Literature

Handbill, one page, crudely coloured border with images of a black troubadour with banjo[?] , a native American, and a trapper [?], 26 x 17cm, three stanzas each eight lines plus chorus, edges chipped, laid down on a larger page. Commences, "Oh! listen a while., a story I will tell; | It will please you to death, I know berry well [...]" Decorative border signed "E A Sparks" ("Printed within colored pictorial border (De Marsan trapper border J, in Wolf, E. Amer. song sheets)." One copy of this imprint listed by WorldCat, two of another imprint (later).

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.

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.

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.

Full article published in Edinburgh Review, vol.21, pp.378-424. Manuscript, two pages, 4to, trimmed at bottom with loss of text, with light corrections and additions, giving the text for pp.407-8, excluding two lengthy quotations from the book to which Brougham gives the reference only. The trimming had led to the loss of the passage from "In the Conservatorii or charity schools [...] He gives as an instance one Conservatorio where four hundred ... where four hundred...",apart from a few words (subject of pasage partly "repentant women" and vice in Naples).

Two pages, 12mo, remnants from being tipped on to album page, , staining, text clear and complete. "I feel myself compelled, circumstanced as I ma - to decline all invitation. Were it otherwise I should with great pleasure avail myself of yours - | My friends are answering for themselves - & I am very sorry it will be in the negative - but as they have declined similar invitations from the persons who have paid them the same kind attention, they cannot with propriety make exceptions..."

Sent by Niven to his literary agent J. B. Pinker, whose date stamp is on the first of Secker's letters. All four items in fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Secker's first letter: 1p., 4to. He begins by praising 'Denny's display' [a window display of Niven's work in Denny's bookshop in the Strand]: 'I am wondering whether you managed to get the photograph into any of the papers. Shall I send it to the Bookman?' He continues: 'The sales [of Niven's novel The Porcelain Lady] up to date amount to 434 in England.

Two pages, c.17 x 14cm, paper trimmed with loss of text, staining making it difficult ro read some of text, text in another hand unless Scott's legal hand differed from his novelist's (see image on my website). Text of recto: "appears to be justly due at the date of the sequestration with all the expenses thereon And I the said George Brown Bind and Oblige myself and my foresaid to free and relieve the said James Orr and his foresaid of the cautionary Obligation above written and of all loss damages and expenses which he may incur or sustain in consequence thereof.

One page, 12mo,green paper, bifiolium (rest blank), 3 verses, 14 lines each (total 42 lines), preceded by the statement "Written for the Charity Bazaar") and 6 line quotation from Cowper ("Here stay thy foot; - how copious and how clear ... from an Eternal source"). Verses start "Welcome to Ikley! Lady fair ... That God hath bless'd the spring!". No other copy traced (none on COPAC etc). See scan on website inventory.

In ink on both sides of a 4to leaf of wove paper, watermarked 'J GREEN & SON / 1824'. None of Cruikshank's drawing or writing is affected, but one corner of the leaf has been cut away, and there is another thin strip cut from another. Fair, on aged paper. One page carries a full-length drawing of a bearded athletic man in shorts and sandals, making a sweeping theatrical gesture with his right hand, and holding a spear in his left. Beneath the drawing is Cruikshank's signature, and a study of the left foot.

The two leaves were evidently disbound from a copy of an edition of Dryden's Plutarch, in which the grey 4to leaf of writing paper following the 12mo printed leaf was one of those that interleaved the volume. In fair conditon, on lightly-aged paper. The two leaves are tipped in onto a larger leaf removed from an album. The printed leaf is 12mo, from volume 5 of Dryden's translation, with the pages numbered 511 and 612 [sic]. The two sides of the leaf carry a total of approximately 25 emendations and deletions.

Poem: On one side of a piece of 12mo paper. Fair, lightly-aged and a little ruckled, with traces of gum from previous mounting on the blank reverse. The 12-line poem is written in heroic couplets, and begins 'POOR, faithful animal, adieu! - | To Nature's kind affection true, | For fourteen years, thy grateful heart, | Devoted, play'd its humble part.' At the end a contemporary hand has ascribed the poem to 'B. B.', and the same hand gives the date as 'September 3d'.

Printed on one side of a 4to leaf, to which a black mourning border has been given by hand. Well printed on wove paper. Fair, on lightly-aged and ruckled paper. The author's name is not given, and the title reads 'SONNET | ON THE LATE | DUTCHESS [sic] OF GORDON.' The poem begins: 'IS then the bright expansive spirit flown, | That wont to animate the admiring throng? | Does the fair theme of many a poet's Song | Exist in pleasing memory alone?' The poem was also printed in 'The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, for 1810-1811' (London: F. C. and J.

1 p, folio. On grey paper. Fair, on aged paper, with slight spotting and chipping to extremities affecting a few words of text. A whole page of the manuscript, numbered '9' and written entirely in Reid's hand, with a few minor emendations by him, from Chapter XXVI, 'Treed by an Alligator'. Begins with the reported speech: '"That would be anything but pleasant - perhaps more so [last word emended from 'unpleasant'] to those who are waiting for us, than to ourselves.

4 pp, 12mo. Bifolium. 73 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Hood returned to England from Ostend in 1840, moving into Devonshire Lodge after trying other lodgings. A fine letter, informative, energetic and moving. Jane begins by thanking Mrs Elliot for the 'kind present to my Tom [the couple's son Thomas Hood the younger (1835-1874)]': 'I only wish you could have seen the happy boy - how proud he was - and indeed is, of his new appearance - he sends his love & best thanks. I am sorry to say he does not yet write a readable letter'.

'This Bibliographical Catalogue, compiled by Cecil Woolf and Alan Anderson, is limited to two hundred copies.' 8vo, 9 pp. In original green printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with single manuscript correction in green ink. Full-page introduction on Douglas by Moray McLaren. Scarce: the only copies on COPAC at Oxford, the British Library, and the National Library of Scotland.

3 pp, 12mo. Bifolium. 21 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Begins 'I shall really be very sorry, and I know that I speak for my chief, if you will not allow your paper to be published.' He considers it 'by far the most interesting and exhaustive of those that we have received, and its non-appearance some days ago is due to a hittch which occurred at the last moment.' He was 'so reluctant' that it should be lost, that he disregarded the 'excision that you made at my request'.

Forster's main objection is that the National Service questionnaire, sent out by the Society of Authors 'at the suggestion of the Ministry of Labour', asks members to 'give general particulars of their political opinions' (see Hansard, 25 May 1939). Four items. ONE. Priestley's letter, addressed to 'My dear Forster' by 'J. B. Priestley'. 1 p, 4to. Twenty lines. Fair, on aged paper.

4to, 2 pp. On bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Text clear and complete. The letter, of 39 lines, requests Herbert's opinion of 'the feasibility of a plan for the domestication of the Primated Grouse of the western prairies in this section of the country'. He writes because 'some few passages in your own writings have led me to know that one who has the heart of, and a desire to be a true sportsman, would not, if requesting a favor at your hand be overlooked'. Signed 'Titrao Cupido | Box 841 O.O. | Cleveland Ohio'. This has been lightly crossed-out in pencil, with the signature 'Jno.

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'.

12mo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Marked up for publication, with the first sentence deleted. On aged and stained paper. He 'can only say that your list seems to me as representative as any that could be drawn up', and that he does not 'feel in a position to offer any criticism upon it'. The edited version of Anstey's letter appeared with others in 'The Academy' in November 1897, in a piece with the opening sentence: 'We have received a large correspondence in response to our request for comment on the list of suggested members for an ACADEMY OF LETTERS published last week.'

Both items in good condition on aged paper. A dramatic, almost novelistic correspondence, regarding 'the Signora' (named in the second letter as 'Mme Sineo', who is staying at her house in Torquay and is apparently too frail to return to her London house. Letter One: Docketed 'No 1'. 12mo, 4 pp. Peard states that she has not 'written of late about the Signora. She has got fairly well again, but she does not seem to us fit to return to London, & I hear that her doctor does not think she ever will be fit.

8vo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. A covering letter for 'the supplementary article on Buffalo' (in the 'Encyclopaedia Americana' supplements to 'Encyclopaedia Britannica', 1883-1885, the first two volumes of which Thompson was editor).

13 x 7.5 card. Fair, on aged paper, with minor creasing to one corner. Stamped and addressed on one side to 'Mr. J. Charles Davis | Proctor's Theatre | New York'. The unsigned card (with the words 'and United States' deleted from the heading) has partly printed text. Mather completes it in pencil, acknowledging the 'inquiry about Frank Forester' and stating that 'as a boy I knew him and shot with him but my recollections would be of no value'. He ends by saying that he will 'try to brush them up' on his 'return from the west'.

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He is 'unable to make an offer for the back Vols of The Athenaeum - our stock in house being sufficient to meet demands'.

12mo, 3 pp. On bifolium. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She has 'finished the brown drawing of elves, & birds singing', and, as she is going into the country for a few days, will leave it, 'in a portfolio', at Stratton St. She asks him to 'kindly take care of it', as he has been 'good enough to do with the others. It is, as you know, a very careful & highly-finished drawing'. She asks him to have 'the delicacy of the lines reproduced, & the drawing of the limbs of the little elves, etc. very carefully & exactly rendered, otherwise the drawing wd.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Her 'constant practice' has always been to return her thanks for the gift of a poetry volume 'before I could possibly have had time to read it', but in this case 'this caution was impossible for I received your little Vol: in all the hurry of leaving town, & I may say England, for I shall not return to London before our departure'. She is glad she was not able to write before reading the poems 'with the attention they merit & with all the pleasure they have given me'.

4to, 2 pp. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged laid paper with watermark of 'A ANNANDALE & SONS'. Stuck down on the reverse of the blank second leaf of the bifolium is a square of paper from the leaf to which it was attached in an album, and beneath this square, visible when held up to the light, is the inscription: 'Imperfectly printed | Annie Stirling Stuart | Castlemilk | 1871'. The poem is 48 lines long, arranged in twelve stanzas. Signed 'H. M.

Both 4to, 1 p. Texts clear and complete. Both on aged and worn paper. Autograph Letter: He apologises for not acknowledging her letter ('I have been so busy and away a great deal') and regrets that he does not 'for the moment remember anything which would be of service to you'. Typed Letter: He regrets that 'the present is rather a bad time for what we call the free lance in literature'. He is not himself 'very much in Fleet Street and the neighbourhood', the 'bulk' of his work being done 'far from the madding crowd'.

The 12mo letter has been cut into two sections, both laid down on a piece of mustard paper, with typed caption. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The body of the letter is on a piece of paper roughly 11 cm square. Six lines of text, enclosing 'autograph & quotation' (not present), and apologising for having 'no photo available'. 'Glad you enjoy my books, & thanks for your good wishes'. The smaller piece, with letterhead and Styles's dating, is roughly 8.5 x 3.5 cm.