Literature

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Autograph Letter Signed ('Eliza Hamilton') to Cecilia, wife of James Losh (1763-1833) of Jesmond.

Author: 
Mrs Elizabeth Hamilton [Mrs. Eliza Hamilton] (1758-1816), Belfast-born miscellaneous writer
Publication details: 
26 August 1810; Whitburn.
£150.00

Two pages, quarto. On aged paper, with several closed tears and loss at foot and remains of stub in margin, but with text clear and entire.

Life of Jack Sheppard, The Notorious House and Gaol Breaker.

Author: 
Victorian Chapbook [Newcastle; Provincial Printing]
Publication details: 
Newcastle-on-Tyne: Bowman, Publisher, Nuns' Lane. Price One Penny. [Slug on verso of title: 'Bowman, Publisher, 12, Nuns' Lane, Newcastle.'] Undated [1850, or between 1865 and 1875?].
£66.00

12mo: 24 pp. Leaf dimensions: 15.5 x 9.5 cms. Unbound. Good, on aged paper with fraying to extremities and a little light staining to title. Decorative title-page with vignette. On verso of title: list of twenty-three 'Penny Histories' ('Crown 12mo. Three or upwards sent post free to any address, on receipt of stamps to the amount') and nineteen 'Penny Song Books'. Heavily worn type and loss to text at foot of three pages due to faulty imposition. According to BBTI Robert Benson Bowman was active in Newcastle from before 1826 to after 1859.

Autograph Note Signed to [A. Eaglefield-Hull, translator]. In French.

Author: 
Romain Rolland, novelist
Publication details: 
22 Mai 1916.
£200.00

He has learned that his correspondent is planning an English translation of his "Handel" and asks for a copy to be sent to him at a certain address. He then adds a postscript longer than the note in which he expresses regret that Eaglefield-Hull did not obtain permission ("warrant" [?]) since he would probably have made additions/corrections ("apporter des variants assez importantes au texte").

Autograph Letter Signed ('C S.Calverley') to Mrs [?] Lewis [of Ickleton?].

Author: 
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884), English poet and wit [Sir George Grove]
Publication details: 
Bishopsbourne Rectory, Canterbury; 19 August [year not stated].
£100.00

Three pages, 12mo. Very good. The blank verso of the second leaf of the bifolium laid down on remains of leaf detached from autograph album. Begins 'At length by certain Proofs 'tis plain (to quote a hymn familiar to my childhood but forgotten now all but that first line) that the readers of Macmillan will know all that is to be known about the mistletoe, thanks to your labours, before Christmas.' He hopes she has received the proofs, and says that 'Grove, the Editor, writes to me that they are in type & he is forwarding them to Ickleton'.

Autograph Letter Signed to the poet, journalist and editor Alaric A[lexander]. Watts (1797-1864).

Author: 
Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), English poet and song writer.
Publication details: 
Friday [no date]; 5 Wyndham Place, London.
£56.00

Two pages, quarto. Very good, on lightly aged and creased paper. He is sorry that he has not been able to 'become personally acquainted with' Watts since coming to town, but will 'very soon make another attempt', hoping to find him at home.

Autograph Note Signed ('F. C. Burnand') to unnamed male individual.

Author: 
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (1836-1917), English writer, editor of the magazine 'Punch' from 1880 to 1906 [Mark Lemon]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated [but pre-1870].
£76.00

On irregular piece of lightly creased and aged paper (roughly seven and a half by four and a half inches), with some chipping to extremities. Headed 'Punch Photographs'. 'Mr Mark Lemon [1809-1870, Punch editor] wishes me to come up to you & be photographed. I propose being with you at one tomorrow Saturday, if I am not unavoidably detained in Westminster on a trial.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('F E Kingsley') on behalf of her husband [to Rev. Frederick Gard Fleay, 1831-1909].

Author: 
Mrs Frances Eliza ('Fanny') Kingsley (nee Grenfell) (1814-1891), wife of the English novelist Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)
Publication details: 
11 August 1864; place not stated.
£56.00

Three pages, 12mo. Good, on aged and lightly stained paper. She is writing because her husband, who is 'on the eve of starting for Scotland', 'is very far from well today'. He asks her to thank her correspondent 'for the Translations & the Pamphlet on the Revelation' [Fleay's 'The Book of Revelation symbolic not special, being the substance of Sermons [...]', 1864]. 'The latter he feels is written on the only rational method & he likes it very much, as he does the Catullus' [Fleay's 'The poetry of Catullus, to which is added The vigil of Venus', 1864].

Manuscript describing 'rough idea' of a projected Victorian periodical.

Author: 
Charles Henry Ross (1842?-1897), editor of the magazine 'Judy' [Hablot Knight Brown ('Phiz'); Charles Dickens]
Publication details: 
[On 1870s illustrated letterhead of the ' "Judy" Office, 73 Fleet Street, London, - 187[ ]'.
£450.00

Three pages on octavo bifolium. On creased, aged paper with pinholes and a little staining at head, but with text clear and entire. An interesting and intriguing document, docketed 'Rough idea of title.' The intention is to produce a 24-page magazine the size of Dickens's 'All the Year Round', to be priced at sixpence. 'Two pictures only - One on cover under title to be changed every week by Phiz - Large two page picture in centre to be hand coloured.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Frederic Harrison (1831-1923), English jurist, radical politician, positivist and biographer of John Ruskin
Publication details: 
23 January 1885; on letterhead 38 Westbourne Terrace, W. [London.]
£56.00

12mo: 1 page. On lightly stained paper with remains of mounts adhering to the four corners. Although honoured, he cannot accept the invitation to address the University Literature Society, 'this term at any rate'. 'I have at present a course of lectures twice a week at the Temple; & in February I have to being and carry on until Easter a course of lectures which will require much research & care'. He also has 'an unfinished volume in hand'.

Autograph Note Signed ('J. Ashby-Sterry') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Joseph Ashby-Sterry (1836-1917), English novelist, poet, journalist and painter
Publication details: 
Saint Martin's Chambers, Trafalgar Square [London] (on cancelled Garrick Club letterhead); 18 November 1889.
£28.00

One page, 16mo. Good. Six lines. He may be 'giving some lectures in London shortly'. 'If I could make it worth my while to deliver them at some of the leading provincial towns, I might possibly arrange to do so. Therefore any information you could give me on the subject, I should be only too happy to have'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Ashby-Sterry') to 'Mary H. Tennyson' [pseudonym of Mary H. Folkard], 6 Saint George's Square, Regent's Park, N.W.

Author: 
Joseph Ashby-Sterry (1836-1917), English novelist, poet, journalist and painter ['Mary H. Tennyson', i.e. Mary H. Folkard]
Publication details: 
17 June 1904; on letterhead 8 Saint Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square, W.C. [London].
£28.00

Two pages, 16mo. Very good. Twenty-two lines, attractively written in purple ink beneath a letterhead printed in bright red. With postmarked envelope, addressed in autograph and carrying a penny stamp. He thanks her for sending him a copy of her book 'The Luck of John Seaton'. 'It reached me down in the country where, strange to say, I was already half way through it. I bought it at the railway station & had not arrived at the name of the author, when I received your letter. They ought to always put the name on the cover.' He enjoyed the story 'from beginning to end'.

Autograph Card Signed ('J. Ashby-Sterry') to 'My dear Harmsworth' [Alfred Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe (1865-1922), newspaper publisher].

Author: 
Joseph Ashby-Sterry (1836-1917), English novelist, poet, journalist and painter [Lord Harmsworth]
Publication details: 
Saint Martin's Chambers, Trafalgar Square [London]; 26 June 1894.
£28.00

One page, 12 x 9 cms. Rust stain from paperclip and strip of offset discolouration. In purple ink. A recent letter to Harmsworth was sent to the wrong address. He has 'another letter of Yates's [Edmund Yates (1831-1894), journalist and writer?], better than the one of which you had a copy'. Wonders whether Harmsworth wishes 'to make use of it'. Would also like to know whether 'shares in "Answers" [Harmsworth's magazine 'Answers to Correspondents']' can 'be got through a broker in the ordinary way'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed and two Autograph Notes Signed (all four 'J. Ashby-Sterry') to [Edward] Draper.

Author: 
Joseph Ashby-Sterry (c.1836-1917), English painter and author [Punch, or the London Charivari]
Publication details: 
1871, 1872, 1873 and 1880; the first three from 3 Plowden Buildings, Temple, and the last from 4 Marine Parade, Dover.
£75.00

ITEM ONE (note, one page, 12mo, 3 December 1871, remains of grey paper mount adhering to verso of blank second leaf of bifolium): Apologises for sending a undated note: 'I daresay you can manage to fix at about what period it was written'. ITEM TWO (note, one page, 8vo, 12 December 1872, on creased, aged paper): Declining a dinner invitation. ITEM THREE (letter, one page, 8vo, 21 November 1873, on aged paper heavily chipped at head and foot): He has just described Draper's paper to Blanchard, who 'thinks it just the very thing they want. They like to have dates.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mitford') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Rev. John Mitford (1781-1859), editor of the Gentleman's Magazine and several volumes of poetry
Publication details: 
Date not stated; Benhall, <?>.
£38.00

One page, 12mo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Difficult hand. He is sending 'one number of the Magazine which was mislaid', together with 'a book of the . The is very cold & , the <?>, to have a late Spring.'?>'s?>

Typed pages from her 'Chinese Prose Literature of the T'ang Period' (London: Probsthain, 1938), together with a proof slip from the printers.

Author: 
Evangeline Dora Edwards (1888-1957) [Stephen Austin & Sons, Ltd., Hertford, Herts, publishers]
Publication details: 
1938
£38.00

Good, on lightly aged paper. Rust stains from paperclips on one leaf. Five pages of typescripts on five quarto leaves. The first page gives the contents, and the rest are covering pages with a few words of instructions (e.g. 'PREFACE | (To be prepared after revising first proofs)' and 'APPENDIX --- Authenticity........ | To follow with Bibliography and Indexes.' The proof slip, printed and with pencil insertions, is one page, on a leaf roughly eight inches by four and a half.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Mitford') to his cousin Margaret.

Author: 
J. Mitford [Walter Horsley (b.1855), illustrator]
Publication details: 
2 June 1885; on embossed Post Office letterhead.
£50.00

Two pages, 12mo. Good. Horsley has 'promised to do the illustration as soon as he possibly can'. Mitford has 'told him the sort of thing which was needed, and he seemed to take it in quite clearly, and I also impressed upon him that the time is short for the completion of the book.' Hopes he will see her at 65 Prince's Square.

Card carrying Autograph Inscription to Charles Wilson.

Author: 
Alec Waugh (Alexander Raban Waugh, 1898-1981), English novelist, elder brother of Evelyn Waugh
Publication details: 
31/07/48
£23.00

On one side of the card. Dimensions, 8.5 x 11 cms. Very good. Neat inscription reading 'For Charles Wilson | with Alec Waugh's best wishes | July. 31. 1948 /.'

Autograph Note Signed ('Hall Caine') to [Susannah] Manville Fenn (nee Leake), wife of George Manville Fenn (1831-1909), prolific author of juvenile stories

Author: 
Thomas Henry Hall Caine (1853-1931), English novelist and playwright [George Manville Fenn]
Publication details: 
13 July 1888; Aberleigh Lodge, Bexlyheath, Kent.
£28.00

One page, 12mo. Good, on lightly aged paper with some traces of previous mount adhering to blank reverse. He sends 'a thousand thanks' (for her invitation), but will 'then be over the seas & far away. I wish you the very pleasantest afternoon.' Sends his regards to her husband.

Manuscript poem "The Moor"

Author: 
Ralph Hodgson
Publication details: 
No date
£100.00

Poet (1871-1962). One page, 8vo. Poem first published in the "Saturday Review", later in "The Mystery and other Poems" (1913), and later. Minor variations from the printed form ("&" becomes "and").

Autograph Signature on fragment of Autograph Letter.

Author: 
Anne Beale (1860-1900), Welsh writer
Publication details: 
68 Belsize Road, N.W. [London]; 22 January 1896.
£25.00

One page, 12mo. On grey paper. Very good, with two small labels from previous mounting adhering to edges. Beale's most notable work is perhaps 'Traits and Stories of the Welsh Peasantry' (1849). Reads '<...> Trusting you will forgive and forget my lack of Memory, believe me | Affectionately Yours | [signed] Anne Beale. | 68 Belsize Road. N.W. | January 22. 1896'. Beale died at this address in 1900.

Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
Ouida [pen name of Maria Louise Ramé (self-styled Marie Louise de la Ramée), 1839-1908]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

Irregularly-cut piece of paper, roughly 2 x 9 cms. Good, strong signature on very good, lightly aged paper. In purple ink. Reads 'Every sympathe | =tically V. Ouida'. Minor traces of previous brown-paper mount on reverse.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F W Farrar') to [Herbert Armitage] James[, Headmaster of Rossall School].

Author: 
Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903), Dean of Canterbury and Master of Marlborough College, 1871-6 [Herbert Armitage James; Rossall School; Rugby School]
Publication details: 
21 September 1875; on letterhead of The Lodge, Marlborough College.
£100.00

Four pages, 12mo. Very good, on lightly aged paper, with minor traces of two mounts adhering to verso of second leaf of bifolium. Praises 'the excellent Sermon'. 'You will doubtless have a difficult work at Rossall, but every term will render it less difficult' [...] One can't ask for a greater blessing than difficult work when it is also - as yours is & will be - entirely hopeful & immensely useful.

Catalogue of the Important Collections mainly of the Writings of Charles Dickens and of other XIX Century Authors forming part of the Library of Thomas Hatton . . .

Author: 
[ C.H. St John Hornby, printer (Ashendene Press, etc) and collector ] Sotheby & Co.
Publication details: 
30 Nov/ 1 Dec. 1931.
£250.00

Illustrated copy - Price Two Shillings. Green printed wraps, 40pp., 8vo, wear and tear, contents shaky (staples rusting), wraps worn and sl. soiled, contents partly stained but clear and complete. St J. Hornby's copy. INSCRIBED by St John Hornby "StJH" on front on which is stamped (some faded) "Please do not use in the press before 6 Nov. 1931" i.e advanced review copy for distinguished customer.

Autograph Letter Signed "B. Dobell" to [Walter] Jerrold, man of letters.

Author: 
Bertram Dobell, bookseller and man of letters (DNB).
Publication details: 
[Headed] Bertram Dobell, Bookseller and Publisher, 77 Charing Cross Road, Londn, W.C., 23 March 1904.
£50.00

Two pages, 8vo, vestiges of an album page on reverse, good condition. He sent a presentation copy of his "Rosemary & Pansies", somne of which "appeared in the privately printed ed[ition]" he gave him. He also sends a booklet "by one 'Lucian Lambert' - a gentleman who seems to have a good deal of gall in his composition, however much he may be wanting in the other qualities of a satirist. He has a signed copy of one of Jerrold's grandfather's books (Douglas) and some letters which his correspondent can view at the shop.

Two Autograph Notes Signed "P.J. Dobell" to C.J. Windle.

Author: 
Percy J. Dobell, bookseller.
Publication details: 
Dobell's Antiquarian Bookstore, 24 Mount Ephraim Road, Tunbridge Wells, 8 & 10 May 1939.
£50.00

4to, good condition. Dobell describes a defective "tract" ("A Precious Apple") and speculates on its authorship (Lady Eleanor Douglas). He will send it to be examined. Another hand (presumably Windle) has added pencil notes on the reference works which do not list the item and speculating "probably part of a larger work with different title."

Typed Letter Signed to Eimar O'Duffy, Irish author.

Author: 
Ben Abramson, American bookseller and publisher (1898-1955).
Publication details: 
The Argus Book Shop Incorporated, 333 South Dearborn Street, Chicago,6 Dec. 1933.
£60.00

One page, 4to, good condition. He gives belated thanks for writing to them "and sending us your contribution for our catalogue." They delayed so that thanks would accompany a copy of the catalogue. They have sent the catalogue under separate cover and "hope you will find it enertaining. Too, we hope that you will find our comments on your work not unworthy of your talents." See Donald C. Dickinson, "Dictionary, for discussion of the "rambunctious" bookseller, including his interaction with major literary figures.

A Catalogue of Letters, Manuscript Papers and Books of Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo).

Author: 
Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe [Baron Corvo] [George Frederick Sims]
Publication details: 
Harrow: George Frederick Sims. [Printed by Purbrook & Eyres Ltd. 20 St. James' Walk, London, E.C.1]
£75.00

Eighteen pages, octavo, with four plates on art paper. In original grey printed wraps. Some light staining, creasing and wear. One of 600 copies. Lists seventy-seven items, with addenda of a further eleven. This milestone catalogue was published, according to Sims (A Life in Catalogues, 1994), in May 1949. At foot of title-page: 'N.B. This collection, with the exception of the Addenda of Books, has been sold.'

A co-operative [booksellers'] catalogue' entitled 'Detective Fiction: A Century of Crime: First and Early Editions'.

Author: 
R. A. Brimmell; Boris Harding-Edgar (Charles Rare Books)
Publication details: 
Hastings and Hildenborough; [circa 1966].
£120.00

Forty-four pages, octavo, with two-page leaf of addenda loosely inserted. Four pages illustrating seventeen pictorial covers on art paper. In printed card wraps. A worn and creased copy of an influential catalogue, issued at a time when, as the introduction points out 'catalogues devoted to detective fiction [were] something of a rarity in the book trade'.

Two Autographs Letter Signed ('George Goold' and 'George') to Paul Quinton, Classical Department, Blackwell's of Oxford; with inscribed offprint of Goold's lecture 'Richard Bentley, a Tercentenary Commemoration'.

Author: 
[YALE UNIVERSITY] George Patrick Goold (1922-2002), William Lampson Professor of Latin Language and Literature, Yale University [Richard Bentley; Blackwell's of Oxford; Loeb Classical Library]
Publication details: 
LETTERS: 30 September 1977 and 3 July 1979, both on letterhead of Yale University Department of Classics; OFFPRINT (from 'Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'): Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1963.
£200.00

Both letters two pages, quarto. LETTER ONE (annotated in ink with some ink marks in the blank space beneath Goold's signature): Written at the point at which Goold was relinquishing the University College Latin Chair to return to Yale. 'I told you I should be visiting Yale this autumn; and now I have to tell you that I shall be going on to Stanford after Christmas till March. Still, if I shan't have the pleasure of coming in occassionally to the bookshop, it probably means that I shall be ordering more books from you!' Orders a couple of copies of Austin's 'Aeneid'.

Prospectus for 'MARIA EDGEWORTH | 1767-1849 | A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL TRIBUTE | BY | BERTHA COOLIDGE | SLADE | Demy 8vo. 42s. net.'

Author: 
Bertha Coolidge Slade [Maria Edgeworth; Constable and Company; Richard Clay and Sons]
Publication details: 
LONDON: | PRINTED IN AN EDITION OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY | COPIES BY RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, | BUNGAY, SUFFOLK, FOR CONSTABLE AND COMPANY | LIMITED ORANGE STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. | 1937.'
£30.00

Stapled and unbound. Octavo: four leaves (eight unpaginated pages). On aged and lightly spotted paper. Vignette on title page. Includes list of plates and 'Specimen Entry' of pages 51-3. Verso of last leaf headed 'from CONSTABLE'S BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST', comprising 'THE CARTER-POLLARD DISCLOSURES', 'BIBLIOGRAPHIA SERIES' and 'DORMY HOUSE CATALOGUES'.

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