Description
ELIZA METEYARD Autograph Letter Signed.
British (English) novelist, journalist, essayist and biographer.
ALS. 2pp plus integral blank leaf. Wildwood, Hampstead. August 5th 1867. To W. Ireland, Esq.
"Next week I leave home till the end of September and if in case you would like to reprint any further tale, perhaps you will let me know by a line before I go, so that I may place it in readiness. I am going to Dr Hall's near Kendal, in the hope of mending broken health, and so preparing for a long winter's work. I hope Miss Ireland is well. Please present my best regards to her and Mrs Ireland" [etc].
8vo. Approx 9 x 5 inches. Mounting traces to verso of integral blank leaf, else fine.
Eliza Meteyard had completed her major work, the two volume 'Life of Josiah Wedgewood', in 1866, the year previous to this letter. She was, by that date, already established as a popular and successful novelist and frequent contributor to journals, such as Dickens's 'Household Words'. In the years that followed, she published a series of books for children but she was in declining health and her last years were spent in receipt of a Civil List pension, which had been the subject of a much publicised campaign by Samuel Smiles and others.
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