Description
G A HENTY Autograph Letter Signed.
British (English) war correspondent and author of boys' adventure stories.
ALS. 1p plus integral blank leaf. 23 St Ann's Villas. Friday night. No month or year. To [William] Woodall. TOGETHER WITH a fine contemporary albumin portrait photograph.
"I have not the least conception whether you are at home at present, but at any rate I suppose you will sooner or later get this. I write to say goodbye as I start on Wednesday evening for India. I suppose you will shortly be in town again, it is some weeks since you left. Good bye, good bye. May you flourish like a green bay tree until we meet again. Yours ever truly," etc.
12mo. Approx 5.25 x 3.25 inches. Mounting traces to verso of blank leaf, else fine. The portrait is a fine 19th century albumin photograph showing G A Henty three-quarter length, seated with his arm resting on a table. It measures approx. 5.5 x 4 inches (excluding mount) and is mounted on part of an old album leaf with some mounting damage to verso of mount but the photograph is in fine condition.
Provenance: Both the letter and the photograph are from a 19th century collection made by the radical Liberal MP, William Woodall. G A Henty worked as a war correspondent for the London Standard and had met Woodall in Paris when covering the bloody fall of the Paris Commune. The two remained firm friends thereafter, notwithstanding their very differing and often conflicting political views.
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