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Lot 270

NEWMAN (JOHN HENRY, Saint)
Autograph presentation manuscript of his hymn 'Lead Kindly Light', signed ("John H. Newman") and dated, comprising the first stanza of six lines, "August 15 1876"

4 December 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £3,187.50 inc. premium

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NEWMAN (JOHN HENRY, Saint)

Autograph presentation manuscript of his hymn 'Lead Kindly Light', signed ("John H. Newman") and dated, comprising the first stanza of six lines, beginning: "Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom/ Lead thou me on...", 1 page, contemporary envelope, oblong 8vo, "August 15 1876"

Footnotes

These verses were, famously, written by Newman on a visit to Sicily, after having gone down with gastric or typhoid fever: 'Many were dying from the epidemic, but Newman was confident that he would live: "God has still work for me to do"... When he came later to write a graphic account of his fever, he looked back on it as the third of the three pivotal illnesses in these formative years. On his way home, while at sea, he wrote "Lead, kindly light"' (Ian Ker, ODNB).

Additional information

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