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PROPERTY OF THE SPIRO FAMILY COLLECTION
HOLMES, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894). Three autograph letters signed ("O. W. Holmes") to Charles W. Eliot, Boston, 16 December 1883, 28 February 1884 and 5 December 1890. Together three pages, 8vo, very fine.
Details
HOLMES, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894). Three autograph letters signed ("O. W. Holmes") to Charles W. Eliot, Boston, 16 December 1883, 28 February 1884 and 5 December 1890. Together three pages, 8vo, very fine.
THREE BOUYANT LETTERS FROM ONE FAMOUS BOSTON BRAHMIN TO ANOTHER. "Some of the H. boys were sad creatures," Holmes writes in 1883, "but 'Charley' was a good boy enough, with the mental edge of a leaden razor. I will calm his perturbed spirit with the first section of your letter." In 1884 he writes: "It was some penny a liner's fabrication which sent me -prospectively-to England and is bringing me invitations and felicitations which have to be acknowledged and give me a deal of trouble. I never had less prospect of writing the old world than now and I must thank my Harvard friends for their kind invitation and trust that they will find a better representative." The final, curious letter has the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table discussing "well-behaved locks" which allowed him to sneak away from table unheard: "I thank you for taking the trouble to send me the old locks. The unpainted brass one I recollect as being on the door which led into 'the long entry.' It was a well-behaved lock. I could open it without making any noise and would sometimes steal away from the table before 'Thanks' were returned and get away unnoticed. So the lock has a value and significance for me." (3)
THREE BOUYANT LETTERS FROM ONE FAMOUS BOSTON BRAHMIN TO ANOTHER. "Some of the H. boys were sad creatures," Holmes writes in 1883, "but 'Charley' was a good boy enough, with the mental edge of a leaden razor. I will calm his perturbed spirit with the first section of your letter." In 1884 he writes: "It was some penny a liner's fabrication which sent me -prospectively-to England and is bringing me invitations and felicitations which have to be acknowledged and give me a deal of trouble. I never had less prospect of writing the old world than now and I must thank my Harvard friends for their kind invitation and trust that they will find a better representative." The final, curious letter has the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table discussing "well-behaved locks" which allowed him to sneak away from table unheard: "I thank you for taking the trouble to send me the old locks. The unpainted brass one I recollect as being on the door which led into 'the long entry.' It was a well-behaved lock. I could open it without making any noise and would sometimes steal away from the table before 'Thanks' were returned and get away unnoticed. So the lock has a value and significance for me." (3)