Description
CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT Autograph Letter Signed.
British novelist and officer of the Royal Navy. Author of Mr Midshipman Easy, Children of the New Forest, etc. Pioneer of the sea story as a genre.
ALS. 1p. No place. Monday [the year 1839 added in another contemporary hand]. To "My dear Ellis". Together with a contemporary steel engraved portrait.
"The enclosed card will be quite sufficient. Show it to the porter at the gate. Yours truly, F. Marryat".
16mo. Approx 10 x 10.5 cms. Laid down on thin card from an album leaf. Corners and edges trimmed. All else very good.
In 1839 Captain Marryat had just returned from an extended period in America, where he was involved in the rebellion that had broken out in 1837 in Canada. Marryat had served with the British forces there who were active in suppressing it. As a result of his criticism of American customs and society in his 'Diary in America' published in 1839, Marryat became the object for attacks on his books and person and the book and his effigy were burnt in public. By 1839 Marryat had returned to the UK where he was quickly absorbed into the literary circle of Charles Dickens and others.
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