MITFORD (Mary Russell, 1787-1855, Novelist)

Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs BROWNING, (Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861, Poet and wife of Robert) saying that she "does indeed rejoice, my very dear friend at the exceedingly pleasant manner in which the book ... is being noticed in the papers - It may do good - you must not think me unkind if it be some time before I can convey the copies in my hands & those coming to me to their destined owners. Unluckily every one lives beyond a walk & I have no means of getting them to the different persons except by taking them myself - since you left me I have had a severe attack of neuralgia pain in the face - which is almost always brought on by driving in the winter in an open carriage - so that I have been obliged to give up going anywhere beyond a walk for the present - indeed in the winter I never do get into the pony chaise without suffering severely - However I will continue to take them as soon as I can - & real difference there is none between an immediate delivery & a delay which I should of course explain as being caused by myself & not by you - That first volume of Mrs Browning must be as heavy as lead - & I should fear would go far to weigh down the ... portions of her poems - odd sort of criticisms the Leader has - I see Mr Home's Duchess of Malfi has stopped - but hard as the construction of Webster is his own is a million times worse - with Webster's five bits. I see that the Smuggler by James is published in the Parlor Library - let me have that please dear friend. Tom Cringle's Log if I have not got it which your bookseller will know & any ore of James's as they come out - love to the Mrs Bennetts ...", 4 sides sm. 8vo., no place, no date, together with an engraving of Mitford from the drawing by F. R. Say, 9½" x 7"

George Payne Rainsford JAMES (1799-1860, novelist and Historical Writer) published The Smuggler in 1845.
THE PARLOUR LIBRARY was the first successful series of fiction reprints in paper boards. It was founded in 1847 by the Belfast firm of Simms and McIntyre, and continued by Thomas Hodgson and a succession of London publishers into the 1860s. Advertised as books 'for all', these shilling volumes, with distinctive green covers designed by H. Warren, stimulated an unprecedented demand for cheap, attractively packaged new and popular novels.
Mitford and Browning were close friends and the older woman was a great support to Elizabeth's literary endeavours. She described the young Elizabeth as having "a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on each side of a most expressive face; large, tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, and a smile like a sunbeam." When the Brownings were living in Wimpole street Elizabeth had a spaniel called Flush, which was a present from her friend.

Item Date:  0

Stock No:  41207      £675

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