MARTINEAU, Harriet, & Thomas Arnold.

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Autograph letter signed, to John McVickar. Martineau writes a letter of introduction for Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby, to John McVickar, a professor of political economy, soliciting assistance with the US publication of Arnold's History of Rome (1838-43): "it is of great consequence that it should be issued in the United States". Martineau's letter, written across two sides, is followed by one side of Arnold's supplications.Martineau describes the History of Rome as a "work of great importance" and Arnold (1795-1842) as someone who "is honoured on both sides of the Atlantic". Arnold was known as "the headmaster who brought Rugby School from brutality and intellectual decline to civilization and academic excellence... He swiftly acquired the reputation of being not only the great reformer of the public schools but also the founder of the modern public-school system" (ODNB). Classical studies were the central element of Arnold's curriculum. He "regarded the Greek and Latin languages as 'given for the very purpose of forming the human mind in youth'" and, accordingly, his History of Rome was intended as a teaching aid (ODNB). In this letter, Arnold writes that the first volume on "the first three centuries & a half, down to the Gaulish invasion, is now in the press" and that he is "working steadily at the second volume". Although the project was incomplete at Arnold's death - he writes here that his "occupations as the master of a large public school do not allow me to make v

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