STANLEY, HENRY MORTON (1841-1904). A REMARKABLE SERIES OF FOURTEEN UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED ('Henry M. Stanley', 'Stanley' and once, 'Henry'), including twelve addressed to Katie Gough-Roberts, Madrid (7), Badajoz, Granadella ('Frontiers of Portugal'), Valladolid, San Sebastian and Malta, 13 April-5 November 1869, and two addressed to Thomas Gough-Roberts (her father), Madrid, 12 April and 4 May 1869, one letter on mourning paper, three letters with printed heading of 'Henry M Stanley/Corresponsal/Neuw York Herald/Madrid', lightweight paper, approximately 32 pages, 8vo and 4to (some discolouration and wear, offsetting of ink, small splits at folds, letter of April 13 torn at margins with loss of words in 8 lines, letter of September 6 split through at centre fold); and a duplicate copy of the letter of April 12 to Mr Gough-Roberts; a small photograph depicting Stanley in solar topee, a sword at his belt and holding a rifle, posing beside a native child, (Egypt, 1869, 90 x 60mm, (sepia, by C.H. Nedey, Alexandria) inscribed on the verso 'with the wish to be remembered by one whom I esteem so highly, I subscribe myself Henry M Stanley'; a copy of a letter from Mr Gough-Roberts to Stanley, in pencil n.p. [Denbigh], April 1869, annotated in a different hand 'Papa's reply', 4 pages 8vo; and a newspaper cutting from The Abergele and Pensarn Visitor, 20 December 1930, giving the text of a long autobiographical letter from Stanley to Katie Gough-Roberts, 22 March 1869 (reproduced from a copy made from the original (not present) in 1892).This extraordinary group of letters to Stanley's nineteen year old fiancée and her father, a retired barrister, sheds new light on a little-known episode of his early life. Written while Stanley was covering the republican upheavals in Spain for the New York Herald, the letters to Katie are sometimes highly charged with emotion, self-dramatisation and bravado, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes unromantic, also critical and reproachful. They suggest the deep emotional insecurity which he almost never committed to paper, as he attempts to find in Katie the highly romanticised girl of his imagination.Stanley, already something of a celebrity, had know Katie only briefly, during a visit to his mother at Denbigh after his return from Abyssinia in March 1869. His half-sister Emma Jones worked in the Gough-Roberts household and the two families were therefore already acquainted. Seeking, as he writes to her father 'not a pretty doll-faced wife, but a woman educated, possessed with energy' and finding Katie 'well-educated, possessing all the accomplishments of good society' and very lady-like in her deportment, he confesses 'I began to admire her but that admiration was quickly succeeded by love.' It appears that he had engaged her affections before his departure and obtained her parents' consent to their correspondence. He proceeds to address his 'Beloved Katie' in most ardent terms, 'my darling, noble spirit, best borne of mortal beings, love me always'. He writes simultaneously to ask her father for her hand in marriage, anticipating that he will soon retire from his active life and live upon his literary income, currently #50 a month. Thomas Gough-Roberts' favourable but somewhat cautious response, with questions about Stanley's religious affiliations and on practical matters, provokes a long and remarkable reply, in which he forcefully sets out his dismissive views on organised religion, 'Very little veneration I have for any church. There is too much of the plumb and level sanctimoniousness in these religious denominations', adding 'Either [Katie] will convert me or I convert her'. But he willingly agrees to insure his life, and recommends a course of French lessons to equip Katie for her future life. The wedding is to await his return from Egypt, later in the year.The engagement was, however, almost at once overshadowed by the death of Katie's mother, leaving her responsible for her brothers and sisters. The letter of consolation with which Stanley responds to this news is heavy with sententious comment and oddly lacking in spontaneous feeling, a typical passage reading 'so real my life has been, so stern in all its phases from my cradle to youth, from youth to manhood, that it were profound hypocrisy in me to indulge in such scriptural quotations at this time', meanwhile urging her to pray, elaborately expressing his sympathy and admitting that he could not 'forbear to shed some natural tears'.While anticipating that this misfortune might make some change in their situation, or at least delay their wedding, Stanley continues to follow the civil war. The enthusiasm and energy which he found in such periods of intense activity is reflected in the tone of his hastily composed letters to Katie. Writing in ebullient spirits of a visit to Cordoba where 'I have been feasted, pelted and serenaded and almost hugged to death...In my honor the American flag crossed that of Spain, and I was placed under the Stars and Stripes of glorious America', he dashes from one trouble spot to another, fending off Katie's reproaches for not writing more often, 'hunting [the Carlists] from the mountains day after day, excuting them as fast as we catch them, shooting right and left', thriving on camp life which is 'pleasant though wild'. At the same time he enjoins her to 'Keep up your spirits, play at the piano, keep your face clean, kiss papa and the children. Cry God save ye to Alice (her sister) and be well'. Elsewhere he complains of exhaustion, of ill health and several times, more unromantically, of the cost to him of her letters, 'if you send 2 sheets of thick stiff paper with half an ounce of sealing wax....you must pay sixpence and when it comes to me I have to pay 2/-, 4 times the sum you expended'.An engagement founded upon so brief an acquaintance was perhaps doomed to failure. In a long, angry and reproachful letter, a reply to one from Katie which he finds 'cool, hardly nay almost almost contemptuous', Stanleys bitter reaction suggests the extent of his deep insecurity and search for uncritical devotion and admiration. Their tiff however is soon made up for 'when you are convinced that you are in error you can hasten to plead forgiveness....therein you are like me'.But fate also intervened. Summoned by telegram, Stanley hastened to Paris to meet Gordon Bennett in October, and received instructions to find Livingstone, going first Egypt. The brief and touching letter which he addresses to Katie from Malta a week or so later reveals that they had one more meeting - possibly she travelled to Paris with her father, or they may have met in London. It is not clear how much Stanley told Katie of his new assignment, but he writes warmly 'Those few minutes I have passed with you have done me infinite good. My love for you is now rich and deep, it is also respectful....there is no being on earth I love or respect so much as my own dear, dear girl'.Katie, much affected no doubt by her mother's death, perhaps uncertain of Stanley's real intentions and certainly unsure when he would return, ended their engagement, and married an architect, Mr Urban Bradshaw, in September 1870. She died in 1945, aged ninety-five having steadfastly refused to discuss her engagement to Stanley. Stanley himself was later engaged to an American, Alice Pike, and eventually married Dorothy Tennant.In 1907 a number of letters from Stanley to Katie were returned to Lady Stanley, but until the discovery of the present letters it was believed that no more had survived.The main collection of manuscripts relating to Henry Morton Stanley is in the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Brussels. (17)

STANLEY, HENRY MORTON (1841-1904). A REMARKABLE SERIES OF FOURTEEN UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED ('Henry M. Stanley', 'Stanley' and once, 'Henry'), including twelve addressed to Katie Gough-Roberts, Madrid (7), Badajoz, Granadella ('Frontiers of Portugal'), Valladolid, San Sebastian and Malta, 13 April-5 November 1869, and two addressed to Thomas Gough-Roberts (her father), Madrid, 12 April and 4 May 1869, one letter on mourning paper, three letters with printed heading of 'Henry M Stanley/Corresponsal/Neuw York Herald/Madrid', lightweight paper, approximately 32 pages, 8vo and 4to (some discolouration and wear, offsetting of ink, small splits at folds, letter of April 13 torn at margins with loss of words in 8 lines, letter of September 6 split through at centre fold); and a duplicate copy of the letter of April 12 to Mr Gough-Roberts; a small photograph depicting Stanley in solar topee, a sword at his belt and holding a rifle, posing beside a native child, (Egypt, 1869, 90 x 60mm, (sepia, by C.H. Nedey, Alexandria) inscribed on the verso 'with the wish to be remembered by one whom I esteem so highly, I subscribe myself Henry M Stanley'; a copy of a letter from Mr Gough-Roberts to Stanley, in pencil n.p. [Denbigh], April 1869, annotated in a different hand 'Papa's reply', 4 pages 8vo; and a newspaper cutting from The Abergele and Pensarn Visitor, 20 December 1930, giving the text of a long autobiographical letter from Stanley to Katie Gough-Roberts, 22 March 1869 (reproduced from a copy made from the original (not present) in 1892). This extraordinary group of letters to Stanley's nineteen year old fiancée and her father, a retired barrister, sheds new light on a little-known episode of his early life. Written while Stanley was covering the republican upheavals in Spain for the New York Herald, the letters to Katie are sometimes highly charged with emotion, self-dramatisation and bravado, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes unromantic, also critical and reproachful. They suggest the deep emotional insecurity which he almost never committed to paper, as he attempts to find in Katie the highly romanticised girl of his imagination. Stanley, already something of a celebrity, had know Katie only briefly, during a visit to his mother at Denbigh after his return from Abyssinia in March 1869. His half-sister Emma Jones worked in the Gough-Roberts household and the two families were therefore already acquainted. Seeking, as he writes to her father 'not a pretty doll-faced wife, but a woman educated, possessed with energy' and finding Katie 'well-educated, possessing all the accomplishments of good society' and very lady-like in her deportment, he confesses 'I began to admire her but that admiration was quickly succeeded by love.' It appears that he had engaged her affections before his departure and obtained her parents' consent to their correspondence. He proceeds to address his 'Beloved Katie' in most ardent terms, 'my darling, noble spirit, best borne of mortal beings, love me always'. He writes simultaneously to ask her father for her hand in marriage, anticipating that he will soon retire from his active life and live upon his literary income, currently #50 a month. Thomas Gough-Roberts' favourable but somewhat cautious response, with questions about Stanley's religious affiliations and on practical matters, provokes a long and remarkable reply, in which he forcefully sets out his dismissive views on organised religion, 'Very little veneration I have for any church. There is too much of the plumb and level sanctimoniousness in these religious denominations', adding 'Either [Katie] will convert me or I convert her'. But he willingly agrees to insure his life, and recommends a course of French lessons to equip Katie for her future life. The wedding is to await his return from Egypt, later in the year. The engagement was, however, almost at once overshadowed by the death of Katie's mother, leaving her responsible for her brothers and sisters. The letter of consolation with which Stanley responds to this news is heavy with sententious comment and oddly lacking in spontaneous feeling, a typical passage reading 'so real my life has been, so stern in all its phases from my cradle to youth, from youth to manhood, that it were profound hypocrisy in me to indulge in such scriptural quotations at this time', meanwhile urging her to pray, elaborately expressing his sympathy and admitting that he could not 'forbear to shed some natural tears'. While anticipating that this misfortune might make some change in their situation, or at least delay their wedding, Stanley continues to follow the civil war. The enthusiasm and energy which he found in such periods of intense activity is reflected in the tone of his hastily composed letters to Katie. Writing in ebullient spirits of a visit to Cordoba where 'I have been feasted, pelted and serenaded and almost hugged to death...In my honor the American flag crossed that of Spain, and I was placed under the Stars and Stripes of glorious America', he dashes from one trouble spot to another, fending off Katie's reproaches for not writing more often, 'hunting [the Carlists] from the mountains day after day, excuting them as fast as we catch them, shooting right and left', thriving on camp life which is 'pleasant though wild'. At the same time he enjoins her to 'Keep up your spirits, play at the piano, keep your face clean, kiss papa and the children. Cry God save ye to Alice (her sister) and be well'. Elsewhere he complains of exhaustion, of ill health and several times, more unromantically, of the cost to him of her letters, 'if you send 2 sheets of thick stiff paper with half an ounce of sealing wax....you must pay sixpence and when it comes to me I have to pay 2/-, 4 times the sum you expended'. An engagement founded upon so brief an acquaintance was perhaps doomed to failure. In a long, angry and reproachful letter, a reply to one from Katie which he finds 'cool, hardly nay almost almost contemptuous', Stanleys bitter reaction suggests the extent of his deep insecurity and search for uncritical devotion and admiration. Their tiff however is soon made up for 'when you are convinced that you are in error you can hasten to plead forgiveness....therein you are like me'. But fate also intervened. Summoned by telegram, Stanley hastened to Paris to meet Gordon Bennett in October, and received instructions to find Livingstone, going first Egypt. The brief and touching letter which he addresses to Katie from Malta a week or so later reveals that they had one more meeting - possibly she travelled to Paris with her father, or they may have met in London. It is not clear how much Stanley told Katie of his new assignment, but he writes warmly 'Those few minutes I have passed with you have done me infinite good. My love for you is now rich and deep, it is also respectful....there is no being on earth I love or respect so much as my own dear, dear girl'. Katie, much affected no doubt by her mother's death, perhaps uncertain of Stanley's real intentions and certainly unsure when he would return, ended their engagement, and married an architect, Mr Urban Bradshaw, in September 1870. She died in 1945, aged ninety-five having steadfastly refused to discuss her engagement to Stanley. Stanley himself was later engaged to an American, Alice Pike, and eventually married Dorothy Tennant. In 1907 a number of letters from Stanley to Katie were returned to Lady Stanley, but until the discovery of the present letters it was believed that no more had survived. The main collection of manuscripts relating to Henry Morton Stanley is in the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Brussels. (17)

Details

STANLEY, HENRY MORTON (1841-1904). A REMARKABLE SERIES OF FOURTEEN UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED ('Henry M. Stanley', 'Stanley' and once, 'Henry'), including twelve addressed to Katie Gough-Roberts, Madrid (7), Badajoz, Granadella ('Frontiers of Portugal'), Valladolid, San Sebastian and Malta, 13 April-5 November 1869, and two addressed to Thomas Gough-Roberts (her father), Madrid, 12 April and 4 May 1869, one letter on mourning paper, three letters with printed heading of 'Henry M Stanley/Corresponsal/Neuw York Herald/Madrid', lightweight paper, approximately 32 pages, 8vo and 4to (some discolouration and wear, offsetting of ink, small splits at folds, letter of April 13 torn at margins with loss of words in 8 lines, letter of September 6 split through at centre fold); and a duplicate copy of the letter of April 12 to Mr Gough-Roberts; a small photograph depicting Stanley in solar topee, a sword at his belt and holding a rifle, posing beside a native child, (Egypt, 1869, 90 x 60mm, (sepia, by C.H. Nedey, Alexandria) inscribed on the verso 'with the wish to be remembered by one whom I esteem so highly, I subscribe myself Henry M Stanley'; a copy of a letter from Mr Gough-Roberts to Stanley, in pencil n.p. [Denbigh], April 1869, annotated in a different hand 'Papa's reply', 4 pages 8vo; and a newspaper cutting from The Abergele and Pensarn Visitor, 20 December 1930, giving the text of a long autobiographical letter from Stanley to Katie Gough-Roberts, 22 March 1869 (reproduced from a copy made from the original (not present) in 1892).

This extraordinary group of letters to Stanley's nineteen year old fiancée and her father, a retired barrister, sheds new light on a little-known episode of his early life. Written while Stanley was covering the republican upheavals in Spain for the New York Herald, the letters to Katie are sometimes highly charged with emotion, self-dramatisation and bravado, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes unromantic, also critical and reproachful. They suggest the deep emotional insecurity which he almost never committed to paper, as he attempts to find in Katie the highly romanticised girl of his imagination.

Stanley, already something of a celebrity, had know Katie only briefly, during a visit to his mother at Denbigh after his return from Abyssinia in March 1869. His half-sister Emma Jones worked in the Gough-Roberts household and the two families were therefore already acquainted. Seeking, as he writes to her father 'not a pretty doll-faced wife, but a woman educated, possessed with energy' and finding Katie 'well-educated, possessing all the accomplishments of good society' and very lady-like in her deportment, he confesses 'I began to admire her but that admiration was quickly succeeded by love.' It appears that he had engaged her affections before his departure and obtained her parents' consent to their correspondence. He proceeds to address his 'Beloved Katie' in most ardent terms, 'my darling, noble spirit, best borne of mortal beings, love me always'. He writes simultaneously to ask her father for her hand in marriage, anticipating that he will soon retire from his active life and live upon his literary income, currently #50 a month. Thomas Gough-Roberts' favourable but somewhat cautious response, with questions about Stanley's religious affiliations and on practical matters, provokes a long and remarkable reply, in which he forcefully sets out his dismissive views on organised religion, 'Very little veneration I have for any church. There is too much of the plumb and level sanctimoniousness in these religious denominations', adding 'Either [Katie] will convert me or I convert her'. But he willingly agrees to insure his life, and recommends a course of French lessons to equip Katie for her future life. The wedding is to await his return from Egypt, later in the year.

The engagement was, however, almost at once overshadowed by the death of Katie's mother, leaving her responsible for her brothers and sisters. The letter of consolation with which Stanley responds to this news is heavy with sententious comment and oddly lacking in spontaneous feeling, a typical passage reading 'so real my life has been, so stern in all its phases from my cradle to youth, from youth to manhood, that it were profound hypocrisy in me to indulge in such scriptural quotations at this time', meanwhile urging her to pray, elaborately expressing his sympathy and admitting that he could not 'forbear to shed some natural tears'.

While anticipating that this misfortune might make some change in their situation, or at least delay their wedding, Stanley continues to follow the civil war. The enthusiasm and energy which he found in such periods of intense activity is reflected in the tone of his hastily composed letters to Katie. Writing in ebullient spirits of a visit to Cordoba where 'I have been feasted, pelted and serenaded and almost hugged to death...In my honor the American flag crossed that of Spain, and I was placed under the Stars and Stripes of glorious America', he dashes from one trouble spot to another, fending off Katie's reproaches for not writing more often, 'hunting [the Carlists] from the mountains day after day, excuting them as fast as we catch them, shooting right and left', thriving on camp life which is 'pleasant though wild'. At the same time he enjoins her to 'Keep up your spirits, play at the piano, keep your face clean, kiss papa and the children. Cry God save ye to Alice (her sister) and be well'. Elsewhere he complains of exhaustion, of ill health and several times, more unromantically, of the cost to him of her letters, 'if you send 2 sheets of thick stiff paper with half an ounce of sealing wax....you must pay sixpence and when it comes to me I have to pay 2/-, 4 times the sum you expended'.

An engagement founded upon so brief an acquaintance was perhaps doomed to failure. In a long, angry and reproachful letter, a reply to one from Katie which he finds 'cool, hardly nay almost almost contemptuous', Stanleys bitter reaction suggests the extent of his deep insecurity and search for uncritical devotion and admiration. Their tiff however is soon made up for 'when you are convinced that you are in error you can hasten to plead forgiveness....therein you are like me'.

But fate also intervened. Summoned by telegram, Stanley hastened to Paris to meet Gordon Bennett in October, and received instructions to find Livingstone, going first Egypt. The brief and touching letter which he addresses to Katie from Malta a week or so later reveals that they had one more meeting - possibly she travelled to Paris with her father, or they may have met in London. It is not clear how much Stanley told Katie of his new assignment, but he writes warmly 'Those few minutes I have passed with you have done me infinite good. My love for you is now rich and deep, it is also respectful....there is no being on earth I love or respect so much as my own dear, dear girl'.

Katie, much affected no doubt by her mother's death, perhaps uncertain of Stanley's real intentions and certainly unsure when he would return, ended their engagement, and married an architect, Mr Urban Bradshaw, in September 1870. She died in 1945, aged ninety-five having steadfastly refused to discuss her engagement to Stanley. Stanley himself was later engaged to an American, Alice Pike, and eventually married Dorothy Tennant.

In 1907 a number of letters from Stanley to Katie were returned to Lady Stanley, but until the discovery of the present letters it was believed that no more had survived.

The main collection of manuscripts relating to Henry Morton Stanley is in the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Brussels. (17)

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