Autograph Letter Signed, to unnamed male correspondent, laid down in copy of the revised edition of Nicoll's 'Thomas Carlyle'.

The letter is 12mo, 2 pp, 30 lines. In good condition, with the text clear and entire, and with wear to 0.5 cm strips at head and tail (not affecting the text) where the letter overlaps the top and bottom of the book. The blank second leaf of the bifolium is laid down on the verso of the book's half-title. Nicoll begins by apologising for sending 'a copy of the cheap edition' ('the cloth copies of the second edition are not yet ready, and I do not know when they will be out'). He expects that the recipient 'will observe a good many inaccuracies in the book, but you must remember I had not time to revise it in the light of the "Reminiscences"'. Asks to 'have a note of such mistakes as you may detect'. Comments that 'the printer has blundered once or twice in the headlines'. 'While writing the book I tried in vain to get a copy of the letter Carlyle addressed to the newspapers in 1869 on the subject of Emigration.' Suggests that if his correspondent is 'in the way of collecting Carlyliana', he refers to that month's 'Christian Monthly', which contains 'a paper (the first of a series apparently) by the Rev James Dodds, giving interesting extracts from a hitherto unpublished series of letters written by Carlyle in his youth'. The book is internally tight and sound, with a little light foxing. In stained and worn original grey printed wraps, with the front wrap with a 6 cm closed tear along the top of the hinge. Contemporary pencil caricature of an old lady on blank reverse of last leaf.