How Emma Travels: By Letters, Hands and Libraries

How Emma Travels: By Letters, Hands and Libraries

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 These pieces of evidence show that after being published by M. Carey in Philadelphia, this edition left Chesnut Street and most likely traveled into the hands of Lady Dalhousie. “This copy,” Gilson writes in his bibliography of Jane Austen, “was in the present century found in Salisbury by Siegfried Sassoon.”

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 In the same letter dated August 15th, 1967 in which she writes to Gilson about her romantic notion that the Countess of Dalhousie purchased Emma when visiting New York, she alludes to another letter involving Siegfried Sassoon. “You may be amused at a sentence from Siegfried Sassoon’s letter to Mr. Percy Elkin Mathews (who arranged the sale of the other 1816 Emma to Mr. Hogan in 1941. G. Keynes will be livid with me, as he wrote saying he must collate it as he wants to write something bout it for the Times Lit Supplement- which is poaching on your preserves, isn’t it?” She writes specifically to Gilson that, “ this is not for quotation in any article, but solely for your own pleasure.” Alberta Burke must have known this would tickle David Gilson’s fancy. Since Gilson first intended to write his bibliography on Jane Austen as a revised edition Geoffrey Keynes’s 1929 bibliography, he would understand Muir’s frustration with people encroaching on his research topic.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Between the letters from Burke and Gilson and the evidence left behind inside Emma, the provenance of this edition is fairly clear. Emma travels from the Philadelphia publisher to the Countess to Siegfried Sassoon. Inside the first volume of the Emma being examined lays a piece of lavender stationary, measuring 17.6cm tall x 13cm wide, folded in half. Opening it reveals that at the top of the stationary is typed “Heytesbury House, Wiltshire” and at the end of the letter is the minute script signature of Siegfried Sassoon.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 The letter, addressed to Muir, dated March 12th, 1941 is written in Sassoon’s light and witty style. He starts his letter with, “Emma returns to you in a twitter of excitement about going to California. She is sure that Mr. F. Hogan is a very nice man, though she intends to be a bit sharp with him until she gets to know him.” He then jokes with Muir at the expense of Keynes, writing how “G. Keynes will be livid with me, as he wrote saying he must collate it as he wants to write something about it for the Times Lit Supplement- which is poaching on your preserves, isn’t it?”

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 In 1941 Sassoon sold the edition through Elkin Mathews to Frank J. Hogan (Gilson, 100). Under the Countess of Dalhousie’s book label is the red leather label of Frank J. Hogan. Around the name in gold lettering it reads “the true university of these days is a collection of books.”

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 In addition to the lavender letter from Siegfried Sassoon, two additional correspondences hide between the inside cover and the title page. One letter was written to Mr. Hogan from Mr. Muir relating that the 1816 Philadelphia edition of Emma was on its way. The stationary was that of The Antiquarian Booksellers Association, shown by the stamp on the top right corner. Printed at the top is the name “Elkin Mathews LTD” followed by the director’s names: Greville Worthington, Ian L. Fleming, and P. H. Muir. Underneath the names describes the objects in which these men were interested in: “Rare Books, Manuscripts, Literary Portraits, Music.”

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