Autograph Letter Signed ("T. Campbell").

Sydenham: 19 February 1816.

Price: $700.00


About the item

1 p. pen and ink on paper. With portrait engraving by S.W. Reynolds after T. Phillips, published by T. Phillips March 1822. 7-1/4 x 4-1/2 inches. Light creasing. Tipped at left margin to larger sheet.

Item #310607

Campbell (1777-1844) writes to an unnamed recipient, declining to review a volume of poetry but offering his services in making an introduction and mentioning the author and editor William Gifford and the publisher John Murray. The letter reads, in part: "Respecting the volume of Poems … I am sorry to say that it is impossible for me to undertake the Review of it as having work accumulated on my hands in consequence of successive severe colds this winter. I am literally occupied from morning to night & could not spare an hour unless from my accustomed & wholesome exercise — I will gladly speak to Murray respecting the Quarterly. I imagine however that he has not himself much superintendence of the work. Gifford I know but not intimately — but his most intimate friend & the son of his benefactor mentioned in his Preface to Juvenal is the Curate of our village — a good sort of man. I shall apply to him & through him mention your name to Gifford with suitable respect for your talents & conveying an opinion which is most sincere in my mind that you would form a valuable coadjutor to his corp …"