LEAR, Edward (1812-1888). Autograph letter signed to Violet Campbell Grant, including a PEN AND INK DRAWING OF THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT entitled 'My Poetus! - it is not painful!', Villa Tennyson, San Remo, 12 January 1884, thanking her sister for the cat's collar and explaining the original Pussycat had died, and relating the subsequent history of the Owl and the Pussycat, 'That party all eventually settled in the North East coast of New Guinea, - the Owl and the Pussycat & their 6 children, who are still living & are most lovely and & subsqueamish and reprehensible animals, & their subsqueakious history-mystery will some day be exotically & hysterically known to the public', relating their travels, and the cause of death of the Pussycat, by eating a piece of paper (to which the drawing refers) or by sucking a broomhandle made of a poisonous wood as stated later in the letter, and the fate of the Owl and their children, finishing, 'Please to read this letter to your sister Maria, - as slowly & opprobriously as you can in order to save her feelings from a too sudden shock', 4 pages, 8vo (210 x 131mm) (some slight discolouration).Lear's chance acquaintance with the Grant family occured when they were staying in San Remo on account of their father's health. After sketching on the mole, Violet Grant was returning with her governess and met Lear on the road. Lear asked the child if she liked cats, she and her family were invited to visit the Villa Tennyson to meet Foss, 'the maternal uncle of the original Pussy who went to the Bongtree Land'. On visiting Lear they were admired his study, and albums of his sketches and the garden of the villa, while he sang or asked them to help with new nonsense rhymes.The charming text of this letter relates how the Owl and the Pussycat arrived on the coast of Coromandel and their subsequent travels to New Guinea. There they met some 'savages' who, after initial cordial relations, 'threatened the Pussy cat most violently with a pair of tongs & a Pepperbox'. The cat asked the Owl to swallow a document so that it did not fall into the wrong hands, but on his refusal, swallowed it herself, 'Shortly after mutter-uttering these words, she fell off the tree & instantly perspired & became a corpse'. The owl is left desolate and departs arriving eventually in Cornwall. Lear then relates the other possible cause of death of the cat.The letters to the Grant family are unpublished.

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

LEAR, Edward (1812-1888). Autograph letter signed to Violet Campbell Grant, including a PEN AND INK DRAWING OF THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT entitled 'My Poetus! - it is not painful!', Villa Tennyson, San Remo, 12 January 1884, thanking her sister for the cat's collar and explaining the original Pussycat had died, and relating the subsequent history of the Owl and the Pussycat, 'That party all eventually settled in the North East coast of New Guinea, - the Owl and the Pussycat & their 6 children, who are still living & are most lovely and & subsqueamish and reprehensible animals, & their subsqueakious history-mystery will some day be exotically & hysterically known to the public', relating their travels, and the cause of death of the Pussycat, by eating a piece of paper (to which the drawing refers) or by sucking a broomhandle made of a poisonous wood as stated later in the letter, and the fate of the Owl and their children, finishing, 'Please to read this letter to your sister Maria, - as slowly & opprobriously as you can in order to save her feelings from a too sudden shock', 4 pages, 8vo (210 x 131mm) (some slight discolouration). Lear's chance acquaintance with the Grant family occured when they were staying in San Remo on account of their father's health. After sketching on the mole, Violet Grant was returning with her governess and met Lear on the road. Lear asked the child if she liked cats, she and her family were invited to visit the Villa Tennyson to meet Foss, 'the maternal uncle of the original Pussy who went to the Bongtree Land'. On visiting Lear they were admired his study, and albums of his sketches and the garden of the villa, while he sang or asked them to help with new nonsense rhymes. The charming text of this letter relates how the Owl and the Pussycat arrived on the coast of Coromandel and their subsequent travels to New Guinea. There they met some 'savages' who, after initial cordial relations, 'threatened the Pussy cat most violently with a pair of tongs & a Pepperbox'. The cat asked the Owl to swallow a document so that it did not fall into the wrong hands, but on his refusal, swallowed it herself, 'Shortly after mutter-uttering these words, she fell off the tree & instantly perspired & became a corpse'. The owl is left desolate and departs arriving eventually in Cornwall. Lear then relates the other possible cause of death of the cat. The letters to the Grant family are unpublished.

细节

LEAR, Edward (1812-1888). Autograph letter signed to Violet Campbell Grant, including a PEN AND INK DRAWING OF THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT entitled 'My Poetus! - it is not painful!', Villa Tennyson, San Remo, 12 January 1884, thanking her sister for the cat's collar and explaining the original Pussycat had died, and relating the subsequent history of the Owl and the Pussycat, 'That party all eventually settled in the North East coast of New Guinea, - the Owl and the Pussycat & their 6 children, who are still living & are most lovely and & subsqueamish and reprehensible animals, & their subsqueakious history-mystery will some day be exotically & hysterically known to the public', relating their travels, and the cause of death of the Pussycat, by eating a piece of paper (to which the drawing refers) or by sucking a broomhandle made of a poisonous wood as stated later in the letter, and the fate of the Owl and their children, finishing, 'Please to read this letter to your sister Maria, - as slowly & opprobriously as you can in order to save her feelings from a too sudden shock', 4 pages, 8vo (210 x 131mm) (some slight discolouration).

Lear's chance acquaintance with the Grant family occured when they were staying in San Remo on account of their father's health. After sketching on the mole, Violet Grant was returning with her governess and met Lear on the road. Lear asked the child if she liked cats, she and her family were invited to visit the Villa Tennyson to meet Foss, 'the maternal uncle of the original Pussy who went to the Bongtree Land'. On visiting Lear they were admired his study, and albums of his sketches and the garden of the villa, while he sang or asked them to help with new nonsense rhymes.

The charming text of this letter relates how the Owl and the Pussycat arrived on the coast of Coromandel and their subsequent travels to New Guinea. There they met some 'savages' who, after initial cordial relations, 'threatened the Pussy cat most violently with a pair of tongs & a Pepperbox'. The cat asked the Owl to swallow a document so that it did not fall into the wrong hands, but on his refusal, swallowed it herself, 'Shortly after mutter-uttering these words, she fell off the tree & instantly perspired & became a corpse'. The owl is left desolate and departs arriving eventually in Cornwall. Lear then relates the other possible cause of death of the cat.

The letters to the Grant family are unpublished.