Beschreibung:

STANLEY, HENRY MORTON (1841-1904). Fourteen autograph letters signed ('Henry M. Stanley', 'Stanley', 'Henry'), including twelve to Katie Gough-Roberts, Madrid (7), Badajoz, Granadella ('Frontiers of Portugal'), Valladolid, San Sebastian, Malta, 13 April-5 November 1869, and two to her father Thomas Gough Roberts, Madrid, 12 April & 4 May 1869, one on mourning paper, three with printed heading 'Henry M Stanley/Corresponsal/Neuw York Herald/Madrid', thin paper, approx. 32 pages, 8vo and 4to (some browning and wear, small splits at folds, letter of April 13 torn at margins with loss, letter September 6 split through at centre fold); and a duplicate of letter (April 12) to Mr Gough-Roberts; a small sepia photograph of Stanley posing with a native child (Egypt, 1869, by C.H. Nedey, Alexandria) verso inscribed '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, [Denbigh], April 1869, annotated 'Papa's reply', 4 pages 8vo ; and a newspaper cutting from The Abergele and Pensarn Visitor, 20 December 1930, detailing an autobiographical letter from Stanley to Katie, 22 March 1869 (reproduced from a copy made from the original (not present) in 1892). Provenance : sold in these rooms, 24 June 1992, lot 383. A remarkable and revealing collection of letters written by Stanley to the earliest love of his life, Katie Gough Roberts, whilst he was covering the republican upheavals in Spain for the New York Herald . Having first met Katie in 1867 and following an introduction by her father two years later, Stanley proposed in 1869 before he left for Spain (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... I began to admire her but that admiration was quickly succeeded by love'). His emotional and affectionate correspondence ('my darling, noble spirit, best borne of mortal beings, love me always') also reveals much about Stanley's religious affiliations ('very little veneration I have for any church'; on the death of Katie's mother, his letter of consolation oddly lacking in spontaneous feeling 'so real my life has been, so stern in all its phases from my cradle to youth, from youth to manhood, that it were profound hypocrisy in me to indulge in such scriptural quotations at this time') and the enthusiasm and energy with which he followed the civil war ('I have been feasted, pelted and serenaded and almost hugged to death...In my honor the American flag crossed that of Spain, and I was placed under the Stars and Stripes of glorious America'; 'hunting [the Carlists] from the mountains day after day, executing them as fast as we catch them, shooting right and left'). Stanley complains of ill health, exhaustion and is at times reproachful ('if you send 2 sheets of thick stiff paper with half an ounce of sealing wax...when it comes to me I have to pay... 4 times the sum you expended'; a long, angry letter is written in response to a letter from Katie which he finds 'cool, hardly nay almost contemptuous'). Although Stanley's letter written from Malta, following his summons to meet Gordon Bennett in Paris and his receipt of instructions to find Livingstone, shows that he and Katie had one more meeting ('Those few minutes I have passed with you have done me infinite good. My love for you is now rich and deep, it is also respectful...there is no being on earth I love or respect so much as my own dear, dear girl'), Katie ended the engagement and married Urban Bradshaw in September 1870. (18)
STANLEY, HENRY MORTON (1841-1904). Fourteen autograph letters signed ('Henry M. Stanley', 'Stanley', 'Henry'), including twelve to Katie Gough-Roberts, Madrid (7), Badajoz, Granadella ('Frontiers of Portugal'), Valladolid, San Sebastian, Malta, 13 April-5 November 1869, and two to her father Thomas Gough Roberts, Madrid, 12 April & 4 May 1869, one on mourning paper, three with printed heading 'Henry M Stanley/Corresponsal/Neuw York Herald/Madrid', thin paper, approx. 32 pages, 8vo and 4to (some browning and wear, small splits at folds, letter of April 13 torn at margins with loss, letter September 6 split through at centre fold); and a duplicate of letter (April 12) to Mr Gough-Roberts; a small sepia photograph of Stanley posing with a native child (Egypt, 1869, by C.H. Nedey, Alexandria) verso inscribed '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, [Denbigh], April 1869, annotated 'Papa's reply', 4 pages 8vo ; and a newspaper cutting from The Abergele and Pensarn Visitor, 20 December 1930, detailing an autobiographical letter from Stanley to Katie, 22 March 1869 (reproduced from a copy made from the original (not present) in 1892). Provenance : sold in these rooms, 24 June 1992, lot 383. A remarkable and revealing collection of letters written by Stanley to the earliest love of his life, Katie Gough Roberts, whilst he was covering the republican upheavals in Spain for the New York Herald . Having first met Katie in 1867 and following an introduction by her father two years later, Stanley proposed in 1869 before he left for Spain (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... I began to admire her but that admiration was quickly succeeded by love'). His emotional and affectionate correspondence ('my darling, noble spirit, best borne of mortal beings, love me always') also reveals much about Stanley's religious affiliations ('very little veneration I have for any church'; on the death of Katie's mother, his letter of consolation oddly lacking in spontaneous feeling 'so real my life has been, so stern in all its phases from my cradle to youth, from youth to manhood, that it were profound hypocrisy in me to indulge in such scriptural quotations at this time') and the enthusiasm and energy with which he followed the civil war ('I have been feasted, pelted and serenaded and almost hugged to death...In my honor the American flag crossed that of Spain, and I was placed under the Stars and Stripes of glorious America'; 'hunting [the Carlists] from the mountains day after day, executing them as fast as we catch them, shooting right and left'). Stanley complains of ill health, exhaustion and is at times reproachful ('if you send 2 sheets of thick stiff paper with half an ounce of sealing wax...when it comes to me I have to pay... 4 times the sum you expended'; a long, angry letter is written in response to a letter from Katie which he finds 'cool, hardly nay almost contemptuous'). Although Stanley's letter written from Malta, following his summons to meet Gordon Bennett in Paris and his receipt of instructions to find Livingstone, shows that he and Katie had one more meeting ('Those few minutes I have passed with you have done me infinite good. My love for you is now rich and deep, it is also respectful...there is no being on earth I love or respect so much as my own dear, dear girl'), Katie ended the engagement and married Urban Bradshaw in September 1870. (18)