Literature

[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.

[Printed temperance pamphlet poem, one of 'New Series of Penny Tracts'.] Poor Betsy Rayner: The Power of Kindness. By Mrs. Sewell, Author of "Mother's Last Words," "Our Father's Care," &c., &c.

Publication details: 
Seventh Edition. Fortieth Thousand. London: Jarrold and Sons, 12, Paternoster Row. [Jarrold and Sons, Printers, Norwich.]
£50.00

16pp., 16mo. Unbound and stitched. On worn and aged paper, with loss to bottom outside corner of title leaf; spine strengthened with contemporary gummed paper. On reverse of title is a page of advertisements for 'Household Tracts for the People'.

Part of a Manuscript, review of John Chetwode Eustace's "Tour in Italy [London, 1813) (reviewed in Edinburgh Review, 1813)

Author: 
Henry Peter Brougham, Baron Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor of England (1778-1868)
Publication details: 
[1813]
£280.00

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).

Autograph Letter Signed to a "Mr [Stanquer?], heavy handedly declining an invitation (perhaps it was 1843 and Southey had jy=ust died??).

Author: 
Caroline Southey (1786–1854), poet, second wife of Robert Southey
Publication details: 
Greta Hall, Friday Evng, no date.
£60.00

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..."

[Manuscript] Memorandum of an Agreement [with Henry S. King, publisher, for her "new novel", 'Felicia'], signed "M. Betham-Edwards

Author: 
Matilda Betham-Edwards, novelist
Publication details: 
[London], 25 July 1873
£90.00

Two pages, sm. folio, fair condition, giving details of an advance and the holding of the copyright of "The Sylvesters" if they should decide not to go ahead and want their money back. Minor change apparently initialled "HSK" [= King].

Copy of Two Typed Letters from the London publisher Martin Secker to the Scots-Canadian author Frederick Niven, the first asking for 'one more chance' to publish his work. With typed copies of two of Niven's replies, the first extremely critical.

Author: 
Frederick Niven [Frederick John Niven] (1878-1944), Scots-Canadian writer [Martin Secker [Percy Martin Secker Klingender] (1882-1978), London publisher; J. B. Pinker, literary agent]
Publication details: 
Secker: both from Number Five, John Street, Adelphi; 26 and 28 February 1913. Niven: both from Holmleigh, Church Hill, Loughton, Essex; 27 February and 2 March 1913.
£280.00

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.

Holograph Poem (signed 'Henry van Dyke') by the American author and educator Henry Jackson van Dyke, a sonnet titled 'Richard Watson Gilder'.

Author: 
Henry van Dyke [Henry Jackson van Dyke] (1852-1933), American author, educator and clergyman [Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) of New York City, poet and editor of 'The Century Magazine']
Publication details: 
Without place or date [written on Gilder's death in 1909].
£180.00

1p., 4to. A fair copy, on a piece of aged high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to edges (not affecting text). Signed at foot. The poem begins: 'Heart of a hero in a poet's frame, / Soul of a soldier in a body frail, - / Thine was the courage clear that did not quail / Before the giant champions of shame'. Gilder is praised as a 'poet, patriot, friend', the poem concluding: 'Thou leavest two great gifts that will not die, - / Amid the city's noise, thy lyric cry!

Part of Document Signed "W Scott", as one of the Principle Clerks of the Court of Sessions.

Author: 
Sir Walter Scott, lawyer and author.
Part of Document Signed "W Scott"
Publication details: 
No date or specified place.
£150.00
Part of Document Signed "W Scott"

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.

[Printed Verse] The Welcome to Ilkley

Author: 
Anon.
Welcome to Ilkley. Printed poem.
Publication details: 
Burley, 4th Sept.1834
£180.00
Welcome to Ilkley. Printed poem.

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.

Leaf from the notebook of the Victorian artist George Cruikshank, carrying two pages of serious sketches, each signed by him 'Geo Cruikshank'.

Author: 
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), English caricaturist and illustrator
Leaf from the notebook of the Victorian artist George Cruikshank
Publication details: 
Undated, but on paper with watermarked date 1824.
£450.00
Leaf from the notebook of the Victorian artist George Cruikshank

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.

Leaf from an early edition of John Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Lives, marked up with autograph emendations for a revised edition by the Victorian poet Arthur Hugh Clough, with leaf carrying longer emendation's in Clough's hand.

Author: 
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet, critic, translator and educationalist [John Dryden's translation of Plutarch]
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet
Publication details: 
Undated [early 1850s?]
£1,200.00
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet

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.

Autograph Manuscript of the poem 'The Thunder Storm', in the autograph of its author William Bourne Oliver Peabody.

Author: 
Rev. William Bourne Oliver Peabody (1799-1847), pastor of the Unitarian church in Springfield, Massachusetts, educated at Harvard and Cambridge Divinity School
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£100.00

2pp., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper. In pencil at head: 'Autograph of the Rev W. B. O. Peabody'. In ink in a contemporary hand, between the title and body of text: 'Autograph of Mr Peabody '. Twenty-four lines, arranged in three eight-line stanzas. The text presented here differs in certain respects from that printed in A. P. Putnam's 'Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith' (1875). In the present version the first stanza reads: 'Black the heaven is overcast! | Breathless is the sultry blast.

Holograph Latin poem by the Rev. John Keate, Master of Eton College, written while a student at King's College, Cambridge.

Author: 
Rev. John Keate (1773-1852), DD, Headmaster of Eton College [King's College, Cambridge]
Publication details: 
Without date or place [Cambridge. Written between 1791 and 1797.]
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. On a leaf of wove paper with Britannia watermark. In fair condition, on aged paper with slight wear to extremities. In pencil at head 'Rev. J. Keate | Head Master of Eton'. Tipped in at the head is a slip of paper with an entry from a Victorian manuscripts catalogue describing the item, reading: 'KEATE (The Rev. John, D.D.). Head Master of Eton.

Autograph Letter Signed from the author and wit Sydney Smith to Colonel Bagot.

Author: 
Sydney Smith (1771-1845), author and wit
Publication details: 
[London]; 12 May 1842.
£120.00

1p., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed on reverse, which carries traces of the wafer, to 'Colonel Bagot | Davies Street | Berkley [sic] Square | 34'. A short letter with a good, emphatic signature: 'My dear Sr. | I am very sorry you have so good a plea for absence - only remember on some future occasion that I shall not ask your Company as a favor but insist upon it as a right | ever yours | [signed] Sydney Smith | May. 12. 1842'. Perhaps concerning the same breakfast on 14 May 1842 to which Smith invited Georgiana Harcourt on 10 May 1842 (Letters, ed. N. C.

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'.

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