WILLIAM WILFRED CAMPBELL

A batch of ALSs. The first from his wife Mary L. Campbell [8pp.], the other 12 from William Wilfred Campbell [over 60 pp.] and all addressed to Boyce McKenzie, or 'My Dear Cousin' from Mary. A number of the envelopes are present, some official civil service examples.

1900 - 1915. WILLIAM WILFRED CAMPBELL [c. 1860 – 1918] Canadian "Confederation Poet" and "Person of National Historic Significance." William Wilfred Campbell is to some extent largely forgotten now, although in his day he was considered the unofficial poet laureate of Canada. In his lifetime he published 10 volumes of poetry including two collected editions> 2 novels and a number of non-fiction works including supplying the text for the A&C Black Colour Book for Canada [1907]. He worked in various positions in the Canadian civil service including for the Privy Council C and the National Archives and pursued a hobby of genealogy, corresponding with Burke [of the Peerage] among others. This series of letters deal predominantly with matters relating to the claim which his cousin Boyce had on the Baronetcy of Tarbat & Royston, a branch of the McKenzie Clan and Family, which had previously been declared extinct, but which Campbell was encouraging his cousin to revive. He supplies genealogical data, descents, family folklore, etc. all in pursuit of his cousin's claim, though it would appear from the tone of the letters that Boyce McKenzie was less enthusiastic than his cousin who constantly declared that his researches were correct and declaring all his statements as 'fact.' He mentions a number of his books including 'Canada' [1907], 'Ian of the Orcades' [1907], 'A Beautiful Rebel' [1909] and 'Sagas of Vaster Britain' [1914]. He mentions several times how busy he is and that 'literature is a hard task master, & I have my official duties as well.'

Michael S. Kemp - BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 44399

Catalogue: Manuscript

Keywords: Manuscript

WILLIAM ROWAN HAMILTON

Sonnets to the Queen on Her Accession.

Manuscript, 1849. 8 pages, 360 x 260 mm. The sonnet is written out in manuscript on one page with the author's initials bottom right. The first page has the decorative initials L.G.S. for Letitia Sarah Georgina Sadleir [1813 - 67], of Castleton, Ireland. She has also written a note opposite the poem identifying its author. "These verses are in the handwriting of the celebrated Sir William Rowan Hamilton, the distinguished astronomer, by whom they were composed." William Rowan Hamilton [1805 - 65] was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, as well as a poet. He made important reformulations of Newtonian physics, now known as Hamiltonian physics. He met William Wordsworth a number of times and sent him numerous poems, becoming a "poetic disciple." He also visited Samuel Taylor Coleridge at Highgate in 1832. Although his biographies mention his poetry, apart from a single leaf entitled The Rydal Hours [1832] I can find no record of any having been published. Wordsworth obviously believed that his talents would be better employed in the pursuit of science writing to him "You send me showers of verses which I receive with much pleasure... yet have we fears that this employment may seduce you from the path of science.... Again I do venture to submit to your consideration, whether the poetical parts of your nature would not find a field more favourable to their nature in the regions of prose, not because those regions are humbler, but because they may be gracefully and profitably trod, with footsteps less careful and in measures less elaborate."

Michael S. Kemp - BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 44562

Catalogue: Manuscript

Keywords: Manuscript

JOSEPHSON, Ernst

Till Emelie Josephsons d. 12. Sept 1899.

1899. 20 line manuscript poem. Ernst Josephson [1851 - 1906] was a Swedish painter and poet. This poem may be in memory of one of his elder sisters with who he was raised by his mother following their abandonment by their father.

Michael S. Kemp - BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 45074

Catalogue: Manuscript

Keywords: Manuscript

TOSTI, Paolo

Signed note and card.

1908. 2 items. Signed note of thanks on Claridge's Hotel Notepaper, dated 14 December 1908. With menu, presumably from Claridges, also inscribed in pencil. Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti [1846 - 1916] was an Italian composer and music teacher who became singing master to the English Royal Family and a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. He became a British citizen in 1906 and was knighted by his friend King Edward VII in 1908.

Michael S. Kemp - BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 45073

Catalogue: Manuscript

Keywords: Manuscript