Beschreibung:

Autograph letter to Mrs. Griffith about Walter Scott Jane Austen and Dr. Johnson.
Edgeworth Town: 20 April 1826. 4 pp., folded sheet (239 x 186 mm). Condition: tears at folds expertly repaired, unsigned (doubtless continued on another sheet, now lacking). Provenance: Peter Croft, sale, Sotheby’s London, December 1985, lot 11, £320, Quaritch. A letter with references to some of the greatest authors of the day, and their literary works . Maria explains why Scott, currently finishing Woodstock , did not include Jane Austen in his latest publication: “…Not Because he undervalued her talents-of that he is incapable-But simply because the work [Lives of the British Novellists] was continued only to the time of Cumberland…” She praises Scott’s dictionary, “…fully equal & in some parts superior in interest and literary value to Dr Johnson’s,” and pays homage to the author himself, asking, “who alive or dead except Shakespeare can stand a comparison with [Scott] in invention- the true test of genius-…” Maria’s current reading, The Last of the Mohicans , has just gotten good, so to speak, “…last night we got into the cavern- that is a sublime scene…,” and her current hobby, botany, keeps her well occupied, “…The specimens of the ground pine and of the festoon pine have delighted me…” In other news, Maria’s dear friend, a clergyman Mr. Jephson, “long known and long loved,” has suddenly died leaving his wife and seven children “absolutely unprovided for,” forcing them to consider relocating to Bath and taking lodgers. Maria inquires whether such an idea might work as well in New York or Philadelphia.