Item #150783 TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS FROM ALGERNON GISSING TO REV. E. J. F. DAVIES. Algernon Gissing.

TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS FROM ALGERNON GISSING TO REV. E. J. F. DAVIES.

One single-sided small quarto sheet, folded horizontally, dated 16th Feb, 1935, and a double-sided small 8vo sheet, dated 28th Feb. The first letter is a response to a letter from Davies, in which the latter seems to have praised Gissing's travel writing. Gissing expresses his fondness for Davies' home region, Chapel le Dale, in Yorkshire: 'I began tramping through your dales & over the fells about sixty years ago .... so you can imagine that your kind words came as a breath from the hills to me.' He notes that Chapel le Dale is 'the birthplace of the imaginary Dr. Daniel Dove of Southey's\ul Doctor\ulnone etc.' In the second letter Gissing agrees that The Doctor 'is as you say, decidedly "a green book", but I find it still interesting to browse upon occasionally. The stories of "The Three Bears" & "The Terrible Knitters e' Dent" alone would be enough to justify it'. Robert Southey's seven volumes recording the observations and travels of Dr. Dove and his faithful horse Nobbs, published between 1834 and 1847, contain the first widely known version of The Three Bears (with a naughty old woman protagonist, rather than the later Goldilocks). Item #150783

Price: $400.00

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