BELL, Mackenzie.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Christina Rossetti: A Biographical and Critical Study. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed "To Miss Lisa Wilson with the good wishes of her friend Mackenzie Bell, Jan. 1898" on a note mounted onto the half-title. This copy contains flowers from Rossetti's funeral wreath, a postcard from Mary Rossetti, and several marginal annotations by Wilson.The friendship between Rossetti and Mary Louisa "Lisa" Wilson (1850-1934) began when Wilson wrote to Christina to compliment her poetry. Their lengthy correspondence eventually led to their first meeting in 1885. In his memoirs, William Michael Rossetti commented: "one of the friends whom Christina saw with most satisfaction was Miss Lisa Wilson; a lady accomplished in verse and sketching who had been drawn to my sister by her poetry, and viewed her with deep affection and reverential regard" (p. 526).Wilson was in the exclusive group of friends and family to attend Rossetti's private burial. Preserved in a makeshift envelope are some of her funeral flowers, Wilson notes that the "flowers & leaves [are] from the wreath which was laid on my beloved Christina's coffin, and buried with her - Jan. 2 1895 - Highgate".The book was passed down to Wilson's goddaughter Christina Maude Evelyn Corkran (1903-1979), remaining in the family until 2024.

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