Literature

For information on Cook see his biography in the Oxford DNB, which points out that the subtlety of his later fiction was lost on his contemporaries, being written in a style that ‘was not sufficiently sensational’ for the period. The present item is the complete text of the last thing Cook ever wrote: a story which appeared in the weeks following his death, in Hood’s Comic Annual for 1884 (London, 1883).

See Procter’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition on lightly-aged paper. 85 lines of closely- and neatly-written text. He begins by thanking Sutton for ‘the welcome portrait of Sir Edward Lugden’. He gives an example of Lugden’s ‘happy election repartee’(a joke about ‘Lather’ and ‘the present price of “Soap”’), for which, if no other reason, he ‘deserves a niche in my tonsorial gallery’.

Piece of paper irregularly cut, c.11 x 6cm, tipped onto very slightly larger piece of paper. Docketed Southey the Poet in another hand. Sl stained, mainly good condition. See image. Sidney was apparently an autograph collector (see Googled entry Edwin Sidney of Acle on iCollector).

Total five pages, 8vo, trimmed (perhaps removing a place and date), closed tear on one fold, mainly good condition. This form of the letters (file copies?) was obviously in John Rope Rogers' mind in his Biographical Sketch, introducing Opie and His Works Being a Catalogue of 760 Pictures by John Opie [...] [1878]: The following letter of Dr. Wolcot's, indorsed,On Sir Joshua Reynolds; sent to Colborn, Book-seller was found in a collection of published and unpublished remains of Dr. Wolcot, which was sold at Puttick and Simpson's, May 17th, 1877.

Printed wraps, advts back and front, pp.[1]-116, wraps dulled, stained and sl. worn, Contents in good condition, including Daniel Jones, Vernon Watkins, John Betjeman, Ruthven Todd. The phrase Nina Hamnett annotation is written top of front wrap by an unknown hand. See image (includes Contents).

One page, sm. folio, fold marks, very small closed tears, basically good condition. The Agenda (typescript) includes: Apologies; Minutes of the Last Meeting, Matters Arising [...]; Date of next meeting; Candidates; Report of Meeting of Assembly of Delegates in Venice; Caracas Conference; Honorary Members in Prison; Death of Bela Menczer [...]; Any Other Business. Lady Fraser has put a tick or cross beside each item except Any Other Business.

Full Signature, on possibly flyleaf of a book, 14.5 x 20cm, one edge rough (as removerd from book, ow good condition. See image.

One page, folio, signs of extraction from album (left margin has residue of separation), good condition, in her calligraphic writing, good condition. She begins by quoting St Mark's Gospel, Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of, for a memorial fo her.

Paper, 11 x 7cm, probably from an album (another signature on reverse (Florence Steel)), laid down on larger piece of paper, on the dingy side but text clear and apparently complete. Docketed Donald MacKechnie | Gaelic Poet.

Card, 9 x 6cm. very good condition.

Two 12mo pages, extracted from Public Characters of All Nations: Consisting of Biographical accounts of nearly three thousand eminent contemporaries, alphabetically arranged (1823), later published as A New Biographical Dictionary, of 3000 contemporary public characters, British and foreign, of all ranks and professions (1825).LEAF THE FIRST: endpaper, foxed, edges chipped, with the clear signature Henry Mackenzie | 1824 | on recto; LEAF THE SECOND: printed potted biography of Henry Mackenzie (pp.671-2 of book), with MS additions and corrections (for example, correction of his date of birt

Autograph Inscription on glossy page (perhaps from the prelims of a book), 12mo, with image of Wren. head & shoulders, two small closed tears, sl. grubby, good condition. Inscription as follows: [Image] || To | A.J. Richardson, Esq | with the Author's thanks | & best wishes. | PC Wren || Jy.'26. See image.

1. Untitled Typescript. Author Unknown. An unpublished biography of E.M. Almedingen, 123pp., sm. folio, in black lever arch file, very good condition, a scattering of MS. corrections and additions.2. Seven mainly bulging Notebooks and Scrapbooks, (All my own), the Notebooks numbered I, II & III, 1943 and 1953, and the Scrapbooks numbered I, II, IV & V. (1949 and 1952 (2)).

Twelve (12) pages, 12mo (3 x bifoliums), good condition. She starts by saying that perpetual illness and being tired of Bristol first drives her to write to her. From then on she concentrates on Elroy Flecker to a correspondent who must be equally an enthusiast and with whom she shares private information. Yes, I wish I had known in time that you & I could have gone to Hassan [underlined]. I would not have missed it with you. I am half afraid I cannot elucidate the West Gate.

Two pages, 12mo, corner chipped with loss, evidence of its being tipped onto something, not affecting the text, mainly good condition. Text: Many thanks for letting me know of the forthcoming concert. Being here I should probably not otherwise have heard of it. I do hope your lovely music will be properly appreciated and the concert altogether a great success.. I cannot - alas! attend it myself. I am here on the Sick List more or less, and not yet [...?] to anything much in the way of exertion[...]

32 line poem, cr.8vo, in a frame of an album page (detached), 4to, one ragged edge, celebrating summer, commencing: Is it not well, when the long day is over, | That brimmed with fulness of the summer time-| - Joy of wild bees that roam the the scented clover; [....] See image for full text. Verso: Sentiment by obscure German.

Piece of paper from lined exercise book, 11 x 13cm, good condition. Text: My subject will be 'Ourselves and Our Relations' [all underlined]. OURSELVES AND OUR RELATIONS.; Lecture by Mr.

For information on Graves see the generous obituary of him in The Times, 18 April 1944. Both items in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor staining from paperclip to first leaf of letter. The work was not published, and although Graves states in Item One that the greater part of the text is 'in the hands of my typist', there is no record of its survival, or of the thousand related documents he states were sent to him by M. H. Spielmann. ONE: ALS from 'C L. G.' to 'Dear Evoe'. 4pp., landscape 8vo.

One page, 8vo, fold mark, good condition, difficult to read (some guesswork involved). This is to introduce Miss [?] and Mr [Mrs?] Brown - Mr Brown is a visitor to this country from Baltimore where he is a librarian. He is a man of cukture and discrimination and I know it would be a privilege and pleasure for him to meet you and to see your bookshop. I wonder whether Taylor is with you - I am [?] but still must keep to my bed for a Time and a Time and Half a time.~56~AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT POWYS SOCIETY JOHN COWPER POWYS YEOVIL~ ~0~SF41~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Substantial part of pp. 226-7, in the section The Optimist and the Pessimist (vol.II, 1846). Two pages, 4to (19 x 20cm), crumpled, trimmed untidily, with several tears, many repaired as best they could.

[170]pp., 4to, title label, brown wraps, stabbed, sl. wrinkled edges, sl. aged, typed ownership sticker back cover, John Furnell, 'Woodend', 24 Chessel Avenue, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Hants. Final page (additional , p.[170]) includes a list of Author's suggestions for settings. With a sprinkling of corrections and additions.Opposite p.38 (beginning of Act II set in the Foyer of the St James's Theatre, an illustration from a Max Beerbohm book (Some Persons of the Nineties), with names from Wilde to Mallarme, 10 names presumably in Furnell's hand.

Paper, 15 x 9cm, trimmed with minimal loss of text, some staining, text clear and legible. Pay to Lady Montfort's Bearer the sum of Eighy seven Shillings & charge the same to | Your Humble Servt. | Arthur Murphy. A bold and impressive signature. Note: A, He studied at Jesuit run Saint-Omer, France, and was a gifted student of the Latin and Greek classics. He worked as an actor in the theatre, became a barrister, a journalist and finally a (not very original) playwright. He edited Gray's Inn Journal between 1752 and 1754.

See both their entries in the Oxford DNB. Two long letters. Both 2pp, 4to. Both letters on aged paper, creasing at the head. Each folded twice. Written in a close, elegant hand. ONE: 23 January 1957. Writing on behalf of herself and her 'friend' and business manager Alec Macbeth Beesley she begins: 'Our dear, dear Popie, | It really is fantastic. This morning I wrote you a tiny fan letter, combined with thanks for your radio mentions of me. I then carried it to the little pillar-box at the crossroads near here, in time to catch the 3.40 post.

'Ondra Lysohorsky' is the pen-name of the Lach poet Ervin Goj [Erwin Goy] (1905-1989), who, as a Silesian, was largely responsible for the creation of Lach as a literary language. (Born into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he repudiated the Czechoslovakian citizenship he inherited.) Having fled the Nazis, Lysohorsky was feted in the Moscow literary circles of the 1940s, with Boris Pasternak among his translators. Feeling that academic promotion was being denied him, he appealed directly to Stalin, but following his return to Czechoslovakia after the war, his situation worsened.

Busieness Card, 9 x 6cm, rounded corners, sl. battered but text clear. Printed detail includes name, James Kirkup, and celebrate his membership of the RSL, his professorship at the UNiversity of Nagoya, and Visiting Professorship at the Japan Women's University. The text (see image) is as follows: Many thanks for the books and your beautiful bill | James Kirkup". "AB [?], the recipient presumably has written the date 3 Dec. 1970 with these initial. The verso of the card has Kirkup's printed details (presumably) in Japanese.

8.5 x 14 envelope. In fair condition, aged and creased. Torn open, with slight loss to flap. A nice Mark Twain artefact, and something of a puzzle, as he does not appear to have been in England at the time. There does not appear to be any connection between Twain and William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst (1835-1909), 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney, whose London address was 88 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square.

Manuscripts in a contemporary hand of two poems which won the University of Oxford Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse, neither of them published. In 1789, Canning, as a Christ Church undergraduate, won the prize for the second of the two, 'Iter ad Meccam Religionis causa susceptum'; and in 1792 John Richardson, 'Scholar of University', won it for the first of the two, 'Maria Scotorum Regina'. The manuscript of the two poems totals 29pp, 8vo. The pages are written lengthwise on fifteen of the twenty leaves of a stitched booklet of laid paper with Britannia watermark.

Both items in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: 3 March 1884. 1p, 12mo. Addressed to 'Dear Mr. Kynnersley'. Having received Kynnersley's undated letter he writes: 'I shall meet Blandford as you propose on the 11th. with very great pleasure. He was one of the heroes on whom I used to look with awe as a 3rd. form boy in 1834 in which year I joined & he I think left Rugby.' He is sitting at Congleton on the day of the meeting, and 'there is just a chance that some perverse suitor may be in full blast at my train time in which case (as I never leave a cause part heard) I may be late'.

An amusing unpublished jeux d'esprit by Martineau, revealing a lighthearted aspect of her character. 1p, 16mo. Bifolium, addressed by Martineau on reverse of second leaf 'To | Lady Cullum.' In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once.

103pp, 8vo. Revises of the text of the play (and not the prelims) in unbound signatures. In fair condition, lightly aged. Red ink stamp at foot of pp.1 and 40: '15 APR 1954 | REVISE'. Numerous autograph emendations, nearly all minor and relating to accidentals, but with five verbal changes, of which the following two are the most significant. Printed on p.9: 'KASSEL. Well, Bella, does she seem to be in trouble? | BELLA. She says the only trouble is us who trouble ourselves.' amended in autograph to 'KASSEL. Well, Bella, where has she been/ | BELLA.