INTERESTING LETTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19660, 11 June 1927, Page 7 (Supplement)

INTERESTING LETTERS.

STEVENSON AND DICKENS. A recent London book sale at Sothebv s comprised many valuable books and manuscripts from various sources, lhe autograph letters included several from U. U Stevenson to James Payn, editor of the Cornhill, and were the property of the late Judge Granger, whose first wife was a daughter of James Payn. 11l an undated letter from Hyeres, Stevenson wrote: " When a man has a small novel, say, about 100 to 130 Cornhill pages 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? Dofes he send part of it to the editor of the Cornhill, who tells him to go to bo damned ? or does he, being a Scotchman, begin to negotiate with the Glasgow Herald, and, being a cosmopolite, try to tempt the editors of tho Deadwood Scalping . . . Chronicle ? In short what does he do ? Another series consists of 15 unpublished letters from Charles Dickens to Miss Mac-ready and others; and even more interesting is the series of letters from J. M. Whistler, two of which are addressed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 From Samuel Richardson, the novelist, there are eight unpublished letters to Lady Echlin, extending to 192 pagei; and there is a collection of seven letters by Nelson, written at critical points in his career, and believed to be unpublished. Of the printed books there is a presentation copy of the sixth- edition of Gray's " Elegy," 1752, inscribed by the author, first editions of English authors of the last and present centuries,, and extensive series of old ballads and broadsides, and early printed books.