Details
WATTS-DUNTON, THEODORE. Aylwin. London: Hurst and Blackett 1899. 8vo, binder's olive green cloth, spine hand-lettered in ink with title, author, and word "Proofs," edges trimmed (probably bound for Coulson Kernahan -- see below), covers soiled and a bit worn, front free endpaper and half-title loose, preliminary leaves with a few paper-clip stains, half-title and last page dust-soiled, cloth slipcase, PROOF COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, the collation the same as that on regular copies, but with the leaves slightly cut down and put in this binding, title-page printed in red and black, COULSON KERNAHAN'S COPY (author and journalist and during the '90s a literary adviser to the publishers Ward, Lock), with his pencilled signature and notes giving a "key" to the characters and setting in this roman à clef on front free endpaper. See Fredeman 64.1 and p. 222: "...thinly veiled gypsy saga which employs a barely disguised [Dante Gabriel] Rossetti as one of its principal characters...[also] has a number of disguised Pre-Raphaelite characters..."
[with]
WATTS-DUNTON, THEODORE. Two autograph letters signed and four letters signed (mostly signed "T. Watts-Dunton") to Coulson Kernahan, The Pines, Putney Hill, London, 15 November 1893-20 October 1913. Together 17 pages, mostly 8vo, one in pencil with a tear affecting a few letters, literary letters with five of them referring to or mentioning Aylwin. 22 July 1898: "You have often expressed a kind wish to read Aylwin in proof. I now send you the first installment...The plot does not open up until the 20th slip is reached; then it goes with a rush to the end..." 5 October 1898: "I have sent you by book-post the entire pages of Aylwin..." 9 June 1901: "...last summer there was a prodigious run on the sixpenny Aylwin all over North Wales; and I saw it stated in The World and other papers that it was 'to be seen in the hands of almost ever tourist.' Now, as you may well imagine, this is especially gratifing to me, for Aylwin is in every way a Welsh book..." With two autograph letters signed from Watts-Dunton's wife Clara to Kernahan, The Pines, [7 June] and 16 June 1914, together 5 pages, 8vo and 4to, some soiling, touching letters reporting her husband's death in the first and talking of him in emotional and glowing terms in the second: "...a dear, great & noble man -- as a poet, as a critic & novelist. Too much is said about his friendship with Rossetti & Swinburne. Let him stand alone, dear friend..." (9)
[with]
WATTS-DUNTON, THEODORE. Two autograph letters signed and four letters signed (mostly signed "T. Watts-Dunton") to Coulson Kernahan, The Pines, Putney Hill, London, 15 November 1893-20 October 1913. Together 17 pages, mostly 8vo, one in pencil with a tear affecting a few letters, literary letters with five of them referring to or mentioning Aylwin. 22 July 1898: "You have often expressed a kind wish to read Aylwin in proof. I now send you the first installment...The plot does not open up until the 20th slip is reached; then it goes with a rush to the end..." 5 October 1898: "I have sent you by book-post the entire pages of Aylwin..." 9 June 1901: "...last summer there was a prodigious run on the sixpenny Aylwin all over North Wales; and I saw it stated in The World and other papers that it was 'to be seen in the hands of almost ever tourist.' Now, as you may well imagine, this is especially gratifing to me, for Aylwin is in every way a Welsh book..." With two autograph letters signed from Watts-Dunton's wife Clara to Kernahan, The Pines, [7 June] and 16 June 1914, together 5 pages, 8vo and 4to, some soiling, touching letters reporting her husband's death in the first and talking of him in emotional and glowing terms in the second: "...a dear, great & noble man -- as a poet, as a critic & novelist. Too much is said about his friendship with Rossetti & Swinburne. Let him stand alone, dear friend..." (9)