BLACKMORE, R. D.

£4,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Mary Anerley. A Yorkshire Tale. First edition, the dedication copy, inscribed by the dedicatee in Volume I, "This copy, specially bound for me, was given to me by my dear old friend, R. D. Blackmore. Arthur J. Munby, 1880." Tipped onto the front free endpaper of the same volume is a later autograph note signed from Blackmore to an unstated recipient, in which he discusses his health and that of Munby, "my old and valued friend."Blackmore and Munby (1828-1910) had a lifelong friendship, and he was the dedicatee of Munby's Dorothy, also published in 1880. For Mary Anerley, Munby provided considerable assistance with the Yorkshire dialect.Blackmore's note, dated 29 November 1899, discusses a "gastric complaint, which allows me neither sleep nor food, nor any other comfort... My old and valued friend, A. J. Munby, has suffered sadly from eye-disease... He cannot see very distinctly now but will (I hope) not be worse than he is. His general health is good, and he is lively." The note goes on in a manner suggesting that the recipient is a publisher or a collector of literary manuscripts. "What rogues, to offer you that rubbish at £10. Three or four wretched verses, published years ago, in what paper I forget. 10d. would be too much for them. But the paper had no right to market them. I never had a penny for them."Provenance: Arthur Joseph Munby; his pencilled inscription and bookplate - Raphael King, London bookseller; his cataloguing description loosely inserted - Bought from King

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