POETRY

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Corrected Autograph Manuscript of part of the poem 'A Day at Tivoli', by the Victorian writer John Kenyon.

Author: 
John Kenyon (1784-1856), poet and patron, who encouraged his cousin Elizabeth Barrett's marriage to Robert Browning
Publication details: 
Without date or place [the poem published in 1849].
£450.00

2pp., 4to. 35 lines of verse. On a leaf of laid paper with watermark 'J WHATMAN | TURKEY MILL'. Paginated 13-14. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The first page begins with the line 'The shrouding soil, and give it back to air,' and the second page ends with the line 'Won it's [sic] dark truth, and Gaspar fed on such.' The verses in this manuscript are published on pp.19-21 of 'A Day at Tivoli: with other Verses' (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, Paternoster-row, 1849).

Holograph document by John Roby, consisting of a ballad from his 'forthcoming "Traditions of Lancashire"', beginning with the line 'Maiden, braid those tresses bright', preceded by an Autograph Note Signed ('Jn Roby') by Roby, for Mrs. Thelwall.

Author: 
John Roby (1793-1850), English banker, poet and author, best-known for his 'Traditions of Lancashire' (1829) [Henrietta Cecil Thelwall, wife of the noted radical John Thelwall (1764-1834)]
Publication details: 
The document dated 'Rochdale 11th. December 1828'.
£450.00

4pp., 4to. On two loose leaves of Whatman paper, each watermarked 1827. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The document begins with the following note, dated and signed by Roby: 'The following ballad from my forthcoming "Traditions of Lancashire," though not of much value in itself, may yet acquire some, from its connexion with, and introduction into Mrs. Thelwall's elegant volume of Scraps.' (The implication that the two leaves have been removed from Mrs Thelwall's album is supported by pagination from 12 to 15.) Sixty-four lines, divided into sixteen four-line stanzas.

Anonymous French nineteenth-century handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess, entitled 'Le Jeu d'Échecs.'

Author: 
'Le Jeu d'Échecs' [anonymous French nineteenth-century handbill poem on the game of chess]
Publication details: 
Date of publication and name of printer not stated [1840s Paris?].
£650.00
Handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess

4 pp, 16mo. Paginated [1] to 4. On a bifolium of wove paper. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with thin strip of previous mount adhering to inner margin of first page.

[Printed handbill.] Sonnet on the late Dutchess of Gordon. [By Sir Brooke Boothby.]

Author: 
[Sir Brooke Boothby (1744-1824)] [Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon (1748-1812), Scottish Tory political hostess]
Publication details: 
[Circa 1810.]
£280.00

Printed on one side of a 4to leaf, to which a black mourning border has been given by hand. Well printed on wove paper. Fair, on lightly-aged and ruckled paper. The author's name is not given, and the title reads 'SONNET | ON THE LATE | DUTCHESS [sic] OF GORDON.' The poem begins: 'IS then the bright expansive spirit flown, | That wont to animate the admiring throng? | Does the fair theme of many a poet's Song | Exist in pleasing memory alone?' The poem was also printed in 'The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, for 1810-1811' (London: F. C. and J.

Autograph Letter Signed from the writer and suffragist Augusta Webster to 'Mrs Picton'.

Author: 
Augusta Webster [née Julia Augusta Davies] (1837-1894), English poet, novelist and advocate of Women's Suffrage [her husband Thomas Webster (1832-1913), fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge]
Publication details: 
8 November 1867; Cambridge.
£180.00

4 pp, 12mo. Bifolium. 89 lines. Text clear and complete. She begins by apologising for the delay in sending an autograph: 'In atonement I give you Anthony Trollope's signature, which perhaps you have not got.' Reports that they 'went to the Italian lakes this summer. We aimed at Venice but gave it up because of the cholera.' She regrets that the recipient's 'friends book & chart do not prosper. Mr Bowes (the Macmillan of the shop) thought the chart a good plan and likely to succeed, except that the size would be against it'.

Autograph Manuscript of the American actor and poet John Howard Payne, either an original poem or a translation, entitled 'Ode the Sixteenth. | The Herb Rue'.

Author: 
John Howard Payne (1791-1852), American actor and playwright, best-known for his song 'Home, Sweet Home'
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£165.00

2 pp, 4to. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight wear to extremities. On one leaf, with both sides ruled with red borders. In Payne's neat and distinctive hand, and attributed to him in pencil at head.

Autograph Letter Signed "F.F. Arbuthnot", orientalist, to "Leonard C. Smithers", publisher and antiquarian bookseller (DNB) at 109 Queen Street, Sheffield.. With envelope

Author: 
F.F. Arbuthnot, orientalist (DNB), associated with Richard Burton in founding the Kama Shastra Society.
Publication details: 
18 Park Lane, Piccadilly, London, 4 Dec. 1890.
£850.00
F.F. Arbuthnot, orientalist (

Four pages, 12mo, good condition.He thanks him for his letter and some enclosures which he lists (Baker's [African explorer] letter, [Smithers'] reply, Lady B.'s letter), continuing, "Your letter to Baker enters fully into the subject, and makes the state of affairs quite clear, and we can now only await the return of Lady Burton and Dr Baker to England. I hope that you will go on with Catullus [trans. Richard Burton] and your proposals about bringing out two editions of that work appear to be good and commendable ...

[Printed poem.] Castlemilk - A Sketch. | November 1867.

Author: 
'H. M. E.' [Anne Helen Margaret Stirling-Stuart, of Castlemilk House, Rutherglen, Lanarkshire; Glasgow, Scotland]
Publication details: 
With manuscript inscription dated 1871.
£125.00
[Printed poem.] Castlemilk - A Sketch. | November 1867.

4to, 2 pp. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged laid paper with watermark of 'A ANNANDALE & SONS'. Stuck down on the reverse of the blank second leaf of the bifolium is a square of paper from the leaf to which it was attached in an album, and beneath this square, visible when held up to the light, is the inscription: 'Imperfectly printed | Annie Stirling Stuart | Castlemilk | 1871'. The poem is 48 lines long, arranged in twelve stanzas. Signed 'H. M.

The Poetry of Love from the most celebrated authors with Several Original Pieces

Author: 
Anon.
Publication details: 
London: Darton and Clark, Holborn Hill, [1842?]
£350.00
The Poetry of Love from the most celebrated authors with Several Original Pieces

xvi.208pp., 16mo, one foxed plate, very attractive red leather, gilt decorated binding, corners bumped, 2 or 3 small spot, aeg. Conclusion of Preface, "The Editor would take this opportunity of acknowledging the kindness of those of his poet-friends who have furnished him with pieces hitherto unpublished; and forming not the least attractive feature of the present selection. | Bedford | Feb.19th, 1842". Poets include Wordsworth, LEL, Felicia Hemans, etc, etc.ViaLibri site ascribes the one copy (but published by T.

Wayside Musings; or, Poems and Songs.

Author: 
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders
Publication details: 
Published by George Lewis, Printer and Bookseller, Selkirk, 1863
£225.00
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders

138pp., 12mo, blue cover, corner bumped , some damage to spine, worn edges, but attractive, foxing throughout, slight hinge strain. Author's Preface gives the background to the publication including experiences at the Crimea and his daily round as Post Runner to Yair [Postman, I suppose]. Much includes dialect words, and many are based on personal experiences or current events. He includes a Burns' Centenary Song. COPAC lists copies at NLS, Glasgow and BL. WorldCat adds the University of Guelph.

Sabi Legend and Other Poems

Author: 
N.H.D. Spicer and John Spicer, with illustrations by D.J. Avery.
Publication details: 
Published by John Spicer, [Rhodesia, 1947
£125.00

31pp., 12mo, illustrated blue wraps (a warrior), contents crudely joined to wraps with sellotape, wraps sl. chipped and worn, contents mainly good. No copy listed on COPAC; four copies listed on WorldCat (3 in South Africa, and Texas).

[Printed pamphlet.] Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. (An Address read before the Shakespeare Association 18th March, 1927). By T. S. Eliot.

Author: 
T. S. Eliot [The Shakespeare Association, London]
Publication details: 
London: Published for the Shakespeare Association by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, E.C. 1927.
£85.00
Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca.

8vo, 17 + [i] pp. Stapled. In original grey wraps. Aged and worn copy of a scarce item.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Edmund C. Stedman') from the American man of letters Edmund Clarence Stedman to the Blackburn poet John Thomas Baron ('Jack O'Anns')

Author: 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), American poet, critic and essayist [John Thomas Baron (1856-1922), Blackburn dialect poet, writing under the pseudonym 'Jack O'Anns']
Publication details: 
31 January 1883; on letterhead of 71 West 54th Street, New York.
£750.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

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."

[Printed pamphlet.] Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. (An Address read before the Shakespeare Association 18th March, 1927). By T. S. Eliot.

Author: 
T. S. Eliot [The Shakespeare Association, London]
Publication details: 
London: Published for the Shakespeare Association by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, E.C. 1927.
£85.00

8vo, 17 + [i] pp. Stapled. In original grey wraps. Aged and worn copy of a scarce item.

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 offprint of poem by J. H. Nightingale.] The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.

Author: 
J. H. Nightingale ['Joe Nightingale'] [Liverpool Daily Post, 1859]
Publication details: 
From the Liverpool Daily Post of Dec. 6, 1859.
£125.00
The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.

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.

[Printed Prospectus] The Swallow Press and The Sonnets

Author: 
[William Shakespeare]
Publication details: 
1975
£28.00

Four pages, folio, faint browning of edges, mainly good. Specimen page has Sonnet 34. Enclosed: Order For,

Substantial Autograph Letter Signed from Herbert Palmer to Amy Cruse, discussing in detail the relative merits of his book 'Post-Victorian Poetry' and her 'After the Victorians', with unsigned autograph draft of Cruse's reply.

Author: 
Herbert Palmer [Herbert Edward Palmer] (1880-1961), English poet [Amy Cruse, English author]
Publication details: 
Both Palmer's letter and the copy of Cruse's reply undated [both circa 1938]. Palmer's letter from 22 Batchwood View, St Albans, Herts.
£285.00
Substantial Autograph Letter Signed from Herbert Palmer to Amy Cruse

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'.

Autograph Signature ('Ada Negri') by the Italian poet Ada Negri, beneath an eight-line manuscript poem in her hand, titled 'Saluto ai combattenti'.

Author: 
Ada Negri (1870-1945), Italian poet
Publication details: 
Dated in pencil in another hand '14/6/918 [14 June 1918]'.
£165.00
Ada Negri (1870-1945), Italian poet

8vo, 1 p. On graph paper. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of mount on reverse. Headed 'Saluto ai combattenti', the eight-line poem (which does not appear to have been published) begins 'O figli' and ends 'l'ora della vittoria'.

[Privately printed volume.] Winchester, and a few other Compositions in Prose and Verse. [by Rev. Charles Townsend, Rector of Kingston-by-Sea, Sussex]

Author: 
[Charles Townsend, Rector of Kingston-by-Sea, Sussex]
Publication details: 
[Privately printed.] Winchester: James Robbins, College Street. 1835.
£350.00

Townsend was a member of the Holland House circle. Two of his poems were compared favourably with Wordsworth by J. G. Lockhart. 4to, 80 pp, followed by a manuscript leaf, paginated 81 and 82, with the poems 'Sonnet, On Viewing St Paul's from Blackfriar's Bridge' and 'Sonnet | Richmond late in the Evening'. In original brown cloth boards, worn, rebacked and repaired, with 'WINCHESTER.' in gilt on front. Internally sound and tight, on aged paper. Tipped on the recto of the front free endpaper is a presentation inscription: 'With the Authors | Kind regards:- | Jany: 30th: 1837'.

Long unpublished autograph poem signed by Mrs Acton Tindal on the death of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce in 1873, beginning 'A jennet stumbled on a grassy knoll'.

Author: 
Mrs Acton Tindal [Henrietta Euphemia Harrison] (c.1817-1879), English poet [Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873)]
Publication details: 
Signed at end 'Mrs. Acton Tindal - Manor House - Aylesbury'.
£165.00
Mrs Acton Tindal on the death of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce

Folio, 9 pp. Unpublished. Written in landscape, with the title ('Samuel Wilberforce - DD | Bishop of Winchester | July 19th. 1873') on the first leaf and the poem on the following eight. The leaves held together with pink string. On paper watermarked 'EDWIN PARR | DULCOTE MILLS | 1861'. Text clear and complete. The commencement sets the tone of the poem, fully worthy of its subject 'Soapy Sam': 'A jennet stumbled on a grassy knoll - | And without sound or sign | Passed from Time's foremost rank a peerless Soul - | A Chief by right divine.

Autograph Letter Signed Jack Pritchard, furniture designer, to Molly [Rosemary (Molly) Cooke], his future wife, a sprightly letter with eccentric presentation about a book she apparently published anonymously .

Author: 
Jack Pritchard, British furniture designer (1899–1992).
Publication details: 
Pembroke College, Oxford, [1921]
£225.00
Autograph Letter Signed Jack Pritchard, furniture designer

FURNITURE DESIGNER AUTOGRAPH CAMBRIDGE UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN POETRY POEMS

Original Typescript of an anonymous poem entitled 'The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation.' ['The Ludlow Alphabet. An Adaptation.']

Author: 
[The Ludlow Hunt; fox-hunting; field sports; Sir William Michael Curtis (1859-1916)]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. [Before 1906.]
£165.00
The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation

4to, 6 pp, with a seventh leaf carrying the title 'The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation.' (The title at the head of the poem itself is 'The Ludlow Alphabet. An Adaptation.') A genuine typescript, and not a reproduction. A poem of 128 lines, divided into 32 4-line stanzas. Fair, on aged paper, with the last leaf laid down on a leaf of an autograph album, with traces of a newspaper cutting on the reverse. Consisting of playful references to members of the Hunt, arranged alphabetically. First stanza: 'A's for Allcroft, on chestnut | With frontlet of blue.

Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet', on cheque drawn on his own bank, Messrs Rogers, Olding, Sharpe & Co.

Author: 
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), 'the Banker Poet', friend of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron
Publication details: 
30 July 1849. Messrs Rogers, Olding, Sharpe & Co, 29 Clements Lane, Lombard Street.
£125.00
Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet'

Around the size of a modern cheque. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. A nice item, considering Rogers' background. A printed cheque for £40 cash, written out to himself (as 'S R'). With a lattice of five lines over Rogers' signature ('Saml Rogers') indicating payment. Denominations to be paid indicated on back.

Autograph Letter Signed ('H Belloc') from a sixteen-year-old Hilaire Belloc to his childhood sweetheart Minna Hope, describing in detail how 'matters' have 'come to a scarcely endurable crisis'.

Author: 
Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) [Minna Hope, wife of the diplomat Sir Nicholas O'Connor]
Publication details: 
13 October 1886. On letterhead of The Oratory, Edgbaston, Birmingham.
£350.00
Hilaire Belloc letter  to his childhood sweetheart Minna Hope

12mo, 6 pp. Bifolium and single leaf. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Closely and neatly written. An important and revealing letter, written while Belloc was still at school.

Writers Against Apartheid [broadsheet magazine containing poems by MacDiarmid, MacNeice, Empson]

Author: 
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid' [South Africa; racism; Sean O'Casey; Hugh MacDiarmid; Louis MacNeice; William Empson]
Publication details: 
Printed by Villiers Publications Ltd., Ingestre Road, London, N.W.5.
£280.00
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid'

Broadsheet bifolium, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. On lightly-aged paper, worn along fold lines. Poetry collection, containing twenty-eight poems by writers including 'Mazizi Kunene (In Exile, London, 1960)' and Hugh MacDiarmid, whose two poems have the footnote 'We are especially pleased to print these two new poems by Hugh McDiarmid, contributed despite the painful after effects of his recent car smash. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery.' Masthead endorsement by Sean O'Casey: 'I am with you in all efforts to create perfect race equality the world over.

Viking with a Loose Shelailleigh. Tales from Irish America. [playscript]

Author: 
Peter Dee [Peter Rogers Dee] (1939-1999), New York playwright and poet
Publication details: 
[Unpublished typescript.] [Circa 1992.]
£100.00

Photocopy of word processor typed print-out. 8vo, [ii] + 53 pp. Good. In plastic binder. Title carries Dee's address. Second page lists the twelve sections of the play. Loosely inserted is a photocopy of a long review, with photograph, from the East Hampton Star, 26 March 1992, of 'a dramatic reading' of the play at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor. The play was not published, and there are no copies of this item on WorldCat or COPAC.

The Carrionflower Writ [complete run of ten issues, from 1 to 9/10 and including 2a].

Author: 
Javant Biarujia, editor [Nosukumo, Melbourne; Ian Birks; Jurate Sasnaitis, Philip Siss; Kris Hemensley; Chris Mann; Raimondo Cortese; Adrian Rawlins; Australian literature]
Publication details: 
Melbourne ('at Labassa'): Nosukumo. 1985 to 1990.
£350.00

Each issue a single broadsheet, folded twice to make eight pages. On different light shades of paper. In good condition. An energetic collection of Australian 'poetry on the margins', with unconvential typography and striking illustration. Described, on cover of issue 3, as 'An art and literary broadsheet issued on an irregular basis'. Poets include Ian Birks, Jurate Sasnaitis, Philip Sipp, Kris Hemensley, Chris Mann, Raimondo Cortese, and Adrian Rawlins. Excessively scarce: no copies of any issues in the British Library, or recorded on COPAC, let alone a complete run.

Autograph Note Signed ('S. Rogers.') to unnamed man.

Author: 
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), English banker and poet
Publication details: 
06/07/48
£45.00

16mo (13.5 x 9 cm), 1 p. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Good, on aged paper. Traces of brown paper mount adhering to reverse of second leaf. Reads 'You & the young Ladies will be welcome whenever it suits you best. After 2 oClock you will be least liable to Interruption.'

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