Details
COLLINS, W. W. Autograph manuscript signed of the story "An Old Maid's Husband," n.p., n.d. [London, 1886]. 35 pages, 4to, written in ink on rectos only, titled and signed ("Wilkie Collins") at the head, a working manuscript with extensive revisions (including heavy deletions and numerous marginal additions) by Collins., paginated at top, tied at upper left-hand corners, a few sheets with dog-eared corners, top of each sheet with scalloped edge where removed from a pad. In very good condition.
Collins wrote this melodramatic story, which centers on the marriage of convenience of a rich old maid and a titled young man half her age, for the Christmas Number of The Spirit of the Times (25 December 1886). To keep the pot boiling -- with plot twists often straining credulity -- the author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White has thrown in a "bigamous" marriage, a dipsomaniac extortionist, an erupting New Zealand volcano, and a young Jewish law clerk named Moses Jackling. The story next appeared in the Belgravia Annual, 1887; it was collected in Collins' three-decker Little Novels, 1887, as "Miss Dulane and My Lord, vol. 3, pp. 191-253.
Collins wrote this melodramatic story, which centers on the marriage of convenience of a rich old maid and a titled young man half her age, for the Christmas Number of The Spirit of the Times (25 December 1886). To keep the pot boiling -- with plot twists often straining credulity -- the author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White has thrown in a "bigamous" marriage, a dipsomaniac extortionist, an erupting New Zealand volcano, and a young Jewish law clerk named Moses Jackling. The story next appeared in the Belgravia Annual, 1887; it was collected in Collins' three-decker Little Novels, 1887, as "Miss Dulane and My Lord, vol. 3, pp. 191-253.
Sale room notice
Please note that the body of the manuscript is in the hand of Harriet Graves, Collin's god-daughter, but the additions and corrections are in Wilkie Collins's hand. The revised estimate is $7000-9000.