Beschreibung:

Hogg, James. FOUR AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED, TO HIS LIFELONG FRIEND WILLIAM LAIDLAW (WALTER SCOTT'S ASSISTANT AND STEWARD AT ABBOTSFORD) AND TO GEORGE LAIDLAW the earliest letter, written in a jocular tone and alluding to the imminent publication of his first book of poems, Scottish Pastorals, confessing to the "murder" of one of his characters ("...to his last breath he continued the same stupid dull being, and I have great reason to fear his damnation....") and explaining the end of the comedy he is writing ("...but as he is a child of Nature I cannot think to have him murdered by you unnatural people at Edinr..."); the later letters referring to "money for the carrying on Sir Walter's work", the publication of The Three Perils of Man, and discussing mutual friends, his family (including his brothers' emigration to America), financial matters and farming; 8 pages in all, 4to, chiefly Altrive Lake, [January 1801] to 16 September 1834, some staining and creasing, a few minor tears and nicks; [together with:] seven family letters by William Laidlaw, including four to his wife Janet Ballantyne (with a sonnet addressed to her), 1809-1820; and an autograph letter signed by Sir Walter Scott to Laidlaw, about coming to Abbotsford, undated According to Hogg's Memoirs, Laidlaw "was the only person who, for many years, ever pretended to discover the least merit in my essays, either in verse or prose."