STORIES

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[ Friend of J.M. Barrie] Autograph Letter Signed "Charles Turley Smith" to [J.G.] Wilson, of booksellers, Bumpus.

Author: 
Charles Turley Smith, schoolboy story writer and close friend of J.M. Barrie.
Publication details: 
Pendragon, Cury, Cornwall, 21 Sept. [no year].
£65.00

Two pages, cr.8vo, fold marks, good condition. Thanks for his letter. "I feel certain that your daughter is an extraordinarily sound judge! But I have also a kind of feeling that I may conceivably be a little prejudiced! I shall await your opinion with faith and hope, trusting that it may be charitable. Seriously I don't want to send you a copy of a work that will only be an encumbrance, but if you do really like it & would care for me to send it either to your daughter or yourself I should be very glad to do so. [...]"

[Manuscript; illustrated] The Children's Stories of Sylvia Lynd (unpublished), post nove;list and Irish Nationalist.

Author: 
Sylvia Lynd, poet, novelist and Irish Nationalist.
Publication details: 
b.1888, d.1952.
£1,200.00

Note: Sylvia Lynd, née Dryhurst, poet, novelist, reviewer, significant member of the Book Society, Irish nationalist, daughter of anarchist and suffragette, Nannie Dryhurst (1888-1952).

[George Macdonald] Autograph Letter Signed "George MacDonald", fantasy writer, to "Clara [Macirone]", composer.

Author: 
George MacDonald, Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister, writer of fantasy and fairy tales.
Publication details: 
"Wednesday morning" [note on reverse in Clara Macirone's hand presumably, "MacDonald Oct. 25/77".
£220.00

One page, 12mo, good condition, apart from a little smudging, text clear and complete, as follows: "I want much to see you in order to ask a small favcour of you. When will you be at home tomorrow? Mrs Temple will bring me, if you can make it convenient. I am now visiting them here - so do not overlook the address. Yours affectionately George MacDonald." A snippet on Googlebooks quotes part of a letter from MacDonald: "She is Clara Macirone — Italian on the father's side — a pupil of the blessed Mendelssohn, ..."

[Ghosts in the nineteen-thirties.] Typewritten reminiscences of three ghostly experiences ('three happenings in my life'), in Mimms in Hertfordshire, Folkestone in Kent, and Castle Bromwich in Warwickshire.

Author: 
[C. Campbell; 1930s supernatural experiences in Mimms in Hertfordshire, Folkestone in Kent, and Castle Bromwich in Warwickshire; psychic phenomena]
Publication details: 
Manuscript note at end: 'C. Campbell's story - see his <Acct?> dated 13/10/36 [13 October 1936].
£120.00

3pp., 8vo. Typescript with a few manuscript emendations, and manuscript note at end attributing the piece to 'C. Campbell' in another hand. On the rectos of three leaves, pinned together. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. The first of the three stories is said to have occurred nearly fifty years before, the narrator stating that he was 'then between thirteen and fourteen years of age', which would put him in his early sixties at the time of writing.

Autograph Letter Signed from the playwright Ben Travers to 'Miss Saunders', reporting that he is 'in the thick of this "Week in the Country" business', but that he will contribute to the 'Grand Magazine', despite being 'a rotten short story writer'.

Author: 
Ben Travers (1886-1980), English playwright, best-known for his farces at the Aldwych Theatre in London in the 1920s and 1930s
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Queen's Hotel, Southsea. 29 June 1927.
£50.00

1p., 12mo. On aged and ruckled paper, with pinholes to one corner. He is 'in the thick of this "Week in the Country" business'. 'When I come to town I'll come & see you about your proposition of the series for the Grand Magazine, but I'm a rotten short story writer, you know.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Gordon Stables | MD - R.N.', from William Gordon Stables, Royal Navy surgeon and writer of boys' adventure books, regarding the postponement of a 'lecture on Caravan Life' due to his heavy workload.

Author: 
William Gordon Stables (1840-1910), Scottish Royal Navy surgeon and writer of boys' adventure books
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Jungle, Twyford, Berkshire. 10 December 1894.
£120.00

4pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with the second leaf neatly placed in a paper windowpane mount. He writes that he has been 'excessively busy', and this has delayed his 'coming to a decision re the lecture'. 'Since the 4th Oct. I have written two large books, besides any amount of magazine work &c.' As he has '4 books to write before May', he is afraid his 'lecture on Caravan Life will have to be deferred till another season'. He has been asked to 'lecture on Kindness to Dogs, &c with living specimens on the stage at Birmingham', and fears that 'even this will have to be put off'.

Autograph Note Signed ('A Lang') from the Scottish writer Andrew Lang to an unnamed male recipient.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish author and folklorist
Publication details: 
25 January [no year]; St Andrews.
£28.00
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish author and folklorist

12mo, 1 p. Fair, on aged paper. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with a cutting carrying a photographic portrait of 'Mr. Andrew Lang' tipped-in at right-angles below the text. The verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium is tipped-in onto a larger piece of paper removed from an album, onto which a magazine cutting carrying a reproduction of a drawing of Lang is laid down, captioned 'Andrew Lang writes on The Progress of Literature in the Nineteenth Century'. Lang writes that he 'never received' his correspondent's 'paper on the drama: your Letter arrived, but no M.S.'

Redfield; or, A Visit to the Country. A Story for Children. With Four Illustrations by John Absolon. With letter from publisher with good content.

Author: 
Anon. [Mrs Parker Smith?]
Publication details: 
London: Bell & Daldy, 186, Fleet Street, 1858.
£480.00

90[6]pp., 8vo (six-page catalogue of Bell & Daldy's "New and Standard Publications" at end), in slipcase, green cloth in good condition, pattern in relief, gold motif of laurels surrounding the title, hinge strain at title/frontispiece, some speckling throughout, some pencilled underlining, and childish daubing of colour onto three of the illustrations. INSCRIBED as follows: "This book was written by my mother [letters crossd out] the stories read to me & Walter for our amusement in 1857-8 | J Parker Smith".

Seacht mbuaidh an eirghe-amach

Author: 
Padraic O Conaire
Publication details: 
Dublin, 1918.
£150.00

Short stories. First Edition, original brown cloth, minimal damage and staining, mainly good. Scarce.

Glum-Glum. A Fairy Romance.

Author: 
[Charles Marshall, author?] [Richard Bentley (1794-1871), printer and publisher] [Victorian children's literature]
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, 8 New Burlington Street. 1867. [London: Robson and Son, Great Northern Printing Works, Pancras Road, N.W.]
£200.00

4to (leaf dimensions 20.5 x 16.5 cm): 63 pp. In original grey-green printed wraps. Tight and generally good, but with damp-staining to a few leaves, some wear to corners and creasing and grubbiness to the last three leaves. Wraps worn and grubby. Embossed bookseller's stamp to rear wrap: 'W. H. Smith & Son. 186 Strand, London.' Scarce: COPAC only lists copies at the Bodleian, the National Library of Scotland and the British Library (the last being attributed to 'MARSHALL, Charles, Traveller'). The beginning is reminiscent of Tolkien's 'Hobbit': 'POOR Glum-glum!

Autograph Signature ('W Gordon-Stables | MD - RN').

Author: 
William Gordon Stables (1840-1910), Scottish Royal Navy physician and writer of adventure stories
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£20.00

On a piece of paper roughly 7 x 10 cm. Laid down on a piece of card. Fair, rucked and grubby, with traces of previous mount adhering to the reverse. Presmuably in response to a request for an autograph. Reads: 'I wish thee well | [signed] W Gordon-Stables | MD - RN'.

Deoraidheacht

Author: 
Padraic O Conaire
Publication details: 
[Dublin], 1910.
£100.00

130pp., 8vo, lacking back wrap rebound in green paper wraps with label on front, contenst good, some wear to front cover/titlepage. Scarce: No copy on AddAll, and COPAC lists only later editions.

Typescript, with illustrations, of a children's tale entitled 'A story by patch'.

Author: 
Evaline May Brierly
Publication details: 
[circa 1949]; no place
£100.00

Typed on one side of 86 quarto leaves, the latter leaves paginated and ending with 86. In printed wraps neatly tied with blue ribbon. Somewhat dusty but in good condition overall. According to the British Library catalogue the story was published by Unity Products in 1949. Patch is a dog, and the first few leaves contain eleven charming illustrations his friends, including Scragg, Tatters and Madame Sing-Hi.

Autograph letter signed to "Joyce"

Author: 
Charles C. Darton
Publication details: 
20/05/14
£50.00

Boys' story writer. 2pp., 8vo. He is pleased that she and her brother enjoyed "The King's Scout" (the "nicest women" enjoy their brother's books), and that she would like his autograph. He is sending her another book with autograph letters from himself and the illustrator, "Mr Masefield". "Mr. Masefield's is not a very good specimen but it is the only one I can find at present."

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