Literature

4to, 13 pp on thirteen leaves, consisting of a covering title-page and with the preface itself making up the remaining twelve pages. Bradbury's inscription, in blue felt-tip pen, is on the title-page, with 'FINAL VERSION! | FEB. 1993' above the title and 'Ray Bradbury | SIGNED JAN. 5, 1994' beneath it. The print-out fax information at the top of each page reads '06-02-1993 09:22 PM FROM ZANA BRADBURY TO 16193205383'. Condition is fair, with the leaves somewhat dogeared and discoloured.

4to, 1 p. 18 lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-stained paper. Neatly laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Lightly marked-up in red pencil by the recipient. After professing respect for Nichols's 'literary character' and his 'valuable miscellany', Glasse offers his services 'as corrector of your press for any quantity of Greek you may incidentally have occasion to publish'.

Parts I & II (of 12 = Series 1), pp.40[6 advts]; 76[6 advts], original blue wraps, frayed and spotted, one wrap dulled, one corner of pages turned, pencil annotation on front covers (inc. library no.), library stamps (withdrawn from Newcastle University Library),

12mo, 96 pp, followed by four-page SPCK catalogue (with first page listing works by the Rev. F. Bourdillon). Text clear and complete. In original olive cloth binding, gilt, stained with damp. Damp damage at rear leaving light staining to corners of last few leaves and catalogue, together with heavier damage to rear endpapers. Traces of Library label on front pastedown. Cloth faded, worn and stained. Bell explains in her preface that 'The poor are excellently well provided with all sorts of books of counsel and help.

4; [iv],112pp., 8vo, plain brown wraps (original?), worn and nearly detached, contents good. Inscribed on half-title: Presented to the Rt Honble the Lord Brougham & Vaux by his obedt Servt Wm. Tooke | Russell Square 6 Augt 1839. Tooke was the major promoter of the Biographia Britannica Literaria.

pp.1-10 text, 15 detached plates with tissue-guards (as called for), text (concluding mid-sentence, bound in to grey-blue printed wraps, reinforced spine, 2 closed tear, chipped and sunned. Full quotation of title om front wrap: Specimen copy for the Plates only | The Marchioness of Brinvilliers | By | Albert Smith | Illustrated by John Leech | [Bentley insignia] | With fifteen spirited full-page Etchings on Steel, only once before printed from,* onthe first publication of the story, in its serial | form, about 1842. | *Besides twenty-seven impressions for the Leech Catalogue.

In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Twelve of the engravings are on paper roughly the same size (12mo), with the thirteenth smaller, but laid down on a leaf of the same dimensions. The majority of the women are writers, and the collection may well have been assembled to illustrate a work such as Byron's Letters and Journals. The thirteen women depicted are Hannah More, Maria Edgworth, Lady Noel Byron, Teresa Guiccioli, Caroline Lamb, Mrs Henry Tighe, Lady Morgan, Joanna Baille, Felicia Hemans, Mary Russell Mitford; Anne Maria Porter; Jane Porter. Artists are G. Freeman, W. J.

32mo, 36 pp. Unpaginated. In original blue cloth, with gilt design on front. Marbled endpapers. Unopened. Good. Nicely printed, in small type. Two-page introduction, 'To the inquisitive and pertinent reader', by 'Henry Stevens of Vermont'. On the title page Stevens is described as 'GMB FSA ETC | Sometime Student in Yale College in America | now of London'. Leaf of addenda not present. Uncommon, copies on COPAC at the British Library, National Library of Scotland, Oxford, Cambridge, and the V & A and Society of Antiquaries libraries.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Stabbed as issued. On good wove paper. The 'New English Drama' is stated to be 'intended to comprise the most popular Theatrical Pieces of every description, in Monthly Parts of superior accuracy and unrivalled embellishment'. The first play, 'embellished with an elegantly engraved portrait of Mr. Kean', is Massinger's 'New Way to pay Old Debts'. The second leaf of the bifolium carries details of a further four works.

4to, 71 pp, with one 12mo page at end. In poor condition, damp damaged and detached from green cloth covers, but with texts legible and complete. Manuscript table of contents on recto of first leaf describes nine tales in German, told by Ascher Horowitz and T.

12mo, 55 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Most pages ruled with red lines. Texts of poem and preface, in a number of different-coloured inks, on right-hand side, with the facing reverses carrying corresponding notes and half a dozen charming vignettes (woman at writing desk, cabman dying of apoplexy at dinner, his widow atop the moving hearse). In original quarter binding of cream paper boards with gold star design, and red leather spine; decorative printed endpapers (rear free endpaper lacking). A well-executed and extremely attractive item.

On paper roughly 33 x 25.5 cm. The illustration itself is clear and complete on lightly-aged paper. Creasing around extremities and to left of caption. Tenniel's monogram, with number 61, in bottom left-hand corner. Britannia grips King Mob by the throat, while a paper crown (with 'MOB LAW' written on it) falls from his head.

On paper 52 x 33 cm. Tenniel's monogram, with number 58, in bottom left-hand corner. An giant female figure, with black mask, blazing torch and sash on which is written 'MURDER', directs an assemblage of Fenians and Sheffield trade unionists. The caption reads 'Fenian conspiracies and outrages in Ireland and Manchester - co-incident with the revelations of murderous Trade-unionism at Sheffield and elsewhere - agitated the public mind, and seemed like an evocation of the Spirit of Slaughter to trample on the Law.

8vo, 16 pp. Unbound. Evidence of previous stitching, but with no remains of thread,. Aged, worn, and with outer leaves somewhat dusty. Preface, dated 'London, June 1864', by 'THE MANUFACTURERS OF THOMSON'S CRINOLINES', states that the judges of the best of 'the immense number of manuscripts received' were 'B. Webster, Esq., J. Sterling Coyne, Esq., Andrew Halliday, Esq., George Rose, Esq., and Thos.

8vo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Fair, on thin aged paper, laid down on a sheet of backing. In small type, with the 'old version' of the nursery rhyme, in the left hand column, transformed into a 'new version' of 78 lines of prose in the right-hand column. The first line - 'This is the house that Jack built' - is changed into 'This is the domiciliary edifice erected by John.' The 'priest all shaven and shorn' becomes 'the ecclesiastical gentleman, the summit of whose pericranium was denuded of its natural covering'. Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

On one side of a piece of paper 27.5 x 11.5 cm. Text, in small type, clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper.

4to, 5 pp. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged and folded paper. An highly interesting and significant letter, responding thoughtfully and in detail to questions posed by Gilbert (author, according to Allan, of the 'special study, "Children and Reading"'). Begins by responding to the question 'Why do I write for children?' Considers that children's books 'are at least a minor form of art [...] I am a professional author. I have published more than eighty books, all but one for young people. But every book I have written has been written because I wanted to write it, for myself.

12mo, 16 pp. Stapled. In original pink printed wraps, with engraving of the two women, on a country path, on cover. Good, on lightly aged and dusty paper. Cutting of photograph of marble memorial to the couple loosely inserted. Scarce: the only copy on COPAC at Oxford, by whom it is dated to the 1920s. Main title on front wrap, with the title given at the head of the text being 'Lady Eleanor Butler and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby.'

12mo, 3 pp. 28 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. He does not understand how they can have 'a record of a second edition [of Burns's poems] dated 1786, for the book was not published until April 1787'. He describes the two issues of the second edition ('a stinking or a skinking issue') and concludes that he will be glad to hear from them, should they 'meet with a 1786 second edition, or with a copy having the addenda incorporated in the list of subscribers, or one having Roxburgh spelled correctly'.

Folio, 4 pp. Both on the same bifolium. All texts clear. On aged and worn paper, with chipping and fraying to extremities. Presumably part of a series of ongoing receipts, as the the first begins in the middle of the preamble '<...> commandement de Monsieur le Marquis de Roye Lieutenant general, | De la somme de deux cent cinquante neuf livres onze sols huit deniers [...]'. The receipts are neatly written out, with two long authorisations in the margins, each bearing the same illegible signature.

12mo, 1 p. Nine lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Docketed in pencil on reverse 'R. A. Bennett re T. P. O'Connor'. He is enclosing 'the promised note to "T. P". I see that he is ailing and going to the Riviera at an early date, so you had better try and catch him at once.' Bennett had to get the recipient's address from his publishers, as O'Connor left without passing it on.

The letter is of 23 lines, written on the front and back of an opened envelope with the cancelled address of 'John Wickham Flower Esq, Park Hill, Croydon'. In good condition, on aged paper. The rear of the envelope carries a good impression of a red wax seal, and the letter begins: 'My dear Sir, I had written this letter having obtained my object through my friend the York Herald and I still send it on account of the Seal which was the counter seal of Richd Neville Earl of Warwick killed at the battle of Barnet'.

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Palmer's letter: 4to, 6 pp. Text clear and complete. He begins by apologising if his letter to her 'sounded very ungracious': 'I was unaware at the time that you had made any acknowledgement to me, and as I have had my brains picked so frequently without acknowledgment (including, of course, plagiarisms from my poems) I was again feeling rather depressed & exasperated'. While describing her book as 'really [...] very good' and 'reliable', he suggests a number of changes, giving examples of 'where we clash'.

The story on nine numbered 4to pages, with a covering page carrying the title: 'THE BATTLE OF THE WAVES FOR FREEDOM. | By Maxim Gorki.' On the rectos of ten 4to leaves, attached by a brass pin. Text clear and complete at 26 lines to the page. On worn, discoloured paper (watermarked 'CONQUEROR | LONDON'), with loss to extremities. Mrs Gill's purple oblong stamp in bottom left-hand corner of reverse of last leaf: 'Mrs.

[ii].87pp., printed paper wraps, light brown paper letters in red, No. 78 of 250 copies, on last page date in pencil 12/7/3, sl. chipping and fraying at edges which are sl. sunned

24pp., 12mo, original red paper wraps, sl. chipping and staining, mainly good. From the personal library of Richard Bentley, sometime publisher, for whose House Billing did work. One copy listed on WorldCat, at the BL.

12mo, 14pp, disbound, first leaf detached, good condition. Text clear and complete. In which the publishers outline their (historical) policy and ambitions for the various aspects of the periodical, and provide an Index by volume and subject. Sir Walter Scott took an almost proprietorial interest in this periodical. Scarce: COPAC lists NLS copy only (16pp).

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 32 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. In answer to a request for autographs, she has 'some duplicates somewhere, but tonight I send you only three cards', as she has 'no letters of Miss Yonge that I should like to part with'. She names the authors of the 'three signed postcards' (not present) as: James Payne ('Editor of Cornhill, author of many novels'), Charlotte Yonge and Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton.

Fraser's Magazine launched in London in February 1830, and to begin with its most popular feature was Maginn's 'Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters', with illlustrations by Maclise (collected in book form in 1873). The four portraits, all busts, are somewhat reminiscent of those in that work, but must be earlier if the identification of John Nichol, who died in 1828, is correct. The four are on separate pieces of paper, laid down 2 X 2 (with the four sitters looking inwards towards the centre of the page) on a leaf torn from an album.

One Hundred Copies only. [16]pp., cr.8vo, sewn as issued, unopened, tastefully printed in brown with decoration on hand-made paper, good condition. Sadleir, in XIX Century Fiction, describes this as A Prospectus of the Standard and Favourite Novels issued in January 1882. Given it's date, I would suggest it's a Commemorative Catalogue of a series which has great significance in publishing history. It gives the information present in Sadleir (II.100-4), but it calls the phantom Second Series (Sadleir) Bentley's Standard Novels. The Re-Issue. 1854-1859?.