COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834). Autograph letter signed to the bookseller [John] Denley, Highgate, 5 March 1818, apologising for a misunderstanding which had arisen over some books which he attributes to a letter not reaching him, 'Poor as I am ... yet not for five times the value of the Books would I knowingly have been guilty of such a disrespect to you ... You in the midst of your Books ... are an object of greater respect in my eyes and feelings, than a Prince at his Levee, or Castlereagh in the center of noble Sinners', reporting that he had not been able to acquire certain books he was looking for including an occult work which Denley had evidently been unable to identify but which Coleridge describes as in 'Mr Wordsworth's keeping, near Ambleside', and asking Denley for books on 'Star-craft, Witch-craft, Necromancy, Ghosts and the like' which would be of great assistance , and which he would not fail to acknowledge in his lecture the following day, 1½ pages, 4to, integral address leaf 'Mr Denley Bookseller near St Giles's Church', (two seal-tears professionally repaired, two small holes on first page not affecting text, folds of address panel worn); and three portrait engravings. Written the day before Coleridge delivered his lecture 'On Tales of Witches, Apparitions, &c', the twelfth in a series given by him at the London Philosophical Society in the early months of 1818. Denley was the proprieter of a renowned occult bookshop. He appears as the bookseller 'D---' in the introduction to Edward Bulwer Lytton's novel Zanoni (1842); Lytton who had vivid recollections of Denley described his stock as 'the most notable collection, ever amassed by an enthusiast, of the works of Alchemist, Cabalist, and Astrologer', and also his reluctance to part with any of his treasures, 'It absolutely went to his heart when a customer entered his shop'. Not in E.L. Griggs, Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (4)