LANDON (Letitia Elizabeth, 1802-1838, Poetess, better known as L.E.L.)

Autograph Letter Signed with initials to Mrs Hall saying she was “going to have written to Mr Hall tonight, but as you have not, I will take the opportunity of asking you to give the accompanying poem. Mr Hall told me he wished one a tale at some length for the amulet. Will he see if he likes it. I am so much better that I have been today to a lecture of... so much pleased. I am so glad you are come home...”, 3 sides sm. 8vo., no place, no date

In October 1836, Landon met George Maclean, governor of the Gold Coast, and the two began a relationship. Maclean, however, moved to Scotland early the following year, to the surprise and distress of Landon and her friends. After much prodding, Maclean returned to England and he and Landon were married shortly thereafter, on 7th June 1838. The marriage was kept secret, and Landon spent the first month of it living with friends. In early July, the couple sailed for Cape Coast, where they arrived on 16th August. Two months later, on 15th October, Landon was found dead, a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. However, it is not fair to assume that she was poisoned. There is ample evidence that she showed symptoms of Stokes-Adams syndrome for which the dilute acid was the standard remedy. No autopsy was carried out and from the eye-witness accounts it seems, in retrospect, almost certain that Landon suffered a fatal convulsion.
Among the poets of her time to recognise and admire her were Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who wrote "L.E.L.'s Last Question" in homage; and Christina Rossetti, who published a tribute poem entitled "L.E.L" in her 1866 volume The Prince's Progress and Other Poems.
The recipient is almost certainly her friend Anna Maria HALL (1800-1881) and Irish Novelist often published as Mrs S. C. Hall. Samuel Carter HALL (1800-1889) who was an Irish jounalist and Art Critic. In his 1883 memoir Retrospect of a Long Life, Samuel Carter Hall writes of Landon's marriage and husband in very negative terms.

Item Date:  0

Stock No:  42192      £475

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