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RUSKIN (JOHN)Praeterita: Outlines of Scenes and Thoughts Perhaps Worthy of Memory in My Past Life [-Dilecta_ Correspondence,

Bonhams

Lot 55

RUSKIN (JOHN)Praeterita: Outlines of Scenes and Thoughts Perhaps Worthy of Memory in My Past Life [-Dilecta_ Correspondence, Diary Notes, and Extracts from Books, illustrating Praeterita], 31 original parts in 6 vol., FIRST EDITION, EXTENSIVELY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED FOR CHARLES E. GOODSPEED WITH THE INSERTION OF 25 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED BY RUSKIN, 23 autograph letters and notes by contemporaries (including Turner), numerous sketches, photographs, cut signatures, annotated proof sheets, and upwards of 280 additional engravings and plates (some coloured), the collection comprising: i) Group of 25 autograph letters signed ('J. Ruskin', 'John Ruskin', 'J.R.') to various correspondents, including:'Darling Reille', an unknown child ('...although May is irresistible, And Alice is so bewitching – yet you were my first Love... ps Don't frizz the hair quite so high this time...'); Miss Rudkin, organising a spring dress for Arthur Severn's daughter whom he finds '...already tall enough – to become – a pretty costume, and refresh and refine my savage mind...'; an unknown recipient recalling an encounter with Charles Darwin ('...A couple of years ago, a man, Darwin was walking with me on my garden terrace and stopped to look at a strange form of (I forget what) flower. – 'Now – why is that shaped so' – he said. Why should you want to know? I answered – Oh – he said, laughing – but with the perfectly frank expression of a man partly ashamed of a weakness – 'I always want to know' – 'And I never do.' – ended this 'discussion' in that direction – and we went into lunch...'); Charles Newton on his engagement to Effie Gray ('...I believe indeed that it is every way better for me that I should marry... Miss Gray is a good girl... will be a very noble creature – and far above my deservings...'); another to Newton (speaking of his recent trip to Europe ('...that vast blunder St Peters...'), the effect of political feeling on architecture, hoping to 'get out of Jephson's clutches' soon to show him some architectural drawings completed in Italy); the Revd A. Tighe Gregory (mentioning his nervous condition '...the most trivial matter will sometime sicken and sting me...', his debt to Turner for art and Carlyle for literature and marvelling how they, like him 'should be irreligious' but that he is open to 'all influences'); Lady Naesmyth (sending copies of verses by Rose La Touche, despairing she has gone to Ireland and may not love him when she returns); four to his friend and neighbour at Brantwood, Susan Beever, including a highly personal undated letter regarding '...that wretched child...' [Rose La Touche], complaining of her evangelism and his frustration ('...a husband can always say a little word for himself – whereas a poor, servile – wretch of an old lover... she I verily believe is like to be in mortal illness as not – and vowing I shan't come near her unless I swear first that I don't care to! – and only love God. And of course I can't & won't do anything of the sort – I don't love anything but her in the whole universe – and she leads me the life to Tantalus & Prometheus Vinctus in one...'); another illustrated with a sprig of blossom written three days after her death ('...I've just heard that my poor little Rose is gone when the hawthorn blossoms go... just left the second number of Proserpine to be printed – there are many little things going to be said in it, which nobody but she would have understood... I have been long prepared so you need not be anxious about me...'); and another including a delicate drawing of moss ('...all in stars as close as that – it takes such a dreadful time to paint...'); and Thomas Carlyle discussing the use of colour in Greek sculpture ('...if colour will make Greek endurable – it will make Gothic glorious...'); others include a note to Dante Gabriel Rossetti arranging a meeting, another refusing an invitation to dine at Mr D'Israeli's, to his physician Henry Jephson, to Hale White regarding his paper on Byron and to Henry Jowett regarding the publication of Praeterita, c.52pp in all, 8vo, Denmark Hill, Brantwood, Leamington Spa, Perth etc., c.1841-1889 where dated. ii) Illustrations, including a copy of John Ruskin's self portrait of c.1861, head and shoulders, wearing a black neckerchief, pencil and watercolour, in an unknown hand, image 155 x 125mm.; a sketch map of Oxford depicting the town and colleges, in ink, with monogram ('JR') on reverse of a printed prospectus for Robert Taylor Pritchett's Brush-Notes in Holland, 183 x 240mm.; two fine pen and ink vignettes of hawthorn blossom and moss; and sketch of a dog by John Brown entitled 'orat plorat et adorat', 85 x 65mm.; together with numerous printed plates and engravings including landscapes, architecture and portraits.iii) Some 23 autograph letters by others including J.M.W. Turner (arranging for James Lennox of New York '...to view the work of art at Denmark Hill Slave Ship...'), Ruskin's father John James Ruskin, George Cruikshank, Giulia Grisi (signed musical quotation from Verdi's Il Trovatore), his physician Dr Henry Jephson, John Brown (3), George Allen, Charles Eliot Norton (from whom Goodspeed received Ruskin's autograph), J. A. Froude, Joan Ruskin Severn, Thomas Carlyle, Robert Harry Inglis, Sir Walter Scott, Mary Carlyle (to Robert Browning regarding her uncle's funeral), and Lord Egremont; with others regarding the publication of Praeterita, additional photographs and cut signatures.iv) Printer's proof sheets of Chapter XI Volume 2 with corrections and annotations by Ruskin in black ink., bound at the end of volume 2.Footnotes:AN IMPORTANT EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED SET WITH 25 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS BY RUSKIN, ASSEMBLED BY AND BOUND FOR THE EMINENT RUSKIN COLLECTOR CHARLES E. GOODSPEED OF BOSTON.Praeterita, the story of Ruskin's early life, was published in 28 parts at intervals from July 1885 to July 1889 when ill-health took its toll on the author and the series remained unfinished: '...Praeterita is a delightful work, a rewriting of Ruskin's life that makes it unreliable as a source of biographical fact, yet an accurate portrait of the author's mind...' (Robert Hewison, ODNB). This finely-bound set of Praeteritia is the result of a collaboration in the early years of the twentieth century between Ruskin's friend and literary executor, the American Charles Eliot Norton, who supplied the parts (as evidenced by the ownership inscriptions on the bound-in wrappers), and the eminent Ruskin collector, bibliophile and bookseller Charles E. Goodspeed, who organised the extra material and binding, supplying much of it from his own extensive collection.The extra material Goodspeed carefully chose to include in this edition is not organised in exact chronological order but fitted in where deemed appropriate to fit the text, and includes several important autograph letters by Ruskin amongst the wealth of material. Although some of the letters are marked in pencil presumably for the purposes of publication, most are apparently unpublished, with one particularly revealing letter bearing the pencilled note 'Rosie... perhaps too 'intime' to print?...'. Goodspeed has indeed selected some particularly personal letters for inclusion, several relating to his relationships with young girls, one to Charles Newton for example enthuses about his engagement to Effie Gray ('...far above my deservings...'), and another to his close friend and neighbour at Brantwood, Susan Beever, where, in a highly intimate letter, he complains of '...that wretched child...' (presumably the deeply religious Rose La To... This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •• Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

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