Autograph letter (fragment).
12mo. 2 pp. (19 lines).
€ 750.00
The letter with New Year wishes was probably addressed to a British friend, as Longfellow mentions his astonishment that Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is little published in England: "A new interesting book, just published here in Boston, but not yet published in England except in old magazines. How is it that a writer of so much power as De Quincey is so much neglected in his own country?".
From 1851 Ticknor, Reed and Fields of Boston published the collected works of Thomas De Quincey, starting with his most famous work, "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater". Longfellow also mentions Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lloyd, friends of De Quincey's, as well as a mutual friend or acquaintance who came to Boston "and has brought out six or eight extremely interesting volumes".
With a collector's note in pencil. Traces of folds. A minor tear to the fold and some browning.