Autograph Manuscript
$7,500 · Offered by Biblio
Signed
1854. HERBERT, Henry William. Autograph Manuscript, signed ("H.W. Herbert") for the sketch "The Vale of Warwick". 14 pp. (7 sheets folded once and loosely quired, written on rectos only). 8vo. [Newark or New York ?]: [ca. 1854]. Preserved in a green cloth folding case with chemise. Some minor soiling to page 1, lightly creased, else fine. With the bookplate of John M. Schiff. Typed transcription included. Van Winkle p.63 (referring to the first printed version). Provenance: Harry Worcester Smith (purchased by him at the Stanley V. Henkel sale of 1923; lot 336, his sale, 1931); John M. Schiff (sale, 1990); Rob Cohen; Arnold W. Johnson. "In all the river counties of New York, there is none to my mind, which presents such a combination of all natural beauties, pastoral, rural., sylvan, and at times almost sublime, as old Orange, nor any part of it, to me, so picturesque, or so much endeared by early recollections, as the fair Vale of Warwick..." Thus begins Herbert's delightful description of Warwick, the setting for Herbert's justly celebrated sporting novels, published under the name "Frank Forester." Written for W. Hasbrouck's Middletown, N.Y., Whig Press and first collected in Frank Forester's Sporting Scenes and Characters (revised and enlarged fifth edition, Philadelphia, c. 1881) the essay gives a description of the regions topography, wildlife, industry, and history. It ends as charmingly as it began with these words: "the thrice accursed locomotive never awake the echoe
- Year: 1854
- Binding: unknown
Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.