UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO ADA HARTNELL RUSKIN (John, 1819-1900, Writer and Critic)

Fine Autograph Letters Signed to Ada Hartnell of the Guild of St George saying that he “cannot tell you how much pleasure and strength your letter has given, or will give me. It came at a confused time when I was unable to answer it rightly and I am so still - but here, today, coming home - my gathering work finished for this year... I hold among the first of these, the thanking you - and will try to see you before the end of the week... How guiltily one neglects one’s most precious - quiet abiding friends - & lets oneself drift among the crowd...” with a postscript that he will “write again should I not see you. I shall be at Herne Hill, Godalming on Wednesday evening but see over what night have I to expect people to come to me to help me - when I neglect a creature like you - and later no thought to follow up the guiding of God - in such quiet ways, while I storm... alone...”, 2 sides 8vo., Geneva, 19th October

Ruskin was one of the founders of a Guild of Companions attempting to found Utopia in England. They paid tithes and Sir Thomas Dyke Acland and Francis Cowper-Temple were the original trustees. In May 1871 the scheme was made public. ‘That food can only be got out of the ground and happiness out of honesty’ were the first two principles of the Guild of St. George, the third was that ‘the highest wisdom and the highest treasure need not be costly or exclusive’ (Prince Leopold's speech on Ruskin).

Item Date:  1874

Stock No:  42111      £1475

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