AN ACCOUNT OF THE ILLNESS AND DEATH OF HIS FATHER, ROBERT BROWNING THE SECOND.
With further records of Walter Savage Landor. Pp. 14+[2](colophon, verso blank); demy 8vo; printed pale orange paper wrappers, stabbed & tied, faintly soiled and creased; a couple of tiny edge splits and a little light creasing; printed for private circulation only by Richard Clay and Sons, Ltd., London, 1921. Edition limited to thirty copies printed for Thomas J. Wise. Todd 101d. *Inscribed in ink on the half-title page: 'Professor F. A. Pottle from Thos. J. Wise'. Loosely inserted is an ALs. from Pottle, on New Hampshire College letterhead, dated November 17, 1921: 'Dear Mr. Wise: I have been looking over your letters to me and find much to my surprise and regret that I apparently failed to acknowledge your note of August 15, granting me permission to publish your first letter to me in my essay. In this last letter, you offered me a privately printed letter of Browning's which you speak of as "most important". I hope my stupidity has not lost it for me. I was very much excited at the time, and apparently read your letter to mean that you were sending me the pamphlet. Very truly yours, . . . .' On the reverse, in red ink, is a reply from Wise: 'Here it is. Sorry it is crumpled, but it is absolutely the only copy left, save my own. Thanks for reminding me, and pray forgive this hasty method of reply! Yours. T. J. Wise. 29/1/21'. With the original stamped and postmarked envelope (worn and torn), addressed in ink by Wise, with most of his 'T.J.W' wax seal intact on reverse. In 1921, Frederick Albert Pottle (1897-1987) was a young American academic, presumably working on his first book, Shelley and Browning, which was published in 1923. He later achieved renown as an authority on James Boswell and the editor of Boswell's papers. The text is Browning's letter to Baron Seymour Kirkup, dated February 19, 1867, describing the death of the poet's father and other family matters; also referring to John Forster's forthcoming (1869) biography of Walter Savage Landor. Item #156909
Price: $1,500.00