Beschreibung:

SWINBURNE (ALGERNON CHARLES)Album of seven autograph letters, six signed ("A.C. Swinburne"), five to his friend Theodore Watts Dunton ("My dear Watts"), on various subjects including bemoaning his carelessness in losing a cheque from Hollingshead, having his poem rejected by the Fortnightly ("...the Last Oracle is again on the market a most desirable article of literary property to be knocked down to the highest bidder..."), his joy at finding Charles Lamb's interleaved copy of George Wither's Works ("...Rejoice with me for I have found my Lamb that was lost...") and asking him help with annotating a copy of Wither's Works which has "...undoubted autograph pencil-notes of Lamb...", reminiscences of Dante Gabriel Rossetti reading from Joseph and his Brethren by Charles Wells ("...I was but just out of my teens when I first knew him... I can hear the very intonation of his voice..."), his work on Lamb ("...grinding toil...") and Shakespeare ("...16 foolscap pages... enough to show you it's gist...") and other literary and family matters ("...I have lost my heart to a young lady... her age (I am told) is exactly four months..."); one to Mr MacColl, asking him to put a notice in The Athenaeum regarding the "...long-lost volume containing verses hitherto unknown from the hand of Charles as well as Mary Lamb..."; one from Lamb's biographer Alfred Ainger, regarding proofs of Wither and the spelling of Shakespeare's name in the text, Holmwood and elsewhere, 28 pages, neatly hinged into sunken mounts, bound with two envelope fronts, calligraphic title page, two portraits and typed transcriptions of the letters, bookplate of John A. Spoor by Emery Walker red morocco by Riviere, title 'Charles Lamb and Algernon Charles Swinburne 1876-1884' in gilt on upper cover and spine, g.e., corners slightly rubbed, upper joint cracked, 8 March 1876 to 7 July 1884Footnotes'REJOICE WITH ME FOR I HAVE FOUND MY LAMB THAT WAS LOST': A COLLECTION OF LETTERS BY ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE BOUND BY RIVIERE. A sequence of letters from Swinburne predominantly concerned with his discovery of Charles Lamb's interleaved copy of George Wither's Works: 'A particularly interesting set of proofs of John Matthew Gutch's edition of Wither's Works, which was printed in Bristol in 1820 but remained unissued until 1839-47, was offered in Quaritch's sale catalogue No. 1132 (December 1990), item 58, and is now at Princeton (RTCO1, No. 173). Comprising two volumes of proofs interleaved and heavily annotated by Gutch himself, by his friend Charles Lamb and also by Dr John Nott, with insertions by James Brook Pulham and later by A.C. Swinburne, they are a vivid memento of a particular and influential circle of Wither-admirers in the nineteenth century.' (Peter Beal, CLEM Index of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700 online). Our volume bears the bookplate of John Alden Spoor of Chicago, whose six-day sale The Renowned Library of the Late John A. Spoor was held at the Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, in April 1939. John A. Spoor (1851-1926), known in Chicago financial circles as 'the J. Pierpont Morgan of the Middle West' made his fortune in railways and over thirty years accumulated a collection of books and manuscripts '...assembled with brilliant zeal, exquisite taste, and sustained conviction...'. His collection 'covered most of the British literary lights from Lamb to Kipling. His Lamb collection... probably was unique in its completeness' (J. Christian Bay, 'Private Book Collectors of the Chicago Area', The Library Quarterly, Vol.12, no.3., July 1942, p.372.). The letters themselves are published in Cecil Y. Lang's The Swinburne Letters, 1960 (Vol.3, no.597, Vol.4, nos.714, 715, 870; Vol. 5, nos.1299, 1301) where the letters are noted as being in the possession of Arthur M. Rosenbloom, who donated so much to the Beinecke. Swinburne's letter dated 5 February regarding the so-called "Lamb project" and hoping to get together a gathering to "...drink to the sweet of memor