An AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION The Making Of It ~ 1930ed PHOTO

An
Autograph Collection
And The Making Of It

by
Lady Charnwood

.

Published by Henry Holt and Company, copyright New York 1930, First Edition. Having 318 indexed pages, illustrated with photographic samples of famous autographs. Bound in cloth 6 by 9.75 inch hard covers, showing minor wear mainly limited to edges, otherwise binding still tight and strong, contents clean, and generally in good condition. 

(text taken from preface...)

The seven facsimiles chosen are of fragments reproduced exactly to the original scale. I avoid using letters, because if one page alone is given, only part of the whole can be read, and the reproduction of several written pages is awkward in a book.

I am indebted to the editor of the Cornhill Magazine for permission to reprint part of this volume. Much of its arrangement follows the form taken by my articles in that periodical. I have not published any letter by a living person. No material is used which is not to be found in my own possession. I have not sought to strain the relationships of the letters which I have chosen from my collection, and I have tried not to include any that are devoid of interest.

I add the final chapter, both parts of which deal with my country home, for two reasons. One is that they illustrate what is to me the fascination of literary links. The other is that I believe that many people could add to the interest of their own houses if they took the trouble which to me has been a pleasure.

My dedication tries to show the part played by the late Sir Edmund Gosse in regard to this book; how much I miss his guidance in its final stages I cannot attempt to say. I should hardly publish it now if it were not that to the best of my belief-there is no English work on the subject from the point of view which I have taken.

Even so, if Mr. R. W. Chapman, of the Oxford University Press, had not of his own generous suggestion corrected my proofs, and also helped me in untold ways, I doubt if I should have had the courage to see it in print.

To him I tender my sincerest thanks for his invaluable aid.

To the assistance afforded by my long-suffering family, I bear grateful witness. The transcribing of letters, the counting of words and their addition, the searching for references in our own books and in public libraries, all this help I acknowledge, especially as it was given when I needed it, however inconvenient the moment might be. I trust that the index includes all that is needed without undue elaboration. It is the work of my son.

I have written this volume - a real labour of love - in gratitude for the additional interest which my life has derived from the collecting of autograph letters; in the hope also that others may glean in the same fields. I know that the record is a wandering one, for it is by a rambling road that I have journeyed. I write entirely as an amateur. I possess no technical knowledge. I have not got a great collection. I have never given much time or study or money to my hobby. But I have found it eminently worth while.

DOROTHEA CHARNWOOD
STOWE HOUSE, LICHFIELD