Beschreibung:

KEMBLE, Frances Anne ("Fanny"), 1809-1893. A collection of 50 letters, many addressed to the revered actress by literary admirers, plus other letters addressed to or collected by her grandson, the novelist Owen Wister (1860-1938). All loosely laid into an album. Small 4to, original reddish-brown morocco gilt, upper cover labelled "Autographs," spine defective, joint cracked. Inscribed in ink on front flyleaf: "To my Grandson Owen Wister from Frances Anne Kemble, Christmas Day 1874." A fascinating small archive associated with Kemble, daughter of the noted English Shakespearean actor, Charles Kemble. She acted to widespread acclaim at Covent Garden from 1829 on; toured America with her father in 1832-34 and retired from the stage between 1834 and 1847. Returning to the U.S. in 1849, she launched a second career, giving popular dramatic readings from English authors. Her journals constitute an important record of the theater during this period. The album and most of its contents were evidently a gift to Wister, her 14-year-old grandson. Contents: DICKENS, Charles. Autograph letter signed (large paraph) to Kemble, New York, 20 April 1868, 2 pages, 8vo, small strip at top of first page torn away. Gracious letter, noting that "the effects of my recent hard work in a hard winter have culminated in a neuralgic affection which so disables me that I am even now doubtful of the possibility of standing at my table tonight [to deliver a reading]. But if I can walk tomorrow I will try to see you and say goodbye." He expresses strong emotions when he recalls "through how many years and how many changes I have been among the warmest admirers of your genius." -- TENNYSON, Alfred Lord. Autograph manuscript verses ("I wish I were where Helen lies Night and day on me she cries"), n.p., n.d. 2 pages, 4to . Ten four-line stanzas, "copied for Frances Anne Kemble by Alfred Tennyson." -- BROWNING, Robert. Two autograph letters signed, London and n.p., 18 June 1870 and n.d.. Together three pages, 8vo . Kemble has asked him a favor involving Oxford; Browning mentions his son's college (Christ Church) and adds: "my relations with my own College, -- Balliol -- were so complete of an all-take-and-nothing-give character that, in their shame, I have just resigned the rooms the College awarded me"; adding that he will do what he can for her relations but "each must have his following from town and country" - EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Autograph letter signed, Concord, 27 September 1860. 3 pages, 8vo . Apologizing for not visiting Kemble in town --. LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. Autograph letter signed, Cambridge, 11 February 1850. 3 pages, 8vo . Begging her acceptance of some volumes of verse, adding "I will not ask, nor expect you to read them'The Building of the Ship' you will find in the last volume. I must leave Evangeline to plead the cause of the hexameter for me, and yet I could say a great deal in favor of its sonorous cadences" - And 24 others, including Rudyard Kipling (ALS, 1896, condolences to Wister), James Russell Lowell (ALS, entreating Kemble to read in Cambridge), W.E. Channing, W.H. Prescott (ALS presenting copies of his works), E. Everett, J.L. Motley, Walter Scott (brief ALS to James Ballantyne, his publisher), William M.Thackeray (ALS, noting that he has had a fall from a horse), Sarah Siddons, Lt. Genl. W.T. Sherman (inscription & signature on card), W.C. Bryant (ALS), William Dean Howells (2 ALS), Thomas Hughes, Philip Sheridan (LS, 1887), A.C. Doyle (inscription on printed card), Bret Harte, Edward Bulwer Lytton, J. R. Lowell (2 ALS, one partly in verse to Mrs. Wister).