HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H01082 10/03/01 "FREDERICK ADAAMS COLLECTION APPEAL" ========================================================================= From: Dennis Taylor Subject: Frederick Adams collection Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2001 20:32:13 -0700 Dear Hardy list, There is about to occur, at the beginning of November, a Sotheby's auction of the Frederick Adams collection which includes an extremely valuable set of Hardy owned books with his annotations. Should the Hardy Societies try to promote the purchase of those books for one of our established institutions (DCM, or Yale, or Texas). Otherwise the books will disappear into private hands. The total is about 30 books (those with Hardy annotations) which I think are priced around 2000 pounds each. So a hefty sum. But they are such Hardy riches (they include Hardy's early annotated copy of Greek drama, romantic poetry, etc., etc.), invaluable stuff. Are there any thoughts about this? Would this be something for discussion on the list? Is this something we would want to support, by raising funds? I cannot think of a more important Hardy venture to support than this. The books include the following with important annotations by Hardy. One's eyes widen as one reads down the list. Because of the early dating of many of these books, they almost match in importance the early collections at the DCM and Yale, and far eclipse what is available at Texas. Shelley, Queen Mab and Other Poems, Halifax: Milner &S owerby, 1865, cites Dante, Jeaffreson, John, The Real Shelley. 2 vols. L: Hurst & Blackett, 1885 Marshall, Julian, The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley. 2 vols. L: Bentley, 1889., Cites Godwin, Shelley Dowden, Edward, The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. 2 vols. L: Kegan Paul, 1886, Whitman, Leaves of Grass. The Poems of, L: Scott, 1886, Child, Harold, The Yellow Rock, L: Nisbet, 1919, 2 Quiller-Couch, Arthur, ed., Oxford Book of English Verse 1750-1900, Oxford: Clarendon, 1900, Hope, Laurence, Stars of the Desert, L: Heinemann, 1903, The Boy's Own Book. L: Bogue, n.d. Works of Horace, printer Gilbert & Rivington, no title pg., 1860=date of edn. or of purchase, Browning, Pocket Volume of Selections, L: Smith, Elder, 1894, Keats, Poetical Works, ed. F. T. Palgrave, L: Macmillan, 1886, Baudelaire, Les Fleurs Du Mal, Paris: Levy, 1884, Gosse, Firdausi in Exile, L: Kegan Paul, 1885, -----, Father and Son. London: Heinemann, 1907, Emma Hardy, Alleys, The Shilling Peerage for 1886, L: Chatto & Windus, 1886, bro Blair, The Universal Preceptor, no title pg, Carpenter, Edward, Towards Democracy, L: Allen & Unwin, 1921, 2 Tomlins, Thomas, A Popular Law-Dictionary, L: Longman, pref. d. 1838, Newbolt, The Year of Trafalgar, L: Murray, 1905, brown nob. 54 1/2: mention Robert Bridges: Ellis, Havelock, Sonnets with Folk Songs from the Spanish, Cockerel Press, 1925, Trumpet & Bugle Sounds. L: Clowes, 1870, Granville-Barker, Harley, The Madras House, L: Sidgwick, 1925, Sti¸venard, Lˇonce, Lectures Fran¨aise, 3rd edn., L: Longman, 1862The First Book of Virgil's Aeneid. L: Taylor, 1827, Aeschylus, Tragedies, Bohn's Classical Library, trans. Buckley, cites Shakespeare's Richard III, Bishop Butler, Dynasts, Shelley, Paley, Dindorf, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Defoe (Crusoe), Sophocles, Swinburne, Job Sophocles. The Oxford Translation. Bohn Library. no title pg., (BR says L, 1849, revised by Buckley), blue nb 17 Euripides, London: Bohn, 2 vols., 1850 (BR also says 1867), trans. Buckley: cites Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hardy, Jude the Obscure, Wessex edn. ---------------------- Dennis Taylor Editor, Religion and the Arts Boston College Chestnut Hill MA 02467 taylor@bc.edu www.bc.edu/relarts Tel 617 552 3729 Fax 617 552 0573 ========== Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2001 21:29:41 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Frederick Adams collection Thanks Dennis-- just to remind subscribers that Peter Selley of Sotheby's sent me the full list of Hardy items to be auctioned with detailed descriptions of each and their estimated value. If you'd like a copy of this list please email me privately and I'll forward it by e-attachment. I'll also speak with the curator at the Yale Beinecke library -- (but I'd do far better I think if I had Michael Millgate at my side!) Best, Rosemarie ========== Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 12:04:59 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Fred Adams Library Greetings all: I am forwarding a copy of the message (below) from Richard de Peyer, Curator, Dorset County Museum. He has sent by e-attachment a flyer promoting the endeavour, by the DCM, to purchase the Adams collection, or part of it (as below: Hardy Appeal doc). Please write to me privately if you think you can help by receiving this flyer and posting it on your University (or college) Dept of English notice board-- or wherever you think it'll receive maximum exposure. As Dennis has already mentioned, keeping the Adams Collection together in one place is vital. Please help! With every good wish, Rosemarie Morgan _________ Dear Rosemarie, You will be very torn over this! The Dorset County Museum is interested in buying extensively from the Adams sale and we have a lengthy list of items we view as essential complements to our present holdings. We have already allocated £25,000 towards purchase and are seeking major grants elsewhere. We have also now seen and assimilated Dennis Taylor's list and share a number of his proposals in common - although there do appear to be a few items that Dennis notes as annotated but don't seem to be as they are described in the catalogue. We are talking to other places to gauge interest and may eventually need to have quite an intensive dialogue to analyse exactly what is especially important to us and what to others. I am in touch with Millgate and thence (shortly with Yale). Our first thought is to seek to buy the whole collection and with the help of the National Lottery here that is not impossible. Would you be willing to carry the enclosure seeking donations on the THAA web site? You would be our very best friends! I will aim to keep you posted. Yours Richard de Peyer Curator, Dorset County Museum. Hardy Appeal.doc Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="8a9b690.jpg"; x-mac-type="4A504547"; x-mac-creator="4A565752" Content-ID: <.0> Content-Disposition: inline; filename="8a9b690.jpg" Attachment converted: Emma:8a9b690.jpg (JPEG/JVWR) (000164DC) ========== Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 11:42:02 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Fred Adams Library Greetings all: Given the high demand for the Dorset County Museum's flyer I have, today, posted a copy of this on TTHA News Updates. The flyer outlines the DCM's Appeal For Funds for purchasing some or all of the Adams Collection of Hardyana due to be auctioned at Sotheby's in November. Please go to News Updates (www.yale.edu/hardysoc) and download (print out) a copy of this flyer and post it in your Department, or on your University Library Notice Board, or at your local bookstore, or "Beyond [Your] Last Lamp" -- wherever you deem fit! Thank you for your support! With every good wish, Rosemarie Morgan ========== From: Dennis Taylor Subject: Re: Fred Adams Library Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 21:08:57 -0400 Dear everyone concerned to preserve the Frederick Adams collection: >From my point of view as a scholar, as opposed to collector, the following from the Adams collection are indispensably important for Hardy's intellectual history. [Notice that the Sotheby catalogue does not note the markings in several of these items, The First Book of Virgil's Aeneid, the Universal Preceptor (probably not by Hardy), The Shilling Peerage, Firdausi in Exile, Baudelaire, Laurence Hope, Harold Child, Whitman (!!!),Browning (!!!); also the Hardy signature in Trumpet & Bugle Sounds. So these books may be more valuable that Sotheby's realizes (shhh). However, Millgate would have to pronounce on the authenticity of these markings.] The key items, in my view, are: Aeschylus, Tragedies, Bohn's Classical Library, trans. Buckley. Sotheby #371 Extensive markings. £2,000-3,000 Sophocles. The Oxford Translation. Bohn Library. no title pg. Sotheby #373. A few important markings. £2,000-3,000 Euripides, London: Bohn, 2 vols., 1850. Sotheby #371 Extensive markings. £2,000-3,000 Shelley, Queen Mab and Other Poems, Halifax: Milner &S owerby, 1865. Sotheby #375. Extensive markings. £800-1,200 (A STEAL!! Major importance.) Browning, Pocket Volume of Selections, L: Smith, Elder, 1894. Sotheby #476 MANY MARKINGS. £600-800 Whitman, Leaves of Grass. The Poems of, L: Scott, 1886. Sotheby #434 MANY MARKINGS £600-800 Keats, Poetical Works, ed. F. T. Palgrave, L: Macmillan, 1886. Sotheby #435 extensive markings. £400-600. These last four, like the first three, are of major importance. Then there are the following, also very important: Jeaffreson, John, The Real Shelley. 2 vols. L: Hurst & Blackett, 1885, Sotheby #377 (set of books) A few markings. £1,500-2,000 for the lot which includes the following 8 books. Important! Marshall, Julian, The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley. 2 vols. L: Bentley, 1889. Sotheby #377 (set of books). A few markings Dowden, Edward, The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. 2 vols. L: Kegan Paul, 1886. Many markings. The Shilling Peerage for 1886, L: Chatto & Windus, 1886.Sotheby #377 (set of books) SOME MARKINGS AND ANNOTATION Blair, The Universal Preceptor, no title pg. Sotheby #377 (set of books) MARKINGS BUT PROBABLY NOT BY HARDY Tomlins, Thomas, A Popular Law-Dictionary, L: Longman, pref. d. 1838. Sotheby #377 (set of books). Many markings Trumpet & Bugle Sounds. L: Clowes, 1870. Sotheby #377 (set of books) HAS HARDY SIGNATURE ON IMPORTANT PAGE Sti¸venard, Lˇonce, Lectures Fran¨aise, 3rd edn., L: Longman, 1862. Sotheby #377 (set of books), The First Book of Virgil's Aeneid. L: Taylor, 1827. Sotheby #377 (set of books) HAS IMPORTANT ANNOTATION AND MARKING Child, Harold, The Yellow Rock, L: Nisbet, 1919. Sotheby #531 SEVERAL MARKINGS. £400-600 Quiller-Couch, Arthur, ed., Oxford Book of English Verse 1750-1900, Oxford: Clarendon, 1900. Sotheby #502. Many markings. £400-600 Hope, Laurence, Stars of the Desert, L: Heinemann, 1903. Sotheby #499 HARDY ANNOTATION AND MARKINGS MOSTLY BY HOPE. £400-500 The Boy's Own Book. L: Bogue, n.d. Sotheby #370. Several markings. £800-1,200 Works of Horace, printer Gilbert & Rivington, no title pg., 1860=date of edn. or of purchase.431/2 Sotheby #374. Many markings. £1,500-2,000 Baudelaire, Les Fleurs Du Mal, Paris: Levy, 1884. Sotheby #422 ANNOTATION. £300-400 Gosse, Firdausi in Exile, L: Kegan Paul, 1885. Sotheby #436 MARKINGS. £500-600 The total initial asking price for the above library is £14,200 to £20,300 pounds. Jim Gibson and others would need to pronounce on the importance for textual study of items in the catalogue. (I assume that Millgate has well mined the letters for his edition.) For textual study, I would merely note a few things: Hardy, Jude the Obscure, Wessex edn. Sotheby #551 (Wessex edn. volumes). TEXT CORRECTIONS not noted by Sotheby's; perhaps by Hardy unless they are Cockerell's. Also the Florence Henniker items, corrected by Hardy, Sotheby # 468, 543, look very interesting; but others would need to study the catalogue THE FOLLOWING ARE LESS INTERESTING BECAUSE UNMARKED Gosse, Father and Son. London: Heinemann, 1907. Sotheby #418 NO MARKINGS Emma Hardy, Alleys. Sotheby #546 (set of items) No Hardy markings Carpenter, Edward, Towards Democracy, L: Allen & Unwin, 1921. Sotheby #522 (set of books) No Hardy Markings Newbolt, The Year of Trafalgar, L: Murray, 1905. Sotheby #522 (set of books) Ellis, Havelock, Sonnets with Folk Songs from the Spanish, Cockerell Press, 1925.\ Sotheby #522 (set of books) Unmarked Granville-Barker, Harley, The Madras House, L: Sidgwick, 1925. Sotheby #522 (set of books) Unmarked Sotheby's Nov. 2001 also lists a book I have not seen: The Real Lord Byron Sotheby #377 (set of books) I put this list together in haste, so there may be some inaccuracy. Dennis Taylor Editor, Religion and the Arts Boston College Chestnut Hill MA 02467 taylor@bc.edu www.bc.edu/relarts Tel 617 552 3729 Fax 617 552 0573 ========== Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 13:29:26 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Fred Adams Library Greetings all! It looks (below) as if Dennis has been to the pre-view of selected items from the Adam's Collection. The New York preview at Sotheby's ends today -- October 11 -- and thereafter choice items will be on view in London: (34-35 New Bond Street) Thursday 1 November 9am - 4.30pm Friday 2 November 9am - 4.30pm Sunday 4 November 12noon - 4pm Monday 5 November 9am - 4.30pm I want to correct a false impression some Forum visitors have gained from these past discussions on the Adam's Collection of Hardyana. The listings outlined by Dennis and others are not comprehensive. There are approximately 250 items in this collection. And the reason I did not post online the listings sent by Sotheby's from their catalogue is because their htm document is huge. Hence I'll forward it (and have been forwarding it) by personal request only. Some computers may choke on the byte-size of this thing! And while I'm here, please don't forget the Dorset County Museum Appeal Fund -- their flyer is held on TTHA's News Updates: http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/OrderForms/Hardy%20Appeal.html Thank you one and all -- every single contribution helps! Cheers, Rosemarie ========== From: "helen.gibson" Subject: Frederick B. Adams Hardy Collection Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 16:36:33 +0100 Just a note to say that the attention of the Dorset County Museum is still on the 7th November Sotheby's sale of this magnificient Hardy collection. The Appeal has gone out far and wide, with some considerable success. The Hardy Society agreed at its Council of Management meeting last Saturday to donate £1,000. The catalogue itself is a collector's item - beautifully produced, with numerous illustrations and detailed descriptions of the items, and an interesting introduction by Michael Millgate. Let us hope that this collection can be placed in the public domain for the benefit of all who come to Dorchester to study Hardy. Helen Gibson Dorset ========== Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 12:12:36 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Frederick B. Adams Hardy Collection I WONDERFUL news, Helen! A reminder to Forum subscribers: the Appeal Fund flyer can be found on TTHA's "News Updates." http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/updates.htm Only two weeks to go! Cheers, Rosemarie ========== Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:25:55 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: LAST CALL for contributions Greetings all! Only two weeks to go until the Hardy Auction! The days are speeding by--seize your opportunity now to keep Hardy in Dorset. As per my previous messages I have posted a copy of the DCM's fundraiser on TTHA News Updates. http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/OrderForms/Hardy%20Appeal.html The flyer outlines the DCM's Appeal For Funds for purchasing some or all of the Adams Collection due to be auctioned at Sotheby's in November. Please send in your contribution today. Every little helps. If you have currency problems or questions about writing a dollar cheque please contact me privately. Thank you for your support! With every good wish, Rosemarie Morgan ========== From: "James Gibson" Subject: Fred Adams Hardy Collection Sale Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 17:08:42 +0100 Friends, Sotheby's sale on 7 November 2001 This is just to bring you up-to-date on the DCM appeal for the Hardy collection. There has been a most encouraging response, and listed below are some of the donations so far received: £30,000 from the Friends of National Libraries £25,000 from the Dorset County Council £5,000 from the Purbeck District Council £1,000 from the Thomas Hardy Society £26,000 from the Dugdale Trust £10,000 from smaller donations There are other donations which bring this to a total of £136,000. Under discussion with National Bodies are donations amounting to a further £330,000: the likely outcome is good. The feeling is that if a further £50,000 could be raised, the DCM would be in a really strong position. Thank you to all who have shown an interest, and to those who have contributed, and those who may still be able to help. If we have any further news, we will let you know. Best wishes, Jim and Helen Gibson ========== From: "James Gibson" Subject: DCM Appeal/Adams collection Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 17:25:37 +0100 I spoke to Richard de Peyer, the Curator, this morning following an e-mail >from someone enquiring about sending dollar cheques, rather than £-sterling. He said he would be grateful to receive these, although some bank charges are involved. So, if anyone is moved to send any to the DCM at High West Street, Dorchester DT1 1XA, that would be wonderful. In view of the problems in the postal service, it might be a good idea to e-mail news of any donations - richard@dor-mus.demon.co.uk . President of the TTHA, Rosemarie Morgan, is willing to make the currency transfer if this seems the better way to go, and you could contact her at rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu There have been some very generous donations, and a great deal of interest >from the media. Yesterday Jim had a phone call from Le Figaro, and the appeal has gone out on BBC radio and the British national press. Thank you for your interest and support. Best wishes Helen Gibson ==========