Bonhams 1793 : BROWNING (ROBERT) Autograph letter signed, to "My dear Reuben", 1868

Autograph letter signed ("Robert Browning"), to "My dear Reuben", offering to send a book ("...Of course I have the Jonson you gave me so kindly of old; shall I send it you, & whither?..."); confessing that he does not remember his father mention what Reuben tells him of Junius ("...your conjecture is striking & well worthy of investigation..."); and sending his sister Sarianna's best love and their Christmas wishes; integral blank docketed, possibly by the recipient in relation to the investigation, "Notes & Queries", 2 pages, blindstamped armorial heading, dust-stained and with ink off-setting from contact with damp, 8vo, Warwick Crescent, 3 January 1868

Sold for £1,750 inc. premium

Footnotes

We are very grateful to Michael Meredith for identifying the recipient's near-indecipherable name as that of Reuben Browning, Robert's half-uncle who worked for the London branch of Rothschild's. Among his father's other attainments, he is said to have been an authority on the letters of Junius, which Browning himself read as a boy. This letter dates from the years of considerable family sorrow for Browning, with Elizabeth dead in 1860, his father in 1866 and Elizabeth's surviving sister Arabella the previous June. He was at the same time immersed in writing The Ring and the Book, with a three-hour stint every morning, begun in the autumn of 1864 and finished in the spring of 1868, to be published that same year.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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