Autograph letter signed (“S Smiles”), to Sir Benjamin Hawes, Marc Isambard Brunel´s son-in-law, asking permission to include the Brunels in his Lives of the Engineers (“...I have been some time engaged in preparing a work to be entitled ‘The Lives of the Engineers´...I am most desirous of adding that of Sir Isambard Brunel. I wrote to Mr Horsley on the subject, and he advises me at once to apply to you. I have, however, since been informed...that the papers relating to Sir Isambard and his distinguished son, have been placed in the hands of a literary gentleman with a view to publication...though I have already collected much valuable information relating to Sir Isambard, I should not venture to write his life without the sanction of his surviving relatives, or without access to the authentic documents he has left behind him. I may mention that in the case of John Rennie his son, the present Sir John, has kindly placed at my disposal all the documents relating to his father...”), four pages, 8vo, guard, slight staining, Blackheath, 20 October 1860 SMILES SEEKS TO WRITE THE LIFE OF THE BRUNELS. It has always been something of a puzzle as to why Samuel Smiles, author of the cult of the heroic engineer, should have excluded the Brunels from his pioneering work of economic and social history, The Lives of the Engineers (1861-2). It has been suggested that the younger Brunel did not measure up to the ideal of modesty espoused by the author of Self-Help. The younger Brunel´s latest biographer, Angus Buchanan, in Brunel: The Life and Times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2002), however, has suggested that Smiles may simply have been refused permission by the family, who exhibited a degree of ‘mild paranoia´ when it came to his reputation. This letter bears out Buchanan´s suggestion.
Autograph letter signed (“S Smiles”), to Sir Benjamin Hawes, Marc Isambard Brunel´s son-in-law, asking permission to include the Brunels in his Lives of the Engineers (“...I have been some time engaged in preparing a work to be entitled ‘The Lives of the Engineers´...I am most desirous of adding that of Sir Isambard Brunel. I wrote to Mr Horsley on the subject, and he advises me at once to apply to you. I have, however, since been informed...that the papers relating to Sir Isambard and his distinguished son, have been placed in the hands of a literary gentleman with a view to publication...though I have already collected much valuable information relating to Sir Isambard, I should not venture to write his life without the sanction of his surviving relatives, or without access to the authentic documents he has left behind him. I may mention that in the case of John Rennie his son, the present Sir John, has kindly placed at my disposal all the documents relating to his father...”), four pages, 8vo, guard, slight staining, Blackheath, 20 October 1860 SMILES SEEKS TO WRITE THE LIFE OF THE BRUNELS. It has always been something of a puzzle as to why Samuel Smiles, author of the cult of the heroic engineer, should have excluded the Brunels from his pioneering work of economic and social history, The Lives of the Engineers (1861-2). It has been suggested that the younger Brunel did not measure up to the ideal of modesty espoused by the author of Self-Help. The younger Brunel´s latest biographer, Angus Buchanan, in Brunel: The Life and Times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2002), however, has suggested that Smiles may simply have been refused permission by the family, who exhibited a degree of ‘mild paranoia´ when it came to his reputation. This letter bears out Buchanan´s suggestion.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
