and letters such as those in this library than by any other way. We wonder and try to find out who Frederick Salmon was, to whom Dickens gave so many books. Peter Rackham is probably better known because Thackeray gave him a copy of "The Virginians" than for any doings of his own in his lifetime, and bookcollectors think the better of him because he did not bind the books. "Dearest Trippy" and "Dear Cummy" were humble people in their lifetime, and are entirely forgotten except for their association with Mrs. Browning and Robert Louis Stevenson.

The books and manuscripts described in this catalogue furnish material for a multitude of thrills for the heart and mind of him to whom such things appeal. For it is no ordinary library that is described in these pages. In the inscriptions in the books and in the manuscripts and autograph letters the great minds of the past come back again. Almost every letter gives some new characteristic or new fact about the writer, and where these allusions are obscure or need explanation they are made plain by the owner's notes, prepared with study and loving care.

The bringing together of a set of first editions of the writings of Charles Dickens is one of the favorite pursuits of the bibliophile of the present day, but few can in their wildest imaginings ever dream of a set of presentation or inscribed copies. Mr. Smith began his collection of Dickens more than twenty years ago, and has, at least as far as the regularly published books go, practically achieved this notable feat. His "Pickwick," the crux of any Dickens collection, is the most interesting copy extant, and was closely associated with Dickens's first rise to fame and with his private life at the time. It is in the original nineteen parts, with paper covers and advertisements as issued monthly, and each one of the fourteen numbers contains an autograph inscription presenting the book to Miss Mary Hogarth, his wife's sister. The shock of her sudden death in 1837 was so great that the publication of Part XV was postponed for a month, and this part contains a printed notice explaining the delay. Another copy of "Pickwick" contains a presentation inscription to the actor William C. Macready.

"The Village Coquettes" is in the original board covers (the only copy known, apparently, in this condition), and was given by Dickens to John Hullah, who composed the music for the piece. The "Sketches by Boz" (1839) was owned by Dickens's father, and was no doubt a presentation copy. The "Bleak House" was given

by Dickens to his two daughters, Mamie and Katie. The "Grimaldi" was given to J. P. Harley; "Master Humphrey's Clock,' to Walter Savage Landor; "American Notes," to the Countess of Blessington; the "Christmas Carol" and "Pictures from Italy," to Serjeant Talfourd, to whom "Pickwick" was dedicated; the "Cricket on the Hearth," to Victor Hugo; and "Little Dorrit," to W. H. Wills, with whom Dickens was long associated on Household Words and All the Year Round. Other books bear presentation inscriptions to Charles Kent; Douglas Jerrold; Dickens's sister, Mrs. Austin; his aunt, Mrs. Barrow; Dickens's physician, Dr. Elliotson; his old school friend, Thomas Mitton, and others, including books given to those all but unidentified friends, Peter Rackham and Frederick Salmon.

Among nearly one hundred autograph letters of Dickens, almost every one of which has some definite literary or personal interest, the most important are the twenty-two letters written to W. H. Kolle, the closest friend of his youth and early manhood. To Kolle, Dickens writes of his love affair with Maria Beadnell, whose sister Kolle married, and of his first efforts in fiction, the "Sketches by Boz" in their first form as they appeared in a magazine. Another early letter is one written to Catherine Hogarth, afterwards Mrs. Dickens.

Many of the first editions have letters inserted, generally referring to the books. Among such are a letter to Hablot K. Browne describing fully one of the illustrations for "Nicholas Nickleby," several letters to George Cattermole, referring to the illustrations to "Master Humphrey's Clock," and three letters to the publishers, relating to "Edwin Drood." Finally, there is a letter dated June 8, 1870, written probably during the last hour of Dickens's conscious

ness.

The rarest printed Dickens item is, no doubt, the "Proof, Private and Confidential," giving particulars of the life and habits of an American, Thomas Powell, who had published libelous, or at least objectionable statements about various English writers. Of this leaflet no other copy seems to be known.

Thackeray was less liberal than Dickens in the distribution of copies of his works among his friends; at least, if he gave away many copies he neglected to inscribe them, and few collectors have the good fortune to secure even one inscribed copy. Mr. Smith has several. "The Irish Sketch Book" was given to Jane Welsh

Carlyle; "Henry Esmond," to Thackeray's old schoolmate, W. W. Stoddard; and "The Virginians," with a rhymed inscription, to Peter Rackham. The "Vanity Fair" also is a presentation copy.

Thackeray had one advantage over Dickens in that he could draw, and even the rudest sketches from his miracle-producing pencil are treasured by Thackeray lovers. In the present collection there is a sketch-book used by Thackeray in 1842 and 1843. Thirty-two pages of the book are filled with drawings in pencil or water-color. Other sketches, some of the most interesting being on the fly-leaves of books, together with many autograph letters, generally with some story connected with them, almost make the master live again.

Besides letters, the Thackeray manuscripts include “I 'd be a Tadpole," one of his very earliest pieces of writing, a leaf of “The Newcomes," several pages of "Pendennis," and a poem heretofore unpublished. Thackeray's Algebra Exercise Book and a book of School Verse, both used at the Charterhouse School, a book bought in France in 1829, and one bought in Germany in 1830, make, with his sets of the works of Fielding and Swift, an interesting section of Thackeray's library.

To some of us the Lamb collection will prove of greatest interest. Here are two presentation copies of the first "Elia" Essays (1823), one given to Fanny Kelly (to whom Lamb had made a proposal of marriage in 1819), and the other to the Rev. Daniel Cresswell of Edmonton, with an inscribed copy of the "Last Essays of Elia" (1833). The volumes of 1818 were also presented by Lamb to Miss Kelly, and the inscription refers to Lamb's sonnet "To Miss Kelly," which probably led to her acquaintance with him.

One of the autograph letters from Lamb to Miss Kelly is full of characteristic humor. This was written only ten days before his proposal of marriage to her. There are several letters from Lamb to William Hazlitt, one containing his famous reference to his "nocturnal, alias knock-eternal visitors"; and another is in praise of roast pig. Two letters relate to Lamb's hoax, the reputed death of Hazlitt, and with them is an eight-page letter from Hazlitt in which he denies that he is dead, giving a long series of proofs, and demands that the subscription being taken up among his friends, to defray the expenses of his funeral, be stopped. The only extant specimen of Lamb's work as an artist (?), a rough drawing of a face called "a portrait of Joseph Cottle" and having the inscription "C. L. fecit," is in a letter in this collection.

Among the manuscripts of Lamb's published writings are the early piece "A Vision of Repentance," sent to Coleridge in 1797; one of the "Popular Fallacies" essays, "That the Worst Puns are the Best," and that delightful "Elia" essay, "Dream Children."

Henry Crabb Robinson, to whose "Diary" the world is indebted for many intimate particulars of the men and women of his age, wrote of Lamb's library in 1824: "He has the finest collection of shabby books I ever saw; such a number of first-rate works in very bad condition is, I think, nowhere to be found." Mr. Smith has gathered a small company from that "ragged regiment," including the largest book owned by Lamb, his Drayton, containing some seventeen hundred lines of verse in Lamb's autograph, besides numerous minor annotations. Another volume, "The History of Philip de Commines," was lent by Lamb to Coleridge, and is enriched by annotations in the handwriting of both.

Of even greater interest is the volume of pamphlets containing Lamb's copies of William Godwin's "Antonio," Coleridge's "Remorse," and other pieces, among them being the only known copy of that much-sought-for pamphlet, by John Lamb, on the subject of cruelty to animals, his only printed piece.

Keats gave the world only three books: "Poems," 1817; "Endymion," 1818; and "Lamia," 1820. He once wrote to his sister: "I know three witty people, all distinct in their excellence, Rice, Richards, and Reynolds. Rice is the wisest, Reynolds the playfullest, and Richards the out-of-the-wayest." Mr. Smith's copy of the "Poems" was presented by Keats to Richards, and his copy of "Lamia" to Reynolds. His "Endymion" carries Keats's inscription to his brother George, who came to America and lived and died in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Keats manuscripts include a fragment of the first piece in the volume, "Poems," "I stood tiptoe upon a little hill"; his famous sonnet, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," and a letter to Haydon in which he refers to the Homer and says, "At some future time I shall reborrow your Homer"; the poem entitled "To Some Ladies"; fragments of the posthumously published play "Otho the Great" and the posthumously published poem "Cap and Bells," and, lastly, one of the love-letters to Fanny Brawne.

There is also a book from Keats's library, Hazlitt's "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays" (1817), with annotations or comments by Keats on several pages.