its purchase?) written top front cover

Autograph Letter Signed ('Gerald Massey') from the poet and writer Thomas Gerald Massey to the autograph hunter John Bacon of Blackburn, discussing his English publications, and stating that he is 'busy with the real Work of my life'.

Author: 
Gerald Massey [Thomas Gerald Massey] (1828-1907), English poet and writer [John Bacon of Blackburn, autograph hunter]
Publication details: 
New Southgate, London N. 11 August 1882.
£150.00

2pp., 4to. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. In envelope, with postmark and stamp, addressed to 'John Bacon Esqr.

[Verse] Thought (Signed at end "Ann S. Stephens").

Author: 
Ann S. Stephens, American "dime" novelist.
Publication details: 
Washington, 29 June 1866.
£100.00

One page, 17.5 x 12cm, 8 lines, heavy grey paper, corner smudged, good condition. Title "Thought". "Give me thought - glorious thought [...] | To the sight of a flower; | Though it trembles and shrinks | From the touch of its thorn." Note: She was not known for her verse.

Five poems by Captain H. W. Windsor Aubrey, R.A.M.C.: two holographs (including 'The Yellow Peril. Dedicated to the German Emperor'), one with typed copy, two others typed and one mimeographed; four concerning Delhi Barracks, Tidworth.

Author: 
Captain Henry Wentworth Windsor Aubrey (c.1859-1934), M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. [R.A.M.C. Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Wiltshire; Brimstone Bottom]
Publication details: 
One of the six items on R.A.M.C. letterhead, Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Salisbury Plain [Wiltshire]; dated 20 February 1918. Four of the others also 1918, and the sixth 1904.
£180.00

Henry Wentworth Windsor Aubrey was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Dorset Regiment Militia on 21 April 1875, and resigned his commission three years later. He qualified as a Doctor in 1885 and practiced in Clifton, where he was a keen cricketer and golfer. During the First World War he served in the RAMC, reaching the rank of Temporary Captain (Home) on 1 December 1917. The six items (including Item Four, a typescript of Item Three) are in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

Typescript titled 'William Wordsworth. | his Books.' Divided into 19 'lots'.

Author: 
[The Library of William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Poet Laureate]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [1910s?]
£150.00

8pp., on eight leaves of foolscap 8vo, with a ninth leaf carrying the title (headed 'Library' in manuscript). Fair, on aged and creased paper. The first page carries four entries, all beginning in 'A', from W. P. Alison's 'Remarks on the Poor Laws etc of Scotland, 1844' to a total of 54 volumes of the Annual Register. The four items are attributed the lot numbers 1, 3, 2 and 4 in manuscript. The second page carries seven items beginning with 'B' (ending with 'Border Laws 1705.'), with the first and second given lot numbers in manuscript.

Holograph extract of a translation from the German of Wieland's 'Oberon' by the English poet William Sotheby, beginning 'Sweet Isle! methinks once more I hear'.

Author: 
William Sotheby (1757-1833), English poet and translator [Christoph Martin Wieland, German author of 'Oberon']
Publication details: 
No place. 26 September 1804.
£120.00

1p., 8vo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of previous mounting along two edges. Headed, in a contemporary hand: 'Given to Mrs. Richards by Miss Calhoun Fanshawe'. 22 lines of verse, in couplets. Signed in the bottom right-hand corner, apparently at a later date than the rest of the text: 'William Sothbey | Sepr 26 - 1804'. The extract - possibly written out by Sotheby for an acquaintance - begins: 'Sweet Isle!

Autograph Letter Signed ('W C Bennett') from William Cox Bennett to J. T. Baron, boasting that his magazine 'The Lark' is a 'powerful influence'; naming Gladstone, Tennyson and other contributors; and urging the 'Newsvendors' of Blackburn to buy it.

Author: 
William Cox Bennett (1820-1895), English journalist and poet, editor of 'The Lark' [John T. Baron of Blackburn, Lancashire, autograph hunter]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Hyde Cottage, 68 Royal Hill, Greenwich, SE. 27 November 1883.
£120.00

3pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. In original envelope, with stamp and postmark, addressed by Bennett to 'John T Baron Esq. | 48 Griffin Street | Blackburn | [signed] W C Bennett'. He begins by informing Baron that four numbers of 'The Lark' have already been published.

[Printed pamphlet.] Poems from the Diary of a V. A. D. By Carrie Portelly.

Author: 
Carrie Portelly (1893-1966), V.A.D., of Buckfast, Devon [Voluntary Aid Detachment; field nurse; nursing]
Publication details: 
Printed by Edwin Trim & Co. Ltd. Wimbledon S.W.19. Undated, but individual poems dated between September 1938 and October 1942.
£150.00

[1] + 38pp., 12mo. Stapled into brown printed wraps, with the title and printer's slug on the cover, which also carries the price of two shillings and sixpence. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Introductory note reads: 'These few pages refer to war-time troubles at home and in hospital, and other people's love laments. C.P.' Unpretentious poetry, giving an insight into the work of a V.A.D.

Holograph Poem by American author George Steele Seymour, titled 'Emerson's House, Concord, Mass.'

Author: 
George Steele Seymour of the Order of Bookfellows, Chicago [Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American essayist, lecturer and poet]
Publication details: 
Presented 'to Mrs. Steele in Los Angeles - August 23, 1918.'
£250.00

1p., 8vo. On yellow paper. On lightly-aged paper, with slight wear and creasing along one edge, and thin stub from previous mounting adhering to the reverse. The poem is twenty lines long, arranged in five stanzas, and signed at the foot 'George Steele Seymour'. Beneath this, in Seymour's hand: 'Special greetings to Mrs.

Autograph Note in the third person from the English poet Walter Savage Landor to Lord Londesborough, declining an invitation because of the 'crowded state of London'.

Author: 
Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), English poet and author of the 'Imaginary Conversations' [Albert Denison Denison (1805-1860), 1st Baron Londesborough [Lord Londesborough]]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [London, 1840s?]
£100.00

1p., 12mo. On bifolium. Good, on aged paper. The note reads: 'Mr Landor has to acknowledge the honor of Lord Londesborough's invitation for May 21. The crowded state of London will not permit him to make his usual visit there in Spring, and among his regrets is his inability to pay his respects to Lord Londesborough.'

[Manuscript Notebook] "Rebecca Diary" [Notes concerning the libretto of the opera "Rebecca", music by Wilfred Josephs], based on the Daphne du Maurier novel

Author: 
[Wilfred Josephs, composer (1927-1997)] Edward Owen Marsh, librettist, author, translator (Anouilh, Cocteau, Gogol, etc)
Publication details: 
[Opera matinée 1983]
£280.00

Circa 78pp., used, some pages added, text worked over, red boards, hinge strain, mainly good condition. Indexes to Acts, lines through manysections. Contents include: questions for Wilfred [Josephs] ("Sets? | Scenes? | Act II???"]; stage directions; suggestions about characters; directions; music ("(5) Mrs v H [van Hopper] tells A. she is hopeless against Rebecca"); "final faults"; sets; dialogue; problems; phone numbers and addresses; more (detailed) points for Wilfred [Josephs]; suggested lines for a duet; characters with actors' names e.g. Mrs v. H[oppen] Nuala Willis (as happened); etc.

Printed broadside ballad titled 'Old Coal's Joke.' [A satire on King George IV's marriage to Queen Caroline, parodying the nursery rhyme of 'Old King Cole'.]

Author: 
[King George IV of the United Kingdom (1762-1830) [previously Prince Regent] and his wife Queen Caroline [Caroline of Brunswick] (1768-1821); Hodgson & Co., printers; broadside ballad]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [London: Hodgson & Co., 1821?]
£50.00

On one side of a strip of wove paper, 46.5 x 9.5 cm. Cut down. In fair condition, on aged and lightly ruckled paper. 96 lines arranged in 12 numbered eight-line stanzas.

Holograph copy of poem (signed 'R. M.') by Richard Mant, beginning 'Bow, Britons, Bow the haughty head' ['War Song'], written out for Anna Maria, wife of George Parker, Vicar of Bampton, and like Mant a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.

Author: 
Richard Mant (1776-1848), Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore [Anna Maria [née Parker], wife of George Richards (1767-1837), Vicar of Bampton; Oriel College, Oxford]
Publication details: 
Oriel College, Oxford. 15 June 1803.
£85.00

3pp., 4to. On bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with half of a black wax seal, 'For | Mrs. Richards | Bampton.' This copy was made within a month of the composition of the poem, for the wife of a fellow Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. The recto of the second leaf carries the following note by Mant: 'with Mr. Mant's best compliments to Mrs. Richards. | Oriel Coll. June 15th.

Unpublished holograph poem (signed 'J. F. Hollings') by the Leicester poet and local historian James Francis Hollings, entitled 'Edgehill', regarding the English Civil War battle, 1642.

Author: 
James Francis Hollings (1806-1862), poet and local historian, President of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society [Leicestershire; English Civil War; Battle of Edgehill, 1642;]
Publication details: 
Without place place or place, on paper with watermarked date 1831. [Leicester, 1830s?]
£120.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. On wove paper watermarked 'R TASSELL | 1831'. 56 lines, arranged in seven eight-line stanzas. Presentable, despite wear and age, closed tears along crease lines, and traces of yellow-paper mount on blank reverse of second leaf. There is no sign that this item was ever published, which is surprising, as it is a superior effort, written with some conviction, the subject being one on which Hollings was regarded as an authority.

Autograph Letter Signed from W. B. Dunlop to 'Mr. Hodge' [Chairman of Sotheby's Tom Hodge], discussing the acquisition for the Burns Cottage Museum of a copy of the Kilmarnock Edition of Robert Burns, with reference to prices fetched by other copies.

Author: 
W. B. Dunlop, cousin of William Hamilton Dunlop of Downside [Tom Hodge (1860-1939), Chairman of Sotheby's; Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway; George Seton Veitch of Paisley; Robert Burns]
Publication details: 
7 Carlton Street, Edinburgh. 23 July 1903.
£180.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Dunlop begins by informing Hodge that his cousin William Hamilton Dunlop of Downside, Ayrshire, 'has purchased as one of the Burns Monument Trustees the "Veitch" of Paisley copy of the Kilmarnock Burns for £1000'. He describes the book as 'the most perfect copy known uncut & with both blue paper covers much better than the Lamb copy.' Dunlop is 'glad it has been secured for the Burns Cottage Museum at Alloway & is not going across the fish pond [i.e.

Printed handbill anti-Catholic poem by Mary Frances Tupper of Albury, titled 'The Ritualists, Beware! They are Fooling Thee.'

Author: 
Mary Frances Tupper, daughter of the poet Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889) [the Middle Hill Press of Sir Thomas Phillipps]
Tupper
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [Cheltenham: Middle Hill Press, 1870.]
£50.00
Tupper

On one side of a piece of wove paper, 15.5 x 9.5 cm. In fair condition, on aged paper, with one creased corner and a small nick at the head. The drop-head title is in capitals, with the second line having only the opening quotation marks (before the initial word 'BEWARE'). The poem is 29 lines long, with three seven-line stanzas followed by an eight-line one. At the foot of the poem: 'Albury. Mary Frances Tupper.' The first stanza reads 'The stamp of Rome is on their heart, | Take care! take care! | They play the Jesuits' crafty part, | Beware! beware!

Printed copy of letter from the Poet Laureate Robert Bridges, headed 'To the Donors of the Clavichord', in facsimile of his handwriting, with collotype print of photographic portrait of Bridges, seated at the instrument, by Lady Ottoline Morrell.

Author: 
Robert Bridges [Robert Seymour Bridges] (1844-1930), British Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930 [Lady Ottoline Morrell; Emery Walker; Arnold Dolmetsch]
Publication details: 
Letter dated 'Chilswell Dec 1924.' The photograph engraved by Emery Walker.
£150.00

Nicely printed on laid paper, on sheet folded to make a bifolium, with the facsimile of the letter on the reverse of the first leaf, and the photograph of Bridges facing it on the recto of the second. As he is unable 'to write personal thanks to each of the many friends who contributed to honour my 80th birthday by their lovely gift', he asks them to accept the photograph 'as a memento'. 'Apart fr.

Autograph Letter Signed "Edward George Lytton Bulwer", to [Barbarina Lady Dacre], about her Poems (published 1821).

Author: 
Edward Bulwer Lytton, novelist
Publication details: 
Knebworth, Saturday morning [n.d. - pre-1844 when he became Bulwer-Lytton].
£120.00

One page, 8vo, laid down on another paper, fold marks and slightly crumpled, trimmed with loss of part of "K" of "Knebworth" only, otherwise text clear and complete. "It is with many thanks that Ireturn your Ladyship's Poems [...] I must differ from your Ladyship in the remark that 'Tragedy is not the field for female powers- I cannot help particualrly admiring the nobleness of the characters you have described, & the sentiments they atter are such as Man should utter.

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