To Evert Duyckinck - photo 1
To Evert Duyckinck - photo 2

To Evert Duyckinck

Lot 140
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 6 300
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 967570
Lot 140 | To Evert Duyckinck
Estimate value
$ 5 000 – 8 000
To Evert Duyckinck

Herman Melville, c. 1846-1848

MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Autograph letter signed ("Herman Melville") to Evert A. Duyckinck, [New York,] "Wednesday Morning," [c. 1846-1848].



One page, bifolium, 202 x 134mm (toned spots at top margin, mild abrasion below "Monday Morning," identification at lower margin in blue ink, glue remnants and partly repaired tears on verso of integral leaf). Addressed in his hand on the integral leaf.



A social note to his longtime friend and literary colleague Evert Duyckinck: “In compliance with your friendly invitation I will be very happy to call this evening about eight o’clock. Do not let me detain you home however if otherwise engaged.” Melville and Duyckinck first met in 1846 and became fast friends. Although Duyckinck is well-known as the editor who enhanced Washington Irving's literary reputation, "perhaps the most important of his relationships is the one he cultivated with Herman Melville. Evert Duyckinck stands out distinctly among those who were in a position to advise Melville during the period he wrote the majority of his novels and poems." It was, "at first only a business connection, but gradually a truly personal relationship developed: a literary relationship which affected the art of Melville's fiction and poetry" (Donald Kay, "Herman Melville's, Literary Relationship with Evert Duyckinck." CLA Journal, 18:3 [March 1975], p. 393).



According to Horth, the letter could have been written during his two residencies in New York (1847-1850 and after 1863, but not after 1878 when Duyckinck died). A review of their published letters suggests that this letter dates before 1849, when Melville had dropped the formality of his correspondence from "Dear Sir," to merely "Dear Duyckinck." Published in Horth, Correspondence, p. 536. Provenance: Maurice F. Neville (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 16 November 2004, lot 173).

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