Freeman Mitford, Algernon Bertram Lord Redesdale (4 results)

Second edition, later reprint, 12mo, pp. xii, 383, [4, ads]; frontispiece, illustrations; original red cloth, spine gilt; spine a bit faded, else about very good. Freeman-Mitford was the first Lord Redesdale and may be most famous as the paternal grandfather of the famous Mitford sisters. He was sent to Japan as a diplomat and "there he met Ernest Satow and wrote Tales of Old Japan (1871) - a book credited with making such classical Japanese tales as the "Forty-seven Ronin" first known to a wide Western public (see wikipedia[.]org/wiki/A.B._Mitford).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. First American Edition. (xiv), 396; (x), 397-816 pages; Contents clean and secure in original blue cloth binding with bright gilt lettering at spine and front boards. Ownership signature of Hennen Jennings on ffep with his printed calling card laid in. OCLC 1089070 Frontispiece photogravure plate in each volume, additional plates, portraits, facsimile. PROVENANCE: James Hennen Jennings (1854-1920) was a mining engineer, born at Hawesville, KY. After attending private schools in London and Derbyshire, England, Jennings returned to Kentucky and set up a lumber business, but soon wanted to further his engineeering education. He graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University in 1877 with the degree C.E. Jennings then headed West and worked in gold and quicksilver mines in California for the next ten years. In 1887 he went to Venezuela for another mining job. Finally, his talents as an innovative mining engineer, took him to South Africa. During 1889-1905 he was consulting engineer of H. Eckstein, in Johannesburg, and Wemher Beit, in London. Jennings was chiefly responsible for the development and expansion of their mines, employing the most technologically advanced methods and equipment available in the day. In the rough and tumble of South Africa, he managed to keep out of John Hays Hammond's conspiracy to overthrow Kruger's government and to earn a fortune (the equivalent of about 10 million pounds in 2014) before he returned to America in 1905. THE AUTHOR: Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, GCVO, KCB, DL (1837 1916) was a British diplomat, collector and writer. Nicknamed "Barty", he was the paternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters. Like his cousin Swinburne, he was named Algernon after his grandfather Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley. Entering the Foreign Office in 1858, Mitford was appointed Third Secretary of the British Embassy in St Petersburg. After service in the Diplomatic Corps in Peking, he went to Japan as second secretary to the British Legation at the time of the exciting but difficult Meiji Restoration. There he met Ernest Satow and wrote Tales of Old Japan (1871) -- a book credited with making such classical Japanese tales as the "Forty-seven Ronin" first known to a wide Western public. He resigned from the diplomatic service in 1873. Following the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, in 1906 he accompanied Prince Arthur on a visit to Japan to present the Emperor Meiji with the Order of the Garter. From 1874 to 1886 Mitford acted as secretary to HM Office of Works, involved in the lengthy restoration of the Tower of London and in landscaping parts of Hyde Park such as "The Dell". From 1887, he was a member of the Royal Commission on Civil Services. He also sat as Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon between 1892 and 1895. In 1886, Mitford inherited the substantial country estates of his first cousin twice removed, John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale.

Hardcover. 2 volume set. 818 p. Includes: illustrations, index. Two photogravure plates and 16 other illustrations. From Wikipedia: "Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale GCVO, KCB (24 February 1837 17 August 1916), of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland, was a British diplomat, collector and writer. Nicknamed "Barty", he was the paternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters. Freeman-Mitford was the son of Henry Reveley Mitford (1804 1883) of Exbury House, Exbury, Hampshire and the great-grandson of the historian William Mitford, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. While his paternal ancestors were landed gentry, whose holdings had once included Mitford Castle in Northumberland, his mother (Georgiana) Jemima was a daughter of the courtier the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, with a noble ancestry through the earls of Beverley. His parents separated in 1840 when Redesdale was just three years old, and his mother remarried to a Mr. Molyneaux. Like his cousin Swinburne, he was named Algernon after his grandfather Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley. Entering the Foreign Office in 1858, Mitford was appointed Third Secretary of the British Embassy in St Petersburg. After service in the Diplomatic Corps in Peking, he went to Japan as second secretary to the British Legation at the time of the exciting but difficult Meiji Restoration. There he met Ernest Satow and wrote Tales of Old Japan (1871)-a book credited with making such classical Japanese tales as the "Forty-seven Ronin" first known to a wide Western public. He resigned from the diplomatic service in 1873. Following the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, in 1906 he accompanied Prince Arthur on a visit to Japan to present the Emperor Meiji with the Order of the Garter. He was asked by courtiers there about Japanese ceremonies that had disappeared since 1868. He is one of the people credited with introducing Japanese knotweed to England. From 1874 to 1886 Mitford acted as secretary to HM Office of Works, involved in the lengthy restoration of the Tower of London and in landscaping parts of Hyde Park such as "The Dell". From 1887, he was a member of the Royal Commission on Civil Services. He also sat as Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon between 1892 and 1895. In 1886, Mitford inherited the substantial country estates of his first cousin twice removed, John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale. In accordance with the will he assumed by Royal license the additional surname of Freeman. Appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Gloucestershire, he became a magistrate and took up farming and horse breeding. He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron from 1889 to 1914. He substantially rebuilt Batsford House beside Batsford in Gloucestershire in the Victorian Gothic manorial style, but at such a cost that it had to be sold within a few years of his death. It was bought by Lord Dulverton and is still owned by his descendants. In 1902 the Redesdale title was revived when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Redesdale, of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland. During his time in Japan he was said to have fathered two children with a geisha lady. Later he was considered to be one of the possible fathers of Clementine Hozier (1885 1977), in the course of an affair with his wife's sister Blanche. Clementine married Winston Churchill in 1908. In his closing years Lord Redesdale edited and wrote extensive effusive Introductions of two of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's huge books: Foundations of the Nineteenth Century and Immanuel Kant-A Study and Comparison with Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruno, Plato, and Descartes, both two volumes each, translated into English by John Lees, M.A., D. Litt., and published by John Lane at the Bodley Head, London, in 1910 and 1914. Lord Redesdale married in 1874 Lady Clementina Gertrude Helen (d. 1932), the daughter of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie by his spouse Blanche, the daughter of Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron.

Octavo, two volumes: pp. [i-v] vi-vii [viii-ix] x [xi] xii [1] 2-277 [278: printer's imprint] [279-280: ads]; [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-272, flyleaves at front and rear, 31 inserted plates, original pictorial black cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, blue-gray coated endpapers. First ediltion. The book that made such Japanese classics as "The Forty-seven Ronin" first known to a wide Western public. Lord Redesdale's collection of short fiction focuses on various aspects of Japanese life before the Meiji Restoration. The book . "forms an introduction to Japanese literature and culture, both through the stories, all adapted from Japanese sources, and Mitford's supplementary notes. Also included are Mitford's eyewitness accounts of a selection of Japanese rituals, ranging from harakiri (seppuku) and marriage to a selection of sermons" (Wikipedia). Armorial bookplates of Philip Greely Brown affixed to the front paste-down of each volume. Cloth a bit rubbed on front and rear panels, a bright, tight, very good copy. (#171120).