Beschreibung:

STANLEY, HENRY MORTON (1841-1904). A REMARKABLE SERIES OF FOURTEEN UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED ('Henry M. Stanley', 'Stanley' and once, 'Henry'), including twelve addressed to Katie Gough-Roberts, Madrid (7), Badajoz, Granadella ('Frontiers of Portugal'), Valladolid, San Sebastian and Malta, 13 April-5 November 1869 , and two addressed to Thomas Gough Roberts (her father), Madrid, 12 April and 4 May 1869, one letter on mourning paper, three letters with printed heading of 'Henry M Stanley/Corresponsal/Neuw York Herald/Madrid', lightweight paper, approximately 32 pages, 8vo and 4to (some discolouration and wear, offsetting of ink, small splits at folds, letter of April 13 torn at margins with loss of words in 8 lines, letter of September 6 split through at centre fold) ; and a duplicate copy of the letter of April 12 to Mr Gough-Roberts; a small photograph depicting Stanley in solar topee, a sword at his belt and holding a rifle, posing beside a native child, (Egypt, 1869, 90 x 60mm, (sepia, by C.H. Nedey, Alexandria) inscribed on the verso 'with the wish to be remembered by one whom I esteem so highly, I subscribe myself Henry M Stanley' ; a copy of a letter from Mr Gough-Roberts to Stanley, in pencil n.p. [Denbigh], April 1869, annotated in a different hand 'Papa's reply', 4 pages 8vo; and a newspaper cutting from The Abergele and Pensarn Visitor, 20 December 1930, giving the text of a long autobiographical letter from Stanley to Katie Gough-Roberts, 22 March 1869 (reproduced from a copy made from the original (not present) in 1892). This extraordinary group of letters to Stanley's nineteen year old fiancée and her father, a retired barrister, sheds new light on a little-known episode of his early life. Written while Stanley was covering the republican upheavals in Spain for the New York Herald , the letters to Katie are sometimes highly charged with emotion, self-dramatisation and bravado, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes unromantic, also critical and reproachful. They suggest the deep emotional insecurity which he almost never committed to paper, as he attempts to find in Katie the highly romanticised girl of his imagination. Stanley, already something of a celebrity, had know Katie only briefly, during a visit to his mother at Denbigh after his return from Abyssinia in March 1869. His half-sister Emma Jones worked in the Gough-Roberts household and the two families were therefore already acquainted. Seeking, as he writes to her father 'not a pretty doll-faced wife, but a woman educated, possessed with energy' and finding Katie 'well-educated, possessing all the accomplishments of good society' and very lady-like in her deportment, he confesses 'I began to admire her but that admiration was quickly succeeded by love.' It appears that he had engaged her affections before his departure and obtained her parents' consent to their correspondence. He proceeds to address his 'Beloved Katie' in most ardent terms, 'my darling, noble spirit, best borne of mortal beings, love me always'. He writes simultaneously to ask her father for her hand in marriage, anticipating that he will soon retire from his active life and live upon his literary income, currently #50 a month. Thomas Gough Roberts' favourable but somewhat cautious response, with questions about Stanley's religious affiliations and on practical matters, provokes a long and remarkable reply, in which he forcefully sets out his dismissive views on organised religion, 'Very little veneration I have for any church. There is too much of the plumb and level sanctimoniousness in these religious denominations', adding 'Either [Katie] will convert me or I convert her'. But he willingly agrees to insure his life, and recommends a course of French lessons to equip Katie for her future life. The wedding is to await his return from Egypt, later in the year. The engagement was, however, almost at once overshadowed by the death of Katie's mother, leaving her responsible for her