2 autograph letters signed ("H. Martineau"), one visiting card with autograph annotation, and an engraving of her house.
8vo. Together 6½ pp. on 2 bifolia.
€ 8,500.00
To the English poet Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-85), requesting him to come and see her after she was diagnosed with a fatal heart disease, expecting to pass within a matter of weeks, pointing out, however, that she is feeling much better than when she was suffering from cancer years before: "If you & Mrs. M. & your child should come near this place before I die, I should very much like a quiet talk in this most serene of all places. How long I may live is [...] perfectly uncertain [...] I think it not very probable that I shall live many weeks. Remembering how kindly & effectually you ministered to me in my other great illness, I cannot but wish that we could meet now. I am so much happier, & stronger, & every way better, it seems to me. The last ten years of my life have been worth all the rest together [...]" (1 March).
In a more urgent tone, offering him a room at her house: "Pray come [...] Here is a room for you, so just come straight to my gate [...] As for what you will find, I am pretty well between the sinking-fits (peculiar to the disease). They come on every two or three days, sometimes for two or three days together, & each one is as likely as not to be fatal, as my nurses & I are fairly warned by the doctors. If this does not scare you, come without any anxiety. It will be a pleasure to you hereafter to have done the kindness [...]" (2 April).
In fact Martineau lived another twenty years. When she was suffering from uterine cancer in the early 1840s, Monckton Milnes dedicated a poem to her, entitled "Christian Endurance", which appeared as one of a series of "Arabian Legends" in "Palm Leaves" (1844).
The visiting card bearing the name "Mrs Harriet Martineau" is annotated in her hand with "Mrs" underlined: "This my title here". The engraving shows The Knoll, Ambleside, bearing an autograph annotation by Monckton Milnes: "March 18th 1855. Miss M sends her kind regards".
In excellent condition.
