Correspondence with Doughty’s publisher 'Messers Duckworth', and specifically George Milsted, regarding Doughty’s epic poem The Dawn in Britain,

£8,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An interesting correspondence, mostly regarding the publication and evolution of the ‘long-meditated epic of early Britain’ The Dawn in Britain , and demonstrating how closely the author was involved in all aspects of its publication (ODNB). This extraordinary book was Doughty’s life work, and he writes in these letters that ‘D. in Britain has been in my mind for now 37 years.’ Twice the length of the Iliad – some 30,000 lines – it understandably found no ready takers among the publishers until 1905, when Edward Garnett successfully proposed it to Duckworth, for whom he was then ‘reader’. It was published in 1906-7 by Duckworth in 6 volumes. Biographical material for this period of Doughty’s life appears to be rare, which is not surprising since he was working full-time on this book. The letters continually refer to problems with printers (the present cataloguer, having struggled with Doughty’s hand, sympathises with them), and Doughty is always promising that the next batch of manuscripts will be easier to read (’… regards the Compositors’ work, I should do my utmost to keep down correcting expenses. I am painfully aware that my handwriting is bad to read.’). He offers his thoughts on various aspects of production: what type should be used (‘To my mind the type used should be a beautiful old … Roman letter, not too light, but which is pleasant to the eyes clear to read.’); how large the edition might be (‘I should like to recommend … an Edition of 500 copies’; ‘… if you thin

• Binding: Hardcover

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