Item #26751 Autograph Letter Signed / Autograph Manuscript Signed. Florence Morse KINGSLEY.

Autograph Letter Signed / Autograph Manuscript Signed.

This popular and prolific American novelist often penned such inspirational fiction for young adults as "The Singular Miss Smith," "Transfiguration of Miss Philura" and "The Resurrection of Miss Cynthia." Two items: First, an ALS, 1p, 6" X 7", Staten Island, New York (Kingsley Avenue, no less!), 1923 February 27. Addressed to Albert Johannsen (1871-1962), a University of Chicago geology professor who authored "The House of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime and Nickel Novels" (University of Oklahoma Press, 1950), the definitive reference work and bibliography on the subject. Fine. Charming note trying to oblige an admirer: "Somewhere in the attic are more respectable 'scraps' of manuscript than the enclosed; but at present I am not able to endure the winter rigors of that repository of 'literary remains.' This is a rejected beginning of the thirteenth chapter of the book I am now writing: 'The Life of Henry Fowle Durant' Founder of Wellesley College. I am sorry I saw fit to crumple it, before dropping it into the waste basket...." Second, the aforementioned Autograph Manuscript Signed, 1p, 8½" X 11", n.p., n.y. Very good. Despite Kingsley's claim of having crumpled it, this thin onionskin-type paper bears almost no evidence of having been so abused. Handsomely and closed penned in black fountain pen, and bearing a number of crossouts, additions and deletions, this is a very full page 89, clearly marked chapter "XIII," and opens: "In her singularly lucid and beautiful 'Interpretation of the Genius of Henry Fowle Durant,' Anne Eugenia Morgan writes of him thus: 'Henry Fowle Durant came to provide a transition in our human course -- a beautiful curve for a staircase that leads up, up into the clearing mysteries of the bow of light, the bow of higher truth, luminous in our time...." Most unusual to find earlier versions of published works such as this. Kingsley's "Life of Henry Fowle Durant" was published the following year in New York by Century Company. This fascinating pair is accompanied by Johannsen's original 8½" X 11" file folder, bearing a printed "Collection of Albert Johannsen" label (partly filled in by Johannsen). Item #26751

Price: $195.00

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