About this Item
HERBERT, Henry William. Collection of 25 Autograph Letters, signed ("Henry Wm. Herbert") to various correspondents, pertaining for the most part to his literary and sporting work. Written in New York at 74 Mercer Street, Carlton House, Summer St, and at The Cedars in Newark, New Jersey. Portrait illustration mounted. 59 pp. 4to and smaller. New York and New Jersey: 20 April [1833] - 20 March 1857. Letters tipped to quarto sheets and bound together in three-quarters green morocco for Charles Scribner's Sons by Jas. MacDonald & Co. Spine faded to brown. Bookplate. Some old splits or repairs to letters, generally about fine. Provenance: John M. Schiff (Sotheby's, 11 December 1990, lot 178). Hunt, Frank Forester. A Tragedy in Exile (1933); Van Winkle, Henry William Herbert [Frank Forester]: A Bibliography of His Writings 1832-1858 (1936); White, Henry William Herbert & the American Publishing Scene (1943); BAL vol. 4, pp. 107-38. Henry William Herbert (1807-1858), grandson of the Earl of Carnaervon, arrived in New York in 1831. He had been educated at Eton and Cambridge, where his tastes for fast living, outdoor sport, and writing had disqualified him from following in the clerical footsteps of his father, the rector of Spofford and later dean of Manchester. Herbert travelled in the eastern U.S. and Canada until his money ran out, and returned to New York, where he taught classics at a prep school for Columbia, and became a prolific contributor to American periodicals. He wrote historical novels and was the American translator of Eugene Sue and several novels by Dumas. He also drew upon his memories of hunting in Orange county, New York, to write his most famous book, The Warwick Woodlands, first published as sketches for the American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, under the pseudonym "Frank Forester," and collected in book form in 1845. With his writings for The Spirit of the Times and for the Register, "he took on the role of the father of American sporting and hunting literature" (ODNB) The early 1840s were a period of comparative prosperity for Herbert. He was married in 1839 and a son was born in 1841. Herbert's family bought him a property on the Passaic river in New Jersey, where he built a rural retreat, The Cedars. His wife died of tuberculosis in 1844, and their son was sent off to England to be raised there. Seller Inventory # 83056
Contact seller
Report this item
