Showing 93 results

Letter from Sir John Sinclair of Whitehall to Messrs Cadell and Davies, booksellers, Strand, 15 Jun 1795. Asking whether the octavo or quarto size would be the more convenient for reprinting the Agricultural reports of 1794.

Written in another hand with Sir John Sinclair's own signature. With a black seal bearing Sinclair's coat of arms.

A draft reply (dated [16] Jun 1795) is written on the second leaf.

Letter from Silvanus Phillips Thompson of Morland, Chislett Road, West Hampstead, London to R A Rye [University of London Library], 29 Aug [1908]. Accompanying a book borrowed from the University Library about ten years previously, preserved by Professor Thompson because he knew it to be 'safer in his keeping during the interregnum'.

Autograph, with signature.

2 letters from Walter Copeland Jerrold of Jessamine House, Hampton, [Middlesex] to Edward Clodd, Esq, 1902.

(1) Accompanying a copy of Jerrold's book on George Meredith: 'I feel horribly aware of its many shortcomings ...'., 22 Nov 1902.

(2) Promising to 'correct the reference to the Chelsea "experiment", [?in the same book] at the earliest opportunity', 1 Dec 1902.

Both letters are autograph, with signatures.

Letter from George Meredith of Box Hill, Dorking, [Surrey] to 'Sir Reynard' [Edward Clodd], 28 May 1902. 'If you like to have the dedication [of Walter Copeland Jerrold's book on Meredith] you have only to bow your head ... But there should be no mention of you as the subject's friend, for that would overpower the appreciation ...'

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from John Burns of the Local Government Board, Whitehall, London to R A Rye, [1908]. Thanking him for the loan of books.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from William Warde Fowler of Kingham, Chipping Norton, [Oxfordshire] to [Miss Palgrave (one of Sir Reginald F D Palgrave's daughters)], 9 Nov 1916. Thanking her for a letter about a book recently published by him [?Essays in brief for war time].

Written in another hand and signed by Fowler.

Letter from George Jacob Holyoake of 20 Cockspur Street, Pall Mall, London to Lady Trelawny, 20 Jul 1972. Telling of books he had recently read; referring to 'a people's edition now 2/6 of Erewhon ... by young [Samuel] Butler'.

Autograph, with signature.

(1) Letter from William Frend De Morgan of The Vale, King's Road, Chelsea to H F Heath, Librarian of the University of London, 20 Oct 1900. (2) Letter from William Frend De Morgan of Via Lorenzo Magnifico 25, Florence, Italy to H F Heath, Librarian of the University of London, 4 Nov 1900. Both letters relate to De Morgan's gift of notes and additions made by his father, Augustus De Morgan, for his Arithmetical Books.

Both letters are autograph, with signatures. Filed with a typescript copy of Dr Heath's reply to the first letter.

Papers of Bernard Page Scattergood, 1931 and 1935, comprise two letters to Mr [A Y] Ali notably a covering letter enclosing an off-print [wanting] of part of 'The Scattergoods and the East India Company', co-written by Scattergood [with Sir Richard Carnac Temple and Lavinia M Anstey]; written to Ali in England (5 January 1931) and a covering letter enclosing a copy of the completed book.

Letter from Sir Thomas Phillipps of Oxford to [Edward Duke], 14 Mar 1837. '... my thanks for the kind manner in which you express a wish to see my portion of the Wilts History in print. You will be gratified to hear that I have advanced to page 56 of the 2nd part of Aubreys Wilts [John Aubrey Natural History of Wiltshire] ... & have this last week collected from the stores of Bodley some information which I did not before possess'. Mentioning the expense of publication and the difficulty of selling works of local history. 'I am not so rich as our mutual and valuable friend Sir Richard Hoare to be able to spend & lose 2000 per annum for the mere pleasure of illustrating the History of Wiltshire. At the same time I have no wish to make it a profitable speculation for myself.' Saying that he is happy to purchase a copy of Duke's book [probably Prolusiones historicae (1837)].

Autograph, with signature.

Letters, notes and poems from George Rostrevor Hamilton to Thomas Sturge Moore and his wife Marie, 1932-1934. Topics covered include Hamilton's poems and other books, about which he solicits Sturge Moore's opinions.

All items are autograph or typescript, with signatures.

Letter from Richard Cobden to Dr W C Taylor, 2 Aug 1842. Thanking him for the gift of 'your little vol' [possibly Notes on a Tour in the Manufacturing Districts of Lancashire]. 'The best thing that could happen wd be to see it well abused in the Morning Post and Standard.'

Autograph, with signature.

Notes from 1874 on the Woodcuts, Initials and other ornaments of early printed books with reference to the Italian and French renaissance.

Papers concerning American theatre and opera scrapbooks, 1875-1892, comprise to scrapbooks containing programmes of plays, concerts and operas performed in the USA, with particular reference to New York and the Metropolitan Opera House, from 1875 to 1892. MS1088/2 includes postcards of members of singers performing in the Metropolitan Opera 1890 to 1891 season, posing in some of their operatic roles. The volumes contained two loose inserts, which have now become MS1088/3 and MS1088/4.

Letter from Henry Blain to Joseph T Pooley of 5 Church Court, [c1842]. Discussing the corn laws (with reference to Blain's pamphlet on the subject) and proposed duties [taxes]. Autograph, with signature ('H.B.'). Dated 'Sunday night'.

2 Letters from Charles Kay Ogden of the Royal Societies Club, St James's Street, London SW1, to Montague Summers, 14 Oct and 27 [Oct] [1924]. Discussing books being prepared by Summers: Witchcraft, Restoration Drama and Physical Phenomena of Mysticism.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Richard Griffiths Welford of 6 Chancery Lane, [London] to [William Pleydell-Bouverie,] Earl of Radnor, 20 Mar 1843. Explaining that he has 'ventured to direct' his publisher to forward a copy of his 'tract upon the agricultural view of the corn law question' to Lord Radnor; giving his reasons for doing so.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Henry Carey Baird of H C Baird and Co, Philadelphia, USA to [Herbert Somerton] Foxwell, 4 Dec 1908. Enclosing a list of pamphlets by Mathew Carey [Baird's great uncle] and discussing the political economist Henry C Carey [Baird's uncle]. Typescript, signed by Baird.

Letter from Herbert Spencer of 340 Strand, [London] to Robert Chambers, 31 May 1852. Covering note enclosing a copy of Spencer's pamphlet A theory of population (1852).

Autograph, with signature. The front wrapper of the pamphlet is inscribed to Chambers.

Letter from Edward Howard Marsh of Churchdale Hall, near Bakewell, Derbyshire to George K A Bell, Bishop of Chichester, 27 Dec 1940. Covering note for a copy of Christopher Hassall's new book [S.O.S. … 'Ludlow' (1940)]; including Hassall's address.

Letter from Henry Peter Brougham of Château Eleanor Louise, Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, [France] to J M [John Murray] of Albermarle Street, London, 4 Dec [1851]. Concerning the proofs of his book The History of England and France under the House of Lancaster. Comments on the coup d'état [of Napoléon III] in Paris.

Papers of Katharine Longley, 1812-1993, comprising research notebooks; correspondence files; material associated with the Wickham and Ternan families; photocopies of manuscript material; photocopies from periodicals; a copy of The Charles Dickens Birthday Book; material on The Mystery of Edwin Drood; typescript of A Singular Light; typescript of A Pardoner's Tale; typescripts of Charles Dickens: Towards the Truth; typescript essays; printed books; and photographs and negatives.

Manuscript and printed items, 1891-1963, of a personal and business nature relating to George Smith.

(1) Letter from Randall Carline Swingler of the Left Review, 2 Parton Street, London to Thomas Sturge Moore, c1938. Asking him to contribute an article to the Left Review. Sturge Moore's draft reply appears on the reverse.

(2) Letter from Randall CarlineSwingler of the Left Review to Thomas Sturge Moore, c1938. Enclosing the final proof [missing] of Sturge Moore's article Fashions in art and literature.The article appeared in the April 1938 issue.

(3)Letter from John Edgell Rickword of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Hampstead Branch, 47 South Hill Park to Thomas Sturge Moore, 15 Feb 1938. Asking him to chair a lecture.

Letter from Richard Cobden of the Board of Trade, Whitehall, London [from embossed stamp on paper] to M Jules le Chevalier St Andre, 29 May 1860. Headed: 'Private'. Referring to an article by M Mornand, drawn to his attention by Le Chevalier St Andre: 'The word "impuissance" is very insulting and very dangerous when applied to my country'. He warns France against 'the idea of England being less powerful in compassion with France than in former time,' and continues: 'New and henceforth supremacy at sea must depend entirely on steam power. " Our tonnage in sailing vessels as compared with France is at least 5 to 1 But the horse power of our steam mercantile marine as compared with yours is about 30 to 1.' He concludes: 'You know how I hate this topic. But depend on it England was never so much to be dreaded in a maritime war as at present.'

Autograph, with signature. The letter paper is inverted.

With the original envelope, on which the following later note has been added: 'Mille compliments à Monsieur E. Dentu. Ceci est l'autograph de Mr Cobden que je lui ai promise mais comme elle traite d'un sujet politique du moment, je désire qu'elle reste sous ce pli et ne soit communiquée à personne du vivant de Mr. Cobden.' On the dorse, above the broken seal: 'Décacheté: - le dimanche 30 avril 1869. E.D.'

A manuscript almanac.

Invoices, reviews and accounts including manuscript reviews by Herbert Foxwell of works by the historian William Arthur Shaw; details of Foxwell's monthly expenditure on books, sorted by location; invoices from bookshops, [1880-1925].

Papers of Aldous Leonard Huxley, 1918 , comprise a letter his brother, Julian Sorell Huxley, discussing books and society and literary figures.

Letter from Thomas Perronet Thompson of Blackheath, [Kent] to George Pryme, Esq of Wiston, near Huntingdon, 19 Mar 1848. 'For the first time I appear to have got under the fallacy about a paper circulation based on all the land in the country. I just now perceive this included in the latest manifesto of Robert Owen.'

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Herbert George Wells of 47 Chiltern Court, Clarence Gate, London to D Wylie King [Mining Editor of the Financial Times] of The Close, Draycott Avenue, Kenton, Middlesex. Relating to Wells's use of King's phrase 'world audit' in The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1931).

Autograph, with signature.

With a typescript envelope (stamp torn away) and an undated cutting [probably contemporary with the letter] about The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind.

(1) Letter from John Mitchell of 35 Wimpole Street, [London], to W M Maude, 24 May 1820. 'The Pamphlet you were so obliging to send me, I have read with great attention; and I think the reasoning of it so sound that I intend to vote for Lord Sutton's motion ...' ; autograph, with signature.

(2) Covering note from [W M Maude] to John Mitchell, [c1820]. Accompanying a 3rd edition of James Bischoff's pamphlet Reasons for the immediate repeal of the tax on foreign wool (1820); note undated and unsigned.

Manuscript volume containing a guidebook to Rome entitled 'Antiquitez Romaines; Rome', [1650-1700]. Probably a school exercise-book.

Letter from Richard Cobden of Manchester to F Buloz, Esq, Paris, 19 Dec 1845. Answering Buloz's request for a collection of the National Anti-Corn Law League's publications for an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Cobden explains that 'no complete collection of [tracts, articles, pamphlets and advertisements] has been preserved - Nor has there been any history of the League written in England.' He promises to give full information and 'copies of all our publications which are preserved' to a visitor 'if recommended by you'. He recommends Bastiat's Cobden et la Ligue [printed by Senlis, Paris, 1845]. 'I may also add the Monsr Fonteyrand ... paid us a visit here a few weeks ago to whom I explained the machinery of our organisation ... I am not sure that he would feel at liberty to assist in furnishing an article for your publication - But he is more competent than any other person in France to do it correctly - At all events, I wish you would see him ... and say that I shall be obliged if he will allow you to have access to the publications which I gave him and afford you all facilities in his power for preparing a description of the League ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from W G Burns of Derby to Colonel [Thomas Perronet] Thompson, 23 Feb 1846. 'As I think it [a] pity you should be ignorant [of] the nature of the arguments [u]rged against free trade principles I send you a specimen of [w]hat a clerical opponent can [d]o ...'

Autograph, with signature. Written on the dorse of the title page and the end fly leaf of a pamphlet [by Henry Robert Crewe] The repeal of the Corn Laws (1846).

Letter from John Woodrow of the Cannon Hotel, Cockspur Street to [Patrick] Colquhoun, 26 May 1818. Covering letter sending a copy of his pamphlet on savings banks and friendly societies.

Written in another hand and signed by Woodrow.

Letter from Sara Coleridge of Keswick, Cumberland to [John] J Morgan Esq of 71 Berners Street, Oxford Street, London [a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was staying with Morgan's family in London], 5 Sep 1812. '... to request the favor of you to use your influence with my husband to prevail on him to send me a few lines immediately, for I have been so long [since Apr 1812] waiting for a letter from him ... I will thank you to represent to him that I want a little money very much ... for my sister [Edith] Southey having lost 30 pounds by the failure of the Workington Bank, and having occasion for money at present more than is convenient for S [i.e. Robert Southey, Edith's husband] to draw for - I own I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of not being able to settle my accounts with him ... I have bought the books for the boys; I was obliged to send to London for them ... I have also been obliged to get all their school books bound, the Aeschylus among the rest which was coming to peices [sic]. Please also say that we have not been able to find at Grasmere that "Reynard the Fox" which C [her husband] designed for Southey, and that probably he has it with him in town ...'

Autograph, with signature. A note in the hand of her 9-year-old daughter, also Sara, appears at the end of the letter.

Letter from Samuel Roberts of Park Grange, [Sheffield, Yorkshire] to George Thompson, c/o Alexander Cruickshanks, Meadowside, Edinburgh, 26 Oct 1833. Covering note to a copy of Roberts's An address to the members of the two Wilberforce-Committees, London and York, concerning a suitable memorial to the late William Wilberforce, slavery abolitionist.

Autograph, with signature.

This note is written on a blank portion at the end of the third page of the printed pamphlet. The date stamp, frank, seal and address are on the fourth (back) page.

Letter from Hermione Knox of Ranfurly Library Service Ltd, 18 Carlton House Terrace, London to Dr J H P Pafford, 22 Feb 1968. Concerning Dr Pafford's help to the Ranfurly Library Service.

Letter from Sit Thomas (Tam) Dalyell of the House of Commons to Bill Simpson, University of London Librarian, 16 Jan 1994. Presenting a copy of Dalyell's book Dick Crossman: a portrait (1989) to the University of London Library.

5 letters from George Julian Harney to John Salkeld, bookseller, 1888-1895. Requesting books. Including an envelope for the letter dated 11 Oct 1893.

Autographs, with signatures.

A forged letter written and signed by an unknown hand to resemble George Meredith, sent to an unknown recipient, late 19th century. '... your scheme of a new magazine, which is to be an indicator of the specially good things published monthly or generally, promises usefulness'.

Letter from James Henry Leigh Hunt of [7 Cornwall Road], Hammersmith, [London], 15 Dec [1853-1858] to an unidentified librarian. 'Do not imagine - to speak Hibernice - that I have lost sight of the missing books ... my inability to visit the bookshops is very inconvenient to me ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

The collection consists of miscellaneous manuscript and typescript notes, 1938, on news pamphlets during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

Personal correspondence of Charles Lahr, 1925-1970, including references to Lahr's family and politics, and business correspondence relating to the Blue Moon Press and ordering books. Correspondents include: Rhys Davies; Guy Alfred; Pearl Binder; Hugo Dewar; Christopher Grieve; Oswell Blakeston.

Newsletter from The Hague, 1760.

Copy of the newspaper, The Post Boy. Includes letter to Lady Rokeby of Northallerton, Yorkshire.

W North collection, 1874-[1926], comprising a Leeds parliamentary election poster titled "Reaction versus Disunion", 1874; a report on potato disease by Robert Veitch and Son with sketches of vegetables, possibly by Veitch, 1892; and a children's poster titled "A Pageant of London", c 1926.

2 scrapbooks of letters, fragments of letters, stamped or franked envelopes, and autographs, collected by Henry Austin Dobson and his wife Frances. Selected individuals represented are listed below.

Volume 1 includes letters written by: Sir Walter Besant; Thomas Hall Caine; Sir Edmund Gosse; Sir Mountstuart E Grant-Duff; Coventry Kersey Deighton Patmore; Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington; and Samuel Wesley (the composer).
Additional signatures in volume 1 include: Robert Browning and Bret Harte.
The volume also contains a religious poem by Hannah More (probably not in her own hand).

Volume 2 includes letters written by: Sir George Biddell Airy; Richard Ansdell; Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury; Edward Bickersteth (the evangelical leader); Richard Doddridge Blackmore; Marc Isambard Brunel; Sir Andrew Buchanan; William Carus Wilson; William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, Duke of Portland; William Courtenay, Earl of Devon; Edward John Eyre; John Fane, Earl of Westmorland; Robert FitzRoy; Giuseppe Garibaldi; Sir Mountstuart E Grant-Duff; Kate Greenaway; William Walter Legge, Earl of Dartmouth; Charles Gordon-Lennox, Duke of Richmond; Robert James Mann; Friedrich Max Müller; Florence Nightingale; Clara Novello, Countess Gigliucci; Edward Bouverie Pusey; James Meadows Rendel; Edward Sabine (later Sir Edward); Alfred Tennyson, Lord Tennyson; Frederick Benjamin Twistleton[-Wykeham-Fiennes], Baron Saye and Sele; Rev Christopher Wordsworth (later Bishop of Lincoln); and Charlotte M Yonge.
Additional signatures in volume 2 include: William George Armstrong; Sir Charles Barry, Nathaniel Beardmore (Mrs Dobson's father) and other members of his family; Sir Charles Tilston Bright; Randolph Caldecott; George Canning; Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey; Richard Cobden; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll); William Eward Gladstone; Benjamin Robert Haydon; William Hilton; Tom Hood (Thomas Hood the younger); Jean Ingelow; Sir William Jenner; Charles Kingsley; Henry Kingsley; Sir Charles Lyell; Giuseppe Mazzini; Horatio Nelson; Sir James Paget; Sir Robert Peel; George Ponsonby; Edward Sieveking (later Sir Edward); Sir William Smith ('Dictionary of the Bible' author); Richard Chevenix Trench, Archbishop of Dublin; Anthony Trollope; Horace Walpole (later Earl of Orford); Willoughby Hunter Weiss; Professor William Whewell.
The volume also contains a hymn written by James Montgomery for a member of the Beardmore family.

Many of the letters and autographs are undated.

Letter from Sir John Sinclair of 133 George Street, Edinburgh to James [Thomson] Gibson-Craig of Riccardton, 23 Apr 1825. Covering note enclosing a copy of Sinclair's pamphlet Defence of the landed and farming interests (1825).

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Sir Arthur Helps of the Privy Council Offices, [London] to Sir John Duke Coleridge (afterwards Lord Coleridge), 18 Jul 1872. Covering letter to a copy of Helps's book Life and Labours of Mr. Brassey 1805-1870(1872).

Autograph, with signature.