Burton Richard Compiler (2 results)

1 vols. 4to. 1 vols. 4to. Neatly hinged in this unique album, evidently carefully complied by host Bernard Quaritch, are 27 autograph letters by various hands, including one by Burton, two by Isabel Burton, two by John Ruskin along with a five page manuscript transcript of his speech (apparently unpublished), a proof sheet of "Three Sonnets of Camoens" with two pen corrections by Burton, cabinet card photographs of Richard Burton (by M. Manenizza, Atelier Rottmayer, Trieste), and Isabel Burton, (signed and inscribed by her), along with photographs of Dr. A. Burnell and Charles Wyman, and two states of a menu, unknown to Casada, printed for the occasion (with and without a listing of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, who cancelled on the day of the dinner). In addition, there is the manuscript of the original invitation written by Quaritch on the back of a French handbill, acceptances from the attendees who, along with Quaritch and Burton, were: Lord Stanley of Alderley, Edwin Arnold, Mr. Borlase (M.P. for East Cornwall), Dr. A. Burnell, Capt. V. Lovett Cameron, R.N., Dr. Hyde Clarke, John Ruskin, H.Y. Thompson, Cornelius Walford, Charles Wyman, and Edmund Yates; and several letters, including that of George Augustus Sala, regretfully declining the invitation. Rounding off this unique collection is a copy of the hotel's wine list, and, finally, the bill for the evening, which totalled £23/9, for 13 diners at a guinea a head, and nearly ten pounds for wine, other beverages, and cigars. By 1881, Bernard Quaritch had published four volumes of Burton's translations of Camoens; two final volumes appeared in 1884. Burton, now 61, had returned to England on May 20, 1882, recuperating from the fever he had contracted that winter on the Gold Coast, and the Burtons spent June and July in London where, Lady Burton later noted, they "met many interesting people, and were entertained largely". Certainly no large entertainment is so meticulously documented as the one presented here. A FASCINATING AND UNIQUE ARCHIVE. Casada 178 (for Three Sonnets) Full red pebbled morocco binding, panelled spine lettered "Captain Burton Dinner / June 5 [sic] 1882", a.e.g., by Zaehnsdorf. Slight cover wear, a few minor tears to margin of mounting leaves, else fine, as are the contents; preserved in a new matching red cloth slipcase with red morocco edges.

The very rare first edition. 8vo, in the scarce publisher's binding of full plum cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and stamped in blind on the covers. Housed in a handsome foldover box. xxx +[i]+[i] (blank), 455. A very nice copy with some expected age-wear and expert refreshinging to the cloth hinges. A RARE WORK BY BURTON, being a collection of proverbs and sayings from the Wolof, Kanuri, Oji, Ga or Accra, Yoruba, Efik or Old Calabar, and Mpangwe languages. His purpose in making this collection of literary and oral compositions available was to offer "a practical acquaintance with the language[s]" and to introduce "the reader to some extent into the inward world of Negro mind and Negro thoughts; and this is a circumstance of paramount importance, so long as there are any who either flatly negative the question, or, at least, still consider it open, 'Whether the Negroes are a genuine portion of mankind or not'.Such specimens may go a long way towards refuting the old-fashioned doctrine of an essential inequality of the Negroes with the rest of mankind, which now and then shows itself, not only in America, but also in Europe.".