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We do more than sell autographs. We build relationships.™ RON WEEKES and DONNELL G. MUELLER, Co-Proprietors Member: The Manuscript Society, The Ephemera Society of America, |
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IRVING, Washington – (1783-1859)
Letter from the “Father of American Literature,” American author, short story writer, essayist, poet, travel book writer, biographer, columnist and US diplomat to Spain. Popularly hailed as the “Father of American Literature.” Considered by many to be the first American humorist who introduced nonfiction prose as a literary genre. To Messrs. Land, Cuper, Bankes, Clapp, Spooner, Abbott and Codmen: Gentlemen: It is with much regret that I find myself obliged, by other commitments, to decline the invitation with which the citizens of Dorchester have honored me for their celebration of the approaching anniversary of our Independence. With great respect, Gentlemen, Your obedient and humble servant, Washington Irving, Sunnyside, May 29, 1855 Autograph Letter Signed, one page, May 29, 1855, written to town fathers of Dorchester, MA. Our letter was penned the same year that Irving began which, next to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, may have been his greatest work: The Life of George Washington (1855-59). From 1849 to 1859, Irving was president of Astor Library (later the New York Public Library). Also in 1855, Irving published Wolfert’s Roost and began work on his five-volume Washington biography. Now weary after 17 years in Europe following the death of his mother, the great novelist died in 1859. Letter has been professionally double-matted with two steel engravings of the author: one is an early career portrait (published 1834, national Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans); the second is a late-in-life, hand-colored, steel engraving (published 1873, Johnson & Fry, NY, from an original by Alonzo Chappel). Encased in museum conservation glass and a handsome dark wooden frame. $975 |
