2366. Robert Southey to [Thomas De Quincey], 19 January 1814
2366. Robert Southey to [Thomas De Quincey], 19 January 1814 *
Dear Sir
I send by Miss Fletcher the volume of the Persian Tales. [1] It was purchased about the beginning of October at Harris’s, [2] the corner of Ludgate Hill & St Pauls Church Yard: the nature of the mistake they will perceive in a moment, & no doubt will rectify it by giving you a second volume in exchange. I purchased it myself, & if it be necessary, the following circumstance may possibly recall me to their recollection. Having promised one of my cousins at Streatham to bring him home Jack the Giant Killer [3] I went into that shop to ask for a collection in four volumes, including the history of that famous giganticide. They happened to have but one set which had been used & was the worse for wear, but rather than disappoint the little boy I took that set upon some trifling abatement in the price. – While this point was settling I looked about the shop & bought these Persian Tales for Herbert. The mistake of course was not discovered till he came to read the books, – & this is the first opportunity which I have had of setting it right.
Believe me my dear Sir – yrs very truly
Robert Southey.
Keswick, 19 Jany. 1814.
Notes
* MS: Pennsylvania State University Library. ALS; 2p. (c).
Previously published: Eliza
Beshero-Bondar, ‘Nine New Letters of Robert Southey’, The Wordsworth Circle, 30.1 (1999), 47–48.
Note:
identification of addressee from pencil annotation on MS. BACK
[1] Probably a volume of the Persian and Turkish Tales. From the French of M. Petis de la Croix (1809), translated by William King (1663–1712; DNB). See also Southey to Edith Southey, 16 September 1813 (Letter 2301) and Southey to Edith May Southey, 20 September 1813 (Letter 2304). BACK
[2] John Harris (1756–1846; DNB), publisher and bookseller. In 1801–1802 he took over the company founded by John Newbery (bap. 1713–1767; DNB), which had been the first to specialise in publishing books for children. He published Harris’s Juvenile Library and Harris’s Cabinet of Amusement and Instruction. A highly successful businessman, he played a key role in the development of picture books for the young. BACK
