Beschreibung:

Title: Manuscript copies of poems and letters by William Cowper perhaps in the hand of Lady Anne Austen Author: Cowper, William Place: No place Publisher: Date: c.1800 Description: 12 pp., on three 4-page folio sheets 12¾x8. Contemporary manuscript copies of several letters by Cowper as well as several poems. Among the letters is one addressed to Anna Austen (Dear Anna), one of Cowper's great loves, and the inspiration for two of his most famous compositions, "The Task" and "The Journey of John Gilpin." Accompanying the manuscript are an A.L.s. from J.P. Gilson at the Department of Manuscripts, British Museum, and a typescript, with ms. notes in Gilson's hand, commenting on the manuscript. In the letter, Gilson writes "The hand is not Cowper's. The poems were evidently copies for (or possibly by) Lady Austen. We seem to have no specimen of her hand so I cannot settle this point. They seem however to have some clear connexion with her, which gives them a certain interest, so far as they differ from the printed text, as well as in the case of the one poem which seems to be unprinted, which is of course worth preservation, though it may not be of high poetical value. Would you be disposed to offer the ms. to the Trustees?..." In the typescript Gilson speculates that these letters and poems were supplied to William Hayley as he was writing his Life of Cowper. Lot Amendments Condition: Very good or better, with old horizontal folds. Item number: 202592