RUSKIN, John, letters, autographs, documents, manuscripts



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RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Author, artist & social reformer.
Portions of four unpublished Autograph Letters to [Walter Lucas] Brown, 1847 and 1861 where dated
Comprising a 2-page, quarto, letter, pointing out at the worst of his work is his involvement 'with so many young artists whom one can't do much good to - the very fact of their wanting help generally implying that this help will be of little use to them', praising his former tutor's pamphlet, asking after his children and offering his help should they need it ('...sometimes as I burn an Alpine plant - or throw a stone out into the garden plots, which I would not if I thought they would be of any interest to anybody...'), Denmark Hill, 22 November 1857, signature and subscription cut away removing text from the recto; 2-half pages, writing to Brown from Leamington where he was undergoing a rest cure under the care of Dr Jephson shortly before leaving for Scotland to visit friends and to stay at Effie Gray's home near Perth ('...Jephson having undertaken to get me perfectly to rights I must play him fair...It is frightfully hot to day & Jephson has already made me so languid that I can hardly write...'), the lower half of the leaf and text cut away; signature and eight lines of text; lower half of a leaf with text on both sides, to Brown, writing in favour of the sixteen-year-old [brother (Percy) of Rose la Touche] ('... nearly spoiled at Harrow. He was a gentle and sufficiently intelligent boy; fond of natural history, and promising well in all ways - he has been made a mere reckless schoolboy, who, being exposed to peculiar temptations ... will probably be ruined in a very short time ...') and describing his own Swiss idyll ('... the weather has been exquisite, and I was sitting this afternoon or rather basking, in the sun - on a mountain's grass-terrace upwards of 4000 feet above see, without the slightest feeling cold ...'), dated 13 October 1861 in another hand

.Walter Lucas Brown (?1778-1862), one of Ruskin's tutors at Christ Church, Oxford, became rector of Wendlebury near Bicester, Oxfordshire. At university he taught Ruskin Greek but also had an interest in aesthetic conversation that endeared him to Ruskin. They had a lasting friendship with Ruskin saying he 'was the only one of my old masters from whom I could or would receive guidance' and he was 'the recipient of a number of letters, perhaps the longest that Ruskin ever wrote.' (Tim Hilton, John Ruskin, The Later Years, 2000).

These letters were not published by E.T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, The Library Edition of The Works of John Ruskin, 39 volumes, 1903-1911, and no other publication of them has been found.
[No: 24166]

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