Beschreibung:

GOLDSMITH, Oliver (1728-1774). Autograph promissory note signed ('Oliver Goldsmith') to Mr. [Francis or John] Newbery, n.p., 25 April 1766 , for five guineas 'for value received'; 3 lines, 68 x 182mm , with three endosements in different hands: the first, on recto , 'Vicar on Wakefield'; the second, on recto , 'This money, when y Book is corrected, is to be receiv'd of y Publishers', in pencil ; the third, on verso , in the hand of Sir Walter Scott 'Seen by me this day Walter Scott 19 May 1815' (faded), (rubbed, weak at folds). The Vicar of Wakefield was published on 27 March 1766 with the imprint, 'Salisbury: Printed by B. Collins, For F. Newbery in Pater-Noster-Row, London'. It appears that in publishing The Vicar Francis Newbery was no more than a nominee for his uncle, John Newbery, who had set him up as a publisher at the Crown in Pater Noster Row in 1765 where he remained until his uncle's death in 1767. (See S. Roscoe, John Newbery and his Successors 1740-1814, A Bibliography , 1973, pp.14-15, 34). The second edition which was published on 31 May 1766, again by Francis Newbery, was extensively revised by Goldsmith, so this promissory note would appear to anticipate revenues from his second edition although the money (according to the endorsement in pencil) was not forthcoming until the book was corrected. Whatever the precise meaning of the endorcement, the entire document encapsulates the fraught financial circumstances of Goldsmith's career. The intermediary between Goldsmith and the publisher of The Vicar of Wakefield was Samuel Johnson, but contradictory accounts of the sale are given by Boswell, Mrs. Piozzi, Sir John Hawkins in the first edition of his life of Johnson, Bishop Thomas Percy and others. All agree, however, on one aspect of the transaction, and that is that Goldsmith was being pressed for money at the time by his landlaady. Arthur Friedman suggests that Johnson, receiving Goldsmith's urgent plea for aid, visited him, carried the manuscript to Newbery and, in Boswell's words 'made the bargain for Goldsmith', settling on sixty pounds or sixty guineas as the price. Johnson seems to have disposed of only an interest in the copy and brought back the 'immediate' relief' mentioned by Mrs. Piozzi. (See Arthur Friedman Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith , Volume IV, 1966, pp.4-7, 9. Also included in the lot are two autograph letters signed by Austin Dobson to the 2nd Lord Houghton, relating to this document, 1885. (3)