Shakespeare, William. Autograph letter to Langford - photo 1
Shakespeare, William. Autograph letter to Langford - photo 2
Shakespeare, William. Autograph letter to Langford - photo 1

Autograph letter to Langford

Lot 146
15.10.2021 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 1 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
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ID 627635
Lot 146 | Autograph letter to Langford
Estimate value
$ 2 000 – 3 000
ELIOT, George (pseudonym of Mary Anne Evans, 1819-1880). Autograph letter signed (‘M.E. Lewes’) to [Joseph] Langford, The Priory, Regents Park, 22 December 1877.

In purple ink, 2½ pages (151 x 99mm) on a bifolium (minor dust-soiling).

"Let us help to make good romances of the practical kind if we can." John Blackwood has forwarded to Eliot a letter demonstrating a "touching interest" in Emma Gwyther, daughter of the Reverend John Gwyther (the model for Amos Barton in Eliot’s first published work, Scenes of Clerical Life). As Langford once mentioned an acquaintance with the family, Eliot asks him to "be so good as to look in the Clerical Directory for the Rev. Henry Gwyther [John Gwyther’s brother] & note whether he is still at Yardley," or indeed provide other information about the family in response to this enquiry. "It would be very pretty if there were some blessing in store for [Emma] in the disguise of a 'Mr Harris.' Let us help to make good romances of the practical kind if we can." The letter concludes with a reference to a "new edition of Romola" which "looks handsome – & handy," and a pre-Christmas sign-off probably alluding to Eliot’s well-known atheism, "I hope you are in good condition for enjoying the reputed pleasures of 'the season.'"

Published in Letters, vol. 6, p. 435. Joseph Langford (1809-1884) was the London manager of Eliot’s Edinburgh-based publisher, Blackwood & Sons. Rev. John Gwyther was the curate of Chilvers Coton church from 1831 to 1841, when the young Eliot and her family were regular worshippers there. Gwyther had died in 1873; the Emma Gwyther referred to in this letter was his eldest daughter, born in 1825. Provenance: Phillips, London, 13 June 1996, lot 239.

Artist:William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Applied technique:Pencil
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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United Kingdom
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01.10.2021 – 15.10.2021
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