(3 pp,. ALS)
11 Mount Street
Crosvenor Square, W.
2 April 1897
My Dear Sir | I am very much obliged to | you for your kindness in sending | me a copy of your very dainty | edition of Omar. I already | happened to possess a copy, | sent me by Mr. Avery, of New | York, but I am very pleased | to have a second. I am sorry | to say that there has been | such a run on my Edition | of which I only printed 50 copies, | that I have not yet one which | I can send you; but as I | should like you to have a | specimen of my work I am | sending you a copy of “Three | Poems of John Milton” which | I printed last year, and which | I hope you will like. Of the | books in your tempting catalogue | I should very much appreciate | a copy of Burton’s “Kasîdah | of Haji Abdu–” or “The | New Life” of Dante. I printed | an edition of the latter in the | original Italian two years | ago. I do all my work, setting | up type & printing, myself | with the help of my sisters | and do not sell any of | my books. I enclose a | short description of my | Edition of Omar for your | next Bibliography. | With many thanks | Yours very truly | C H St. J Hornby
Note:
Curious about whether or not Mosher ever got his copy of the Ashendene Rubáiyát, I contacted Paul Gehl, curator of the Wing Collection at the Newberry Library. Mr. Gehl had previously helped me with some research for the Mosher bibliography in 1997 and I called on him again to access the Wheeler notes to see if he had Mosher’s copy. Charles V (Van Cise) Wheeler had bought Mosher’s Rubáiyát collection before Mosher died, and compiled a still unpublished three volume typescript entitled “A Bibliography of Edward FitzGerald, Composed of largely items in the collection of C.V.C. Wheeler including the collection formed by T. B. Mosher…” in 1919. A carbon copy set of the volumes were given by Wheeler to the Newberry Library in Chicago in May 1928 and are now found in the Wing Collection. Paul Gehl looked up the Ashendene volume and indeed, Mosher had a copy which passed into the Wheeler collection, but it appears that Hornby wasn’t the provider. The copy recorded in the Wheeler collection indicates: “Laid in bill, June 6, 1906, To Thos. B. Mosher, Ashendene Omar – $25.50. Received Payment, M. Kennerly, New York.” M. Kennerly is none other than the publisher and president of the Anderson Galleries, Mitchell Kennerly, who was very close friends with Mosher ever since arriving in America. Since the Ashendene also doesn’t come with an inscription to Mosher, I think it’s safe to say that Mosher didn’t receive a copy directly from Hornby or it would have come inscribed as did the Three Poems of John Milton which was signed and presented to Thomas Bird Mosher by the printer.