Literature

[Richard Wright Procter, Manchester poet.] Long Autograph Letter Signed (‘R. W. Procter.’) to C. W. Sutton, discussing the huntsman Tom Moody and Sir Edward Lugden, and describing how he once ‘watched hounds’ and ‘quaffed brown beer with huntsmen’.

Author: 
Richard Wright Procter (1816-1881), nineteenth-century Manchester author, poet, barber, circulating library proprietor [C. W. Sutton; Tom Moody, huntsman; Sir Edward Lugden, Conservative politician]
Proctor
Publication details: 
26 September 1870; 133 Long Millgate [Manchester].
£120.00
Proctor

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’.

[Robert Southey, Poet] Holograph Addressed Envelope Only To | The Revd Edwin Sidney | Acle, | near | Norwich.

Author: 
Robert Southey (1774 – 1843), (Lake) Poet.
Southey
Publication details: 
No date.
£80.00
Southey

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).

[John Wolcot, Peter Pindar; satirist] Two Letters [File copies?], Unsigned, from Wolcot to Henry Colburn, publisher [both docketed Sir Joshua Reynolds | sent to Colborn [sic] Bookseller

Author: 
John Wolcot, Peter Pindar (baptised 9 May 1738 – 14 January 1819), Satirist.
Pindar
Publication details: 
No place or date [trimmed]. Watermark Letter One 1809.
£250.00
Pindar

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 Wolcot's, indorsed,On Sir Joshua Reynolds; sent to Colborn, Book-seller was found in a collection of published and unpublished remains of Dr.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.

[Nina Hamnett Annotation; Queen of Bohemia; Periodical] Wales 3

Author: 
Keidrych Rhys, Editor [Nina Hamnett]
Nina
Publication details: 
January: February: March, 1944.
£100.00
Nina

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).

[Antonia Fraser; International P.E.N.] Typed Agenda, heavily doodled by Lady Fraser, for a Meeting of the Executive Committee of the English Centre of International P.E.N.

Author: 
[Antonia Fraser] Antonia Fraser [Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser (née Pakenham; born 27 August 1932), author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction]
Antonia
Publication details: 
To be held at Dilke Street at 5.00 P.M. on Wednesday, 29th June 1983.
£125.00
Antonia

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.

[Charles Stuart Calverley] Full Signature and date only Charles Stuart Calverley.

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), poet and wit.
Calverley
Publication details: 
Feb. 1852 (no day given)
£25.00
Calverley

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

[Eliza Conder, poet and abolitionist] Holograph Poem with quotation from St Mark's Gospel.

Author: 
Eliza Conder, poet and abolitionist, wife of Josiah Conder, editor, abolitionist, well-connected to Romantic authors of his day
Conder
Publication details: 
Watermark 1827.
£180.00
Conder

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.

[Domhnall MacEacharn; Gaelic Poet] Autograph Lines in Gaelic signed 'Domhnall MacEacharn'.

Author: 
Domhnall MacEacharn [Donald MacKechnie]
Gaelic
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£56.00
Gaelic

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.

[Israel Gollancz; Scholar] Bold Autograph Signature Only, Israel Gollancz. See image.

Author: 
Israel Gollancz [Sir Israel Gollancz (1863 – 1930), scholar of early English literature and of Shakespeare].
Israel
Publication details: 
Docketed in pencil 24.12.26.
£28.00
Israel

Card, 9 x 6cm. very good condition.

[Henry Mackenzie, Scottish Novelist] Autograph Signature Henry Mackenzie 1824 only. With the relevant page (Mackenzie entry) from a Biographical dictionary

Author: 
Henry Mackenzie (1745 – 1831), Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer.
Mackenzie
Publication details: 
[1824]
£150.00
Mackenzie

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

[P.C. Wren] Autograph Inscription

Author: 
P.C. Wren [Percival Christopher Wren (1875 – 1941), writer, mostly of adventure fiction.]
Publication details: 
July 1926.
£80.00

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.

[E.M. Almedingen, writer] A Substantial Collection of Manuscript and Typed Material from her Papers

Author: 
E. M. Almedingen (born Marta Aleksandrovna Almedingen, also known as Martha Edith Almedingen or von Almedingen; 1898 – 1971), British novelist, biographer, children's author, poet, of Russian origin.
Publication details: 
C.1943-1972
£750.00

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)).

[Geraldine Hodgson; James Elroy Flecker] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed G.E.H. [Geraldine E. Hodgson] to Edith [not identified], exclusively about James Elroy Flecker, anticipating her biography of Flecker, published the following year.

Author: 
G.E.H. [Geraldine E. Hodgson] (OxfordDNB)
Publication details: 
17 Sion Hill, Clifton, Bristol, 17 May 1924.
£450.00

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.

[ Sarah Grand, Irish Novelist; New Woman ] Autograph Letter Signed Sarah Grand to Miss Carpenter about a forthcomiong concert and her inability to attend it.

Author: 
Sarah Grand [Sarah Grand (1854–1943), Irish feminist writer active from 1873 to 1922. Her work revolved around the New Woman ideal.]
Publication details: 
[Headed] The Royal Hotel, Weston-super-Mare, 9 June 1934.
£56.00

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[...]

[ Julius Beerbohm, traveller and poet, half-brother of Max Beerbohm ] Manuscript Poem Signed J Beerbohm (calligraphically). See image.

Author: 
Julius Beerbohm [ Julius Beerbohm (1854 – 1906), Victorian travel-writer, engineer, explorer and poet.]
beerbohm
Publication details: 
No place, but dated by him 9 Sept. 90.
£220.00
beerbohm

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.

[ Bayard Taylor, Poet ] Autograph Note Signed Bayard Taylor to an unnamed correspondent about My subject [...]

Author: 
Bayard Taylor (1825–1878), American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat.
Publication details: 
Kennett Square, Peoria, 20 Oct. 186[4?].
£80.00

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.

[C. L. Graves and Punch editor E. V. Knox.] Autograph Letter Signed from 'C L. G.' to 'Evoe', discussing in detail questions relating to his planned history of Punch, with long autograph 'Notes on your Memorandum'.

Author: 
C. L. Graves [Charles Larcom Graves (1856-1944), assistant-editor of Punch and the Spectator, uncle of poet Robert Graves [E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox] (1881-1971, 'Evoe'), editor of Punch]
Publication details: 
Letter on letterhead of Kent Lodge, Westgate-on-Sea, Thanet. 30 May 1938. Memorandum undated.
£250.00

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.

[ Llewelyn Powys ] Autograph Note Signed Llewelyn Powys to Mr[s?] Venn [?], a bookseller.

Author: 
Llewelyn Powys [Llewelyn Powys (1884–1939), essayist, novelist and younger brother of John Cowper Powys and T. F. Powys.]
Publication details: 
[Headed] Chydyok, Chaldon Herring, Dorchester, Dorset, no date.
£56.00

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~ ~ ~ ~ ~

[ Mrs Gore; 'silver fork' novels ] One leaf of the holograph manuscript of Sketches of English Character, with authorial corrections and additions.

Author: 
Mrs Gore [ Catherine Grace Frances Gore (née Moody, 1798–1861), 'silver fork' novelist and dramatist ]
Publication details: 
Book first published, 1846 in two volumes.
£300.00

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.

[ Oscar Wilde; Typescript ] The Stringed Lute. A Play Based on the life of OSCAR WILDE [Playwright's own copy]. WITH Typed Letter Signed P. Macqueen discussing play with W. MacQueen-Pope, theatre historian, revealing pseudonym

Author: 
John Furnell [pseud. Phyllis Macqueen], playwright [Oscar Wilde]
Publication details: 
n.d., (before published version, 1955); Typed Letter Signed dated 23 Jan. 1956.
£480.00

[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.

[ Arthur Murphy, Irish writer ] Autograph Instruction Signed to Cadell Esq [publishers].

Author: 
Arthur Murphy, Barrister and Author [(1727–1805), Irish writer.
Murphy
Publication details: 
Lincoln's Inn, 21 July 1788.
£500.00
Murphy

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.

[ Ondra Lysohorsky, 'a great poet of humanity', Censored cold-war Lach (Czech/Silesian) poet and his English translators Christopher Fry, David Gill and Alan N. Phillips ] An Archive

Author: 
Ondra Lysohorsky, poet
Publication details: 
[1928]-1988.
£25,000.00

'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.

[ James Kirkup in Japan ] Printed Business Card with Autograph Note Signed "James Kirkup" to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
James Kirkup [1918–2009), born James Harold Kirkup, poet, translator and travel writer
Kirkup
Publication details: 
[Nagoya, Japan] 26 Feb. 1970.
£60.00
Kirkup

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.

['Mark Twain' (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), great American writer.] Envelope addressed to 'S. L. Clement, Esqr. | "Mark Twain"', at 'Buckenham Hall', and forwarded to 88 Brook Street, with annotations and eight postmarks.

Author: 
'Mark Twain', pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), great American writer, creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, described by William Faulkner as 'the father of American literature'
Twain
Publication details: 
Sent from Belfast to Brandon in Norfolk, and then on to London. November 1887.
£90.00
Twain

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.

[George Canning, Prime Minister; John Richardson of Oxford University.] Manuscript copies of poems which won Chancellor's Medal for Latin verse: Canning's 'Iter ad Meccam [Journey to Mecca]'; Richardson's 'Maria Scotorum Regina [Mary Queen of Scots]'

Author: 
George Canning, British Prime Minister; John Richardson, Student of the University of Oxford [Chancellor's Medal for Latin verse]
Publication details: 
[University of Oxford, post 1789 and 1792.]
£450.00

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.

[Thomas Hughes, author of 'Tom Brown's School Days'.] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Tho. Hughes') to 'Mr. Kynnersley', discussing: meeting Rugby schoolfellow 'Blandford', educating an abandoned boy, his co-operative beliefs, Joseph Chamberlain.

Author: 
Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), politician and judge, author of 'Tom Brown's School Days'
Publication details: 
ONE: 3 March 1884; 52 Promenade, Southport, Lancashire, on letterhead of the County Courts, Circuit No. 9, Chester. TWO: 30 November 1885. On letterhead of Uffington House, Chester.
£250.00

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'.

[Harriet Martineau, 'the first female sociologist'.] Unpublished Signed Autograph humorous poem beginning 'What terrible confusion | Ladies make on points Malthusian', with note to Lady Cullum joking that it will be dedicated 'to the Lord Chancellor'

Author: 
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), writer and journalist, Whig social theorist and campaigner for women's rights, considered 'the first female sociologist' [Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875) of Hardwick House]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£350.00

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.

[Christopher Fry: 'The Dark is Light Enough', Corrected Proofs.] Revise Proofs of the first edition of 'The Dark is Light Enough' (Oxford University Press), with Autograph Emendations.

Author: 
Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright [Oxford University Press]
Publication details: 
[London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1954.] Red ink stamp at foot of first page: '15 APR 1954 | REVISE'.
£350.00

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.

[Barry Pain, Punch humorist and author of novels, poems and ghost stories.] Autograph Manuscript of long poem titled 'The Dream of Fine Editors | (after the dinner to J. N. Dunn. April 23rd. 1897)'.

Author: 
Barry Pain [Barry Eric Odell Pain] (1864-1928), author, journalist, Punch humorist, author of ghost stories [Fleet Street; James Nicol Dunn; Charles Norris Williamson; Oswald Crawfurd]
Publication details: 
[London. 1897.]
£280.00

4pp, 12mo. On four loose leaves. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor traces of grey paper mount along edges on blank reverses. The poem is titled 'The Dream of Fine Editors | (after the dinner to J. N. Dunn. April 23rd. 1897)'. (At the time of the dinner the Scottish journalist James Nicol Dunn (1856-1919) was on the verge of being appointed editor of the Morning Post, a position he would hold from May 1897 to January 1905.) There is no record of the poem having been published, and it is likely to have been written for after-dinner recitation only.

[ Mrs Robert Southey] Autograph Letter in the third person, "Mrs Southey is [...]", to a Miss Robson ordering two "girls packs" (clothing).

Author: 
Mrs Robert Southey
Publication details: 
Greta Hall, 2 April [no year given].
£180.00

One page, 12mo, bifolium, good condition.

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