This collection contains mostly correspondence from major figures in English literature between 1630-1800. It also includes literary works, including manuscripts and bound volumes; financial records; and legal documents.

Note on Indexing Term - "Art": Of particular interest are 1849 pen and ink sketch by William Makepeace Thackeray; extra- illustrations in an 1868 edition of Edward Fitzgerald's The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; 1897 engraving of Rudyard Kipling; Of Gardens, an Essay designed, written and illuminated in 1905 by Alberto Sangorski and a 1922 autographed photograph of James Joyce taken by Man Ray. Also included is the following undated material: watercolor illustrations for The Merry Old Man... by Charlotte Adams; drawings and text for Funny Figures for FunLoving Little Folks by Edward Bradley; Sherlock Holmes drawings in black and colored crayon by Gilbert Kieth Chesterton; watercolor and pen and ink drawings by Edward Henry Corbould for Faerie Tales... by Maria Corbould; watercolor drawings for The dis-astrous ride; drawings for The Good Prenctice at work at the Loom... and paper doll books: Frank Fainwell's Attempts to Amuse His Friends, The History and adventures of Little Henry and The History of little Fanny....

Note on Indexing Term - "English Poetry": Of interest are items by Robert Burns, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth.

Note on Indexing Term - "Women": Of interest is a corrected typescript of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, as well as other items. Note on Indexing Term - "Radio": Of interest is an undated producer's working copy of "The Pageant of Cain", a masque for broadcasting by William Stanley Merwin with music composed and directed by John Hotchkis. This has been described as one of the earliest broadcast scripts by a distinguished American poet. Note on Indexing Term - "Travel": Of interest is an 1809 journal of a tour in England, Ireland and Scotland written by member of parliament, William Dickinson. Describes one of the mills in Manchester as well as a calico printing and dyeing mill. Also of interest is Retrospect of Western Travel by Harriet Martineau. This 1834 book deals with the authors' personal experiences while traveling in America for two years. For digitized content from 1630-1800, see Digital Collections. For digitized content from 1801-1850, see Digital Collections. For digitized content from 1851-1900, see Digital Collections. For digitized content from 1901-1950, see Digital Collections.

"This is the original manuscript of a romance written by a very active Victorian female writer, well known in literary and musical circles in both Paris and London during her lifetime, effectively unknown today. The tale is centered around real-life nobility, the French Dauphin, "Henery," Henry II (1519-1559), and his mistress and advisor Diane de Poitiers (1500-1566). Henry II was born in the royal Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and the story opens on Saint John's Eve [sunset 23 June] before the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, at the moated castle of "St. Germaine," sometimes referred to here as a royal chateau, where, "Along the bottom of the hollow crept lazily the waters of the twisted Seine, now dwindled to a silver thread." Two Cavaliers, one young, the other considerably older, the latter a d'Heilly, are in a forest near the castle. The younger of the two, the good-humored one, says, "Know you not t'is Saint John the Baptist's holy eve, when as t'is said, the web of man's destiny is woven for the year to follow? And mark you, Count, generally for evil-for t'is mostly thus with these old woman's fancies. But hark! There are sounds methinks, that would dispel the gloomiest fits of sadness." Those cheerful sounds emanate from the many peasants in colorful garb playing musical instruments to which others are dancing. This cheerful youth, Count d'Marly, joins the festivities with the band of peasants, "rustic" musicians and dancers, while his companion, the unhappy, compalining Count d'Heilly, whose life of ambition without honor has soured him, disdains the pleasure and turns this into a tale of family strife and revenge: "No, no, I were a fool and dastard to resign my hopes of vengeance. That coward [Dauphin] Henery knew well when his lips proffered the stinging gibe that I could have no chance of open honourable strife with him! That my rage would but excite contempt, my angry words bring down upon my head exile and punishment..." Enter the beautiful maiden, "the gypsy of the Covert, Zoe, the dark Bohemian!," who on leaf 16 is fully described wearing a costume that was "a mixture of the Orientalist which made him [the count] almost fancy...that he beheld a girl of Palestine." She is described by another maiden as "almost under the ban of the Church, together with the hag her mother...None seek to converse with her-all flee from her mother, t'is a family of wizards, so t'is said, and none dare converse with her...[she] was not adorned a bunch of the blessed St. John's wort. They care not, apparently for its protection...she must have means of conciliating the powers of darkness...mankind's most powerful enemies are all let loose this night...the Cavalier...for the first time in his life he had been foiled in his efforts to please a woman, and with the wayward needs of his character he was already meditating on revenge..." Bad luck soon follows the Viscount. Leaf 27 begins Chapter II which describes at length a royal foxhunt organized for Henery, accompanied by Diane of Poitiers, "Belle entre toutes." Period garb is described in detail. By leaf 47, "By degrees, I know not how the conversation led to the arts of magic and necromancy and to the wondrous skill possessed by some Bohemians," and rumors of the murder of a child by a "wandering Bohemian woman..." At the end, Diane of Poitiers relates "dark events," the death of eight-year-old Charlotte of France is treated as sinister; ambush by "the proud and jealous Duchess d'Etampes [Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly (1508-1580, chief mistress of Francis I of France)], emits cries of terror, internecine conflicts abound, Diane thinks she is cursed, and "With the superstitious weakness of the age, she deemed that Heaven itself was occupied in dealing out menace and warning against her guilty life." Diane's dread is because of her father: "...She shuddered at the bare possibility of his seeking her presence. Then came the terror, mightier still, which sent back the blood in a stifling current to her beating heart, the dread of separation from Henry. Diane de Poitiers had never known love until she met the Dauphin, and she had viewed with wonder the new and unexpected feeling she experienced towards him." She prays to God and the Holy Mother, without affect, shrieks at the sight of the face of Charlotte of France peering out of a frame, notices a dagger, drops her lighted taper, and finally sinks "to the earth silently and softly, and lay, unconcious and motionless, in a heavy swoon!" Dead or alive? For historical context, Anne d'Heilly, "Basking in her success in bringing peace between Francis and Charles at Crepy in 1544, Anne convinced Francis that his son the Dauphin Henry and Diane de Poitiers were working to reinstate Montmorency at court. Francis, so instructed, banished Diane from court. In response, Henry and his supporters retreated to the chateau of Anet; father and son woud not reconcile until 1545" -xwhos.com."

- Bookseller's description, Howard S. Mott, Inc.

See bookseller's description for detailed physical description.