Literature

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Autograph Letter Signed ('John Murray') from John Murray II to the Edinburgh publishers Bell & Bradfute, concerning his account with them for Thomas Thomson's 'System of Chemistry'.

Author: 
John Murray II (1778-1843), London publisher [Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh publishers]
Publication details: 
11 July 1810; London.
£125.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('John Murray') from John Murray II

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He has been 'extremely unwell', and is sending '3 bills for the account of Thomsons Chemistry £1100'. 'I trust that you will not be dis-satisfied with this as I can assure you conscientiously that I could not afford to give them shorter.' Reference to Longmans, and to his anxiety, 'as you left the settlement to my own conscience'.

Corrected autograph draft of poem by E. L. Blanchard, entitled 'Phantasmagoria', signed by him 'ELB'.

Author: 
E. L. Blanchard [Edward Litt Laman Blanchard] (1820-1889), playwright and theatre producer, writer of pantomimes for Drury Lane Theatre over 37 years
Publication details: 
Dated by Blanchard to November 1862.
£225.00
Corrected autograph draft of poem by E. L. Blanchard

12mo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Docketed by Blanchard in top left-hand corner: 'Sent to Sat.

[Printed pamphlet.] "With Brains, Sir." By John Brown, M.D. Author of "Rab and His Friends".

Author: 
John Brown (1810-1882), M.D., Scottish author, best-known for 'Rab and His Friends.'
Publication details: 
Eighth edition. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1883. [Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to the Queen, and to the University.]
£45.00
"With Brains, Sir." By John Brown

12mo, 32 pp. In original pink printed wraps. Text clear and complete. A fair, tight copy, on lightly-aged paper, in worn and chipped wraps. Taking as his text a well-known anecdote about the painter Opie, Brown discusses the nature of 'genius' (in something approaching the modern sense of the word). The final page carries a list of 'Books referred to.' Uncommon in any edition: the only copies of this edition on COPAC are at Edinburgh and St Andrews.

Autograph Letter Signed from the Scottish novelist Catherine Sinclair to Lady Deas, wife of the judge Sir George Deas.

Author: 
Catherine Sinclair (1800-1864), Scottish novelist [Sarah, Lady Deas [born Sarah Outram], wife of Sir George Deas (1804-1887), Lord Deas, Scottish judge]
Publication details: 
'Thursday' [April 1863]; place not stated.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed from the Scottish novelist Catherine Sinclair

12mo, 1 p. Mourning border. Twelve lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with small scrap torn away from top right-hand corner. By that evening's post, they have received 'the sad intelligence that my sister in law, Lady Camilla Sinclair has died at Thurso Castle'. Her brother Sir George Sinclair and his family 'are in great grief', and she is 'under the melancholy necessity of sending an apology' for cancelling 'our engagement to you which we had anticipated with so much pleasure'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F Carruthers Gould') from the cartoonist Francis Carruthers Gould to Eliot P. J. Reed.

Author: 
Francis Carruthers Gould [F. Carruthers Gould] (1844-1925), British caricaturist and political cartoonist [Pall Mall Gazette; Westminster Gazette]
Publication details: 
12 May 1902; on letterhead of the Westminster Gazette, Tudor Street, Whitefriars, EC.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('F Carruthers Gould')

12mo, 2 pp. Eighteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Reed'. He thanks him for his note and is glad he likes the cartoon on 'the Educational Model'. He had 'been hoping the Tories would tread on the Nonconformists' toes to shut them up and now they have done it.' He doubts whether his agent has sold the original drawing, and is writing to him 'to let you have an offer if possible'.

Four Typed Letters Signed and two Autograph Cards Signed from the Hampstead poet Frederick Grubb (one in full, four 'Fredk G' and one 'Comrade G') to the critic Derek Stanford, including a virulent attack, and with two other items signed by Grubb.

Author: 
Fred Grubb [Frederick Grubb] (born 1930), English poet [Derek Stanford (1918-2008), English writer; 1960s Hampstead coterie]
Publication details: 
1973 and 1974; most from 243 Haverstock Hill, Hampstead.
£320.00
Fred Grubb [Frederick Grubb] (born 1930), English poet

All items clear and complete, on aged paper. Letters totaling: 4to, 1 p; landscape 8vo, 5 pp. The two cards carry long messages, written in red ink in Grubb's close, neat hand; one is standard size, the other 27 x 13.5 cm. Five envelopes are stapled to their letters. Grubb ('one of the last survivors of the famous 1960s Hampstead coterie of writers, actors and critics') writes entertainingly in an emphatic, energetic manner marvellously evocative of the 1970s London literary scene.

Autograph Letter Signed from Frederic William Madden ('F. W. Madden') to W. D. Jones

Author: 
Frederic William Madden (1839-1904), F.R.S., Chief Librarian, Brighton Public Library, numismatist and antiquary [son of Sir Frederic Madden (1801-1873), Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum]
Publication details: 
29 February 1880; on letterhead of The College, Brighton.
£28.00
Autograph Letter Signed from Frederic William Madden

12mo, 2 pp. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Jones's letter has been forwarded to him, but he cannot give him 'the information you are seeking', so he has sent to letter on to 'Mr. of the British Museum, asking him to reply to it'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the editor of the Cornhill Magazine Leonard Huxley to the novelist 'Moray Dalton' [Katherine Mary Dalton Renoir].

Author: 
Leonard Huxley (1860-1933), English author son of the zoologist Thomas Henry Huxley ['Moray Dalton', pseudonym of Katherine Mary Dalton Renoir (1882-1963), novelist]
Publication details: 
8 August 1917; on letterhead of the Cornhill Magazine, 50A Albemarle Street, London.
£85.00
Leonard Huxley (1860-1933)

4to, 2 pp. Sixteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He congratulates her on her 'success in the Saturday Westminster Essay Competition'. He is grateful to her for 'guessing that I should be interested in this work of yours after having plied my scalpel upon your novel "The Sword of Love".' He regrets that 'for many a long year' he has 'done no general reviewing outside the publisher's office. There the flood of MSS. that poured in furnished effectual occupation.

Unpublished typescript of annotated edition by Stephen Wheeler of the 1808 poem 'The Dun Cow' (sometimes attributed to Walter Savage Landor or his brother Robert Eyres Landor), a defence of Dr Parr against the anonymous satire 'Guy's Porridge Pot'.

Author: 
Stephen Wheeler, editor of the poems of Walter Savage Landor [Robert Eyres Landor; Dr Samuel Parr]
Publication details: 
Undated. [Around 1915?]
£450.00
 Typescript of annotated edition by Stephen Wheeler of the 1808 poem 'The Dun Co

4to, [iv] + 50 + [i]. Text clear and complete. Good and tight in worn cloth quarter-binding, with labels on spine and front board. On the rectos of twenty-four of the leaves is a diplomatic transcription of a copy of the first edition, with notes by Wheeler on some of the reverses. At the end of the volume are three more pages of 'NOTES [S. Wheeler's]'. Laid down on both sides of the front free endpaper is a cutting of the entry on 'The Dun Cow' from Wise and Wheeler's 'Bibliography of the writings in prose and verse of Walter Savage Landor' (1919).

[Printed Prospectus] The Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay ... Edited by her Niece.

Author: 
[Fanny Burney; Madame D'Arblay]
Publication details: 
Henry Colburn, [London, 1842]
£23.00

Four pages, 8vo, stabholes, edges grubby, mainly good. It advertises the contents of the first three volumes, Royal and Noble personages who appear, literary characters,followed by "Opinions of the Press" forming the main bulk of the Prospectus.

Typed Letter Signed Ambrose Grant, other pseud. James Hadley Chase, to Mrs Dribble, about More Deadly that the Male.

Author: 
[James Hadley Chase] Ambrose Grant, pseud. Rene Lodge Brabazon Raymond, crime novelist
Publication details: 
[Headed] The Camp, Little Kimble, Nr. Aylesbury, Bucks., 5 Feb. 1947.
£120.00
Ambrose Grant, other pseud. James Hadley Chase

One page, 12mo, good condition. Thanks you very much for writing to me about my boo. It is always nice to hear from oone's readers and I am delighted to learn that both you and your husband found an hour's excitement in this otherwise rather dreary world. | Your good wishes are appreciated. Norte: Apparently Raymond/Chase/Grant only published More Deadly than the Male under the pseudonym Ambrose Grant so letters signed so may well be scarce.

Autograph Letter Signed "Herbert Read", writer on art, to [Hugh] Massingham, journalist and editor, about a commisssion to wriite an essay on Coventry Patmore's works..

Author: 
Herbert Read (1893–1968), poet, literary critic, and writer on art.
Publication details: 
[Headed] 9 Tipperlin Road, Edinburgh, 2 June 1932.
£65.00
Autograph Letter Signed "Herbert Read"

One page, 12mo, good condition. ( Iwill try my hand at [Coventry] patmore, & am rather glad it is Patmore instead of Thomson, because he has so much more positive values. And I will try & get the essay done by June 21, though your brother in his original letter said June 30, which is rather better. I agree to the rate of payment, & though I don't press it, should be glad of payment on acceptance because I have to put other work aside to do the essay."

Autograph Nore Signed J. Middleton Murry, critic and editor, to [Hugh] Massingham, editor and author., about William Morris.

Author: 
J. Middleton Murry, critic and editor
Publication details: 
[Embossed] The Old Rectory, Larling, Nr. Norwich, 2 June 1932.
£125.00

One page, obl.12mo, fold marks, mainly good. ... It was king of you to write, and Iappreciate it. In candour, I ought to say that [William] Morris was a revelation to me also when I came to read him for the purposes of your brother's book [The Great Victorians pubd 1932, ed. Massingham and his brother]. He was one of the people I had taken as read. I was fairly overwhelmed by the profound insight of his later writings. | I agree with you about Chesterton's 'Chaucer'. I liked it very much indeed.

Typed Letter Signed Michael Arlen, novelist, to Brunel, about Lily Christine.

Author: 
Michael Arlen, novelist
Publication details: 
[part headed] 4 Stanhope Place, W.2. [London], 5 Dec. 1930.
£56.00
Typed Letter Signed Michael Arlen,

One page, 12mo, good condition. It was very pleasant indeed to get your letter about 'Lily Christine', and of course it is always pleasant to hear of someone who has actually bought a book. | But to talk of more urgent things, it is the fact that you have a son that fills me with envy. Maybe, almost any day now, I shall have one too. And then I shall start some pretty good swanking on my own ... He goes on to give his regards to Brunel's wife, complimenting her and giving further thanks for his appreciation of his book. He hopes to meet while he's in England.

Four Autograph Letters Signed and three Typed Letters Signed to Hugh Massingham, journalist and writer, about articles commissioned, his past, his novels and method of working.

Author: 
William Gerhardie (1895–1977), Anglo-Russian novelist and playwright.
Publication details: 
1967-1971.
£450.00

Total 19pp., 16mo-8vo, fold marks, slightly crupled but text clear and complete. (5 March 1967) he suggests a poignant and dramatic article on the abdication of the last Tsar, or an eye-witness account of the Russian Revolution (50th Anniversary), saying that he was in the British Emabassy at Petrograd - which he should have gathered from his novel Futility, adding there can't be many eye-witnesses of both [underlined] Revolutions aive today. He expalins in a postscript his reversion to an earlier ancestral spelling of his name, with 'e' added as in Shakespeare, Dante, etc.

[Typescript] The Stringed Lute. A Play Based on the life of OSCAR WILDE [Playwright's own copy]

Author: 
John Furnell, playwright [Oscar Wilde]
Publication details: 
n.d., (before published version, 1955)
£280.00
A Play Based on the life of OSCAR WILDE

[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.

Autograph Note Signed George Russell, writer and nationalist, to Mr Davey [an editor?]

Author: 
George William Russell [A.E. ], Irish nationalist, writer, editor, critic, poet, and painter
Publication details: 
17 Rathgar Ave, Rathgar, Dublin, no date.
£120.00
George William Russell [A.E. ]

One page, fold marks, good condition. Please let me know when [underlined] you want copy for your paper. I will give you something but would like to have as much time as possible. I could send something now but might be able to send something better later on. I hope your special number will be successful.

Six Typed Letters Signed, one Autograph Letter Signed, four Typed Notes Signed and one Autograph Note Signed from Compton Mackenzie to the military historian Antony Brett-James. With one letter by Mackenzie's wife, and a collection of press cuttings.

Author: 
Sir Compton Mackenzie [Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie] (1883-1972), Scottish writer [Antony Brett-James (1920-1984), 5th Indian Division Royal Signals, military historian, Sandhurst lecturer]
Publication details: 
Written between 1948 and 1955. Most on Mackenzie's letterhead, 'Denchworth Manor, by Wantage, Berkshire'.
£350.00

All texts clear and complete. Autograph item with some creasing, otherwise in good condition on lightly-aged paper. Ten items signed 'Compton Mackenzie', and two ''. Eight of the items each one page of landscape 8vo; one 8vo, 1 p; another 12mo, 1 p; the autograph note 4to, 1 p; and the card 16mo, 1 p. The first item (4to, 1 p, in autograph) is dated 22 September 1948. Having met Brett-James he thanks him for sending the proofs of his war memoir 'Report My Signals' (London: Hennel Locke Ltd, 1948): 'I was much impressed by it, and supported it strongly for a Book Society Recommendation.

Typescript transcription of a 'Poem written by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone MP Christmas 1869 for contribution to The Coppice Courant which had however expired in January 1867.'

Author: 
[William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), Liberal prime minister; Sir Robert Joseph Phillimore (1810-1885), judge and Liberal MP]
Publication details: 
Undated transcription. The poem dated 'Christmas 1867.'
£125.00

Typescript (folio, 2 pp), with a couple of manuscript corrections. Fair, on aged paper, with light marks from a paperclip at head. Thirty-six line poem, in heroic couplets, with 'W E G. Christmas 1869' at end, beginning 'Happy the gamester, on whose earliest throw, | Grim Fortune frowns, and cuts his treasure low; | But hapless he, whom luck shall onward lure, | She only means to make his ruin sure.' Made for Sir Robert Joseph Phillimore, of the Courant, Henley on Thames, judge, Liberal MP and lifelong friend of Gladstone's.

Manuscript transcription by Lord Phillimore, of a 'Poem written by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone MP Christmas 1869 for contribution to "The Coppice Courant" which had however expired in January 1867.' With typescript.

Author: 
[William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), Liberal prime minister; Walter George Frank Phillimore (1845-1929), Baron Phillimore, Judge, ecclesiastical lawyer and international jurist]
Publication details: 
Transcription undated, on Phillimore's letterhead of The Coppice, Henley on Thames. Typescript undated.
£325.00
William Ewart Gladstone

Phillimore's transcript: 12mo, 3 pp. On bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with mark from rusted paperclip at head. Thirty-six line poem, in heroic couplets, with 'W E G. Christmas 1869' at end. Typescript (folio, 2 pp), with a couple of manuscript corrections. Fair, on aged paper.

Signed bromide print of photograph by Mark Gerson of the actress Jill Balcon with bust of Cecil Day-Lewis.

Author: 
Mark Gerson (b.1921), photographer [Jill Balcon [Jill Angela Henriette Balcon] (1925-2009), actress]
Publication details: 
'London. Mark Gerson. AIBP/ARPS'. Circa 1961.
£75.00
Jill Balcon with bust of Cecil Day-Lewis

Black and white matt bromide print photograph in card frame with covering flap. Dimensions of photograph 20 x 25 cm. Dimensions of frame 25.5 x 32 cm. A head and shoulders shot of Balcon, staring across the photograph from the right, left hand at right shoulder, with the bust of Day-Lewis facing her from the left. Inscription in pencil on frame beneath photograph: 'London. Mark Gerson. AIBP/ARPS'. Photograph and inscription in excellent condition; frame aged and worn.

Typed Note Signed ('E Marsh') by Winston Churchill's private secretary Edward Marsh to Major Thomas King.

Author: 
Sir Edward Marsh [Sir Edward Howard Marsh] (1872-1953), British author and civil servant, patron of the Georgian school of poets, and Private Secretary to Winston Churchill, 1905-1915
Publication details: 
17 November 1915; on letterhead of 19 Abingdon Street, Westminster.
£35.00
Edward Marsh

16mo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. On aged, creased paper with pinholes. 'Mr Churchill asks me to thank you very much for your kind letter of yesterday, which he has read with grerat pleasure.'

Photographic studio portrait of the English novelist Stella Gibbons by the photographer Yvonne Gregory.

Author: 
Yvonne Gregory (1889-1970), photographer, wife of Bertram Park (1883-1972) [Stella Gibbons (1902-1989)]
Publication details: 
Without date [1940s?] or place. Printed label of Yvonne Gregory on reverse, giving the photograph's 'Reference File No.' as 'YG/A546/A.'
£75.00
Yvonne Gregory (1889-1970), photographer: Stella Gibbons

Image roughly 7 x 9.5 cm, on piece of paper 8 x 10.5 cm, mounted on recto of second leaf of a cream card bifolium, with a window frame through first leaf. Printed label on reverse of second leaf reads: 'This photograph is copyright and mahy not be copied or reproduced in any way whatsoever. Legal proceedings may be taken against any infringement. | YVONNE GREGORY.' In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Head and shoulders three-quarters profile, from Gibbons' right, showing the novelist in a tailored jacket with padded shoulders.

Autograph Letter Signed J S Fletcher, novelist, detective story writer, to E.H. Broad[b?] ridge [employee of literary agency?], about A Maker of Fortunes. [short story?]

Author: 
J.S. Fletcher [Joseph Smith Fletcher] (1863 - 1935) , British journalist and writer.
Publication details: 
[Partly headed] 7 St Mary's Terrace, Paddington, W. [London], 28 Sept. 1911
£180.00
Autograph Letter Signed J S Fletcher, novelist,

Two pages, 12mo, remnants of album page to which attached formerly, good condition. I will write to you definitely about teh serial early next week. Do you think you could either get me a cheque for 'A Maker of Fortunes' [not traced], or get Mr Colles [literary agent] to discount the sale to me on the usual terms? I should be much obliged if you could, for I have to find a good deal of money on Saturday & this would help. ...

Autograph Letter Signed, "L C Dunsterville", soldier, inspiration for Kipling's 'Stalky', to an unnamed correspondent [agent prob.], about the manuscript of 'Stalky's Reminiscences'. (pubd. 1928).

Author: 
[L.C. Dunsterville] Lionel Charles Dunsterville CB, CSI (1865–1946), British general, who led the so-called Dunsterforce across present-day Iraq and Iran towards Caucasus and oil-rich Baku
Publication details: 
[Address partly in relief] 9 Place Leopold, Namur, Belgium, 28 January 1927.
£200.00

Two pages, 12mo, bifolium, punchhole top left, good condition, text clear and complete. "I have sent to first half of my M.S. to a friend to read & he will forward it on to you very shortly. | Should the book be accepted for publication you will let me have a copy of any proposed agreement, before settling terms. | | Yours truly ..." Note on recto of second leaf, "Book sent to F.P. Rennie Esqre, 58 Queens Gate SW7".

Part of Autograph Letter Signed Theodore Dreiser, American Novelist [correspondent unknown].

Author: 
Theodore Dreiser, American Novelist
Publication details: 
No surviving place of date.
£56.00
Part of Autograph Letter Signed Theodore Dreiser,

Final 4 lines of a letter signed by Dreiser, on paper cut from original, 15 x 9cm, good condition: [proofs?]. And I shall be only too glad to acknowledge in one of the [first?] copies your courtesies.

Autograph Letter Signed "A C Swinburne" to his brother, Edward, with envelope, including reference to "Yanks", relaxing into a sense of humour..

Author: 
Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet, playwright, novelist, and critic
Publication details: 
No place, 10 Aug. 1883
£850.00
Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

Three pages, 8vo, bifiolium, final page laid down on card, as is the envelope addressed in his hand, text legible and complete: "Your protégé & Mr Cowen's has not tracked me iinto the wilds of Oxfordshire where I am staying for ten days or so on a visit to Jowett [Master of Balliol] - and as Watts [-Dunton, companion] & I are going to the seaside the week after next I date say I may escape the jaws of the Garibaldian [?] - which a rather mixed lot (as Yanks say) they is [sic] and will be.

[Printed Card] Members of the Friday Club Instituted in June 1803 (members including Scott, Francis Jeffrey, Henry Cockburn)

Author: 
[Sir Walter Scott; Edinburgh Select Club]
Publication details: 
[Edinburgh, c.1827]
£265.00
Members of the Friday Club

Cardc.10 x 14cm, prob. whiet or cream originally but discoloured now, printed text clear and complte, on the recto a list of members from 1803 Sir James Hall to [1827] William Murray, giving as shown the year of admission (mainly 1803). On the verso, the dates for the Friday Club dinners Jan.1828 to Jan.1829 are given. The List of Mmebers is annotated in pencil, adding titles, occasionally professions (Adm., WS, Poet). At the top of the recto, A Copy of this Appears in Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott.

English manuscript translations of three 'Moral Tales from the Original German of Augustus Lafontaine translated by J Powell [James Powell of the Custom House)] Vol III', titled 'The noblest Man', 'The Intrigue' and 'The Power of Conscience'.

Author: 
August Lafontaine (1759-1831), author; James Powell of the Custom House (and Newington Place, Surrey), translator
Publication details: 
Circa 1804 (date of watermark). London?
£1,250.00
Moral Tales from the Original German of Augustus Lafontaine

4to, 134 pp. In original loose grey wraps, with 'Moral Tales | Vol III' in manuscript on front. Texts clear and complete, with numerous manuscript emendations. Fair, on aged paper, with slight creasing to corners of a few leaves. Wraps worn. Comprising 34 bifoliums (watermarked 'RW | KENT'), with a single leaf (watermarked 'TW | 1804') carrying the title 'Moral Tales. | from | the Original German of Augustus Lafontaine | translated | by | J Powell | Vol III | Contents of Vol III | The noblest Man. | The Intrigue | The Power of Conscience'.

Autograph Letter Signed "Marguerite Blessington", Irish Society hostess and author, to [LEGOUVÉ, Ernest Wilfrid (1807-1903] about his book, "Histoire Morale des Femmes", just published.

Author: 
Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, (1789–1849), Irish Society Hostess, Author (DNB)
Publication details: 
Gore House, [Kensington, London], 15 Feb. 1849 (four months before her death)
£850.00
Marguerite, Countess of Blessington,

Two pages, 4to, fold marks, some marking, good condition, text clear and complete, as follows: "Permit me to thank you for one of the most acceptable gifts I have ever received, the 'Histoire Morale des Femmes", and for the aimable [underlined] note that accompanied it. Let me thank you also in the name of my Sex for the great service you have rendered us by the admirable Exposé [underlined] of our wrongs, and generous advocacy of our Virtues.

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