BOOKS AND LETTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 113, 16 May 1927, Page 2

BOOKS AND LETTERS

RECENT SOTHEBY SALE (From Our Own Cocmiwnfiwit) s v LONDON, 23rd March, r - Sotheby’s last important book sale immediately before Easter comprises many; valuable books and manuscripts from various sources. The autograph letters include several from R. L. Stevenson to James Payn, editor of .the “Corahill,” and were the property, of the late Judge Granger, whose first wife was a daughter of James Payn. In an undated letter from Hyeres, Stevenson writes:—

“When a man has a small novel of, say, about 100 to ‘Cornhill’ pp. under weigh* what does a man do? Does he finish it in bitter silence—-or does he, in the garments of the man of business, proceed to angle? Does lie send part of it to the editor of the ‘Cornhill’ who tells him to go to be damned—or does he, being a Scotchman, begin to negotiate with the ‘Glasgow Herald,’ and, being a cosmopolite, try to tempt the editors of the.. ‘Deadweed Scalping.’ . . . ‘Chronicle’?’ In short, what does he do? ...”

Another series consists of fifteen unpublished letters from Charles Dickens to Miss Maeready and others; and even more interesting is the series of letters from J. M. Whistler, two of which are addressed to the Princess Louise, about 1878. From Samuel Richardson, the novelist, there are eight unpublished letters to Lady Echlin, extending to 192 pages, and there is a collection of seven letters by Nelson, written at critical points in hw career, and believed to be unpublished. Of the printed books there is s'presentation copy of the sixth edition of Gray’s “Elegy,” 1752, inscribed by the author, first - editions of English authors- of thn last and present' centuries, and extensive series of old ballads and brotdsidefu and early printed books, 85, Fleet street,