Autograph Letter Signed ("Oliver Madox-Brown") to his publisher, W.S. Williams, regarding changes to his novel Gabriel Denver, 2 pp, bifolium 8vo, London, November 10, 1872, fold creases, slight soiling, red ink highlights before sender's address and after signature. The young precocious genius Oliver Madox Brown (son of Ford Madox Brown died tragically at the age of nineteen, just as his career as a writer was taking off. Perhaps no other tragic figure took up the attention and sympathies of the Pre-Raphaelites, and especially Dante Rossetti, who penned a tribute poem on Brown's behalf, entitled "Untimely Lost." This letter concerns the delicate negotiations between Madox and his publisher in appreciably changing the book's story line and thematic representations. Originally titled The Black Swan, it was published as Gabriel Denver in 1873. The original plot revolved around a wife's revenge upon her husband and the woman to whom he had transferred his affection. At the request of his publishers, the young author altered the story: a spiteful cousin was substituted for the vengeful wife, and a happy denouement for a tragic one. Nevertheless, Gabriel Denver as published reveals striking power in its treatment of characters and events. This letter, one of the earliest communications between Oliver Brown and William Smith Williams of Smith, Elder publishers, shows Brown's willingness to make the suggested changes: "... certainly faults difficult to eliminate from the already-written chapters, can at any rate, be easily avoided in the forth-coming ones." John Henry Ingram (Oliver Madox Brown A Biographical Sketch) presents at length the entire sequence of events, but cites only a Sept. 27, 1872 letter predating this letter, and the next, January of 1873.
Autograph Letter Signed ("Oliver Madox-Brown") to his publisher, W.S. Williams, regarding changes to his novel Gabriel Denver, 2 pp, bifolium 8vo, London, November 10, 1872, fold creases, slight soiling, red ink highlights before sender's address and after signature. The young precocious genius Oliver Madox Brown (son of Ford Madox Brown died tragically at the age of nineteen, just as his career as a writer was taking off. Perhaps no other tragic figure took up the attention and sympathies of the Pre-Raphaelites, and especially Dante Rossetti, who penned a tribute poem on Brown's behalf, entitled "Untimely Lost." This letter concerns the delicate negotiations between Madox and his publisher in appreciably changing the book's story line and thematic representations. Originally titled The Black Swan, it was published as Gabriel Denver in 1873. The original plot revolved around a wife's revenge upon her husband and the woman to whom he had transferred his affection. At the request of his publishers, the young author altered the story: a spiteful cousin was substituted for the vengeful wife, and a happy denouement for a tragic one. Nevertheless, Gabriel Denver as published reveals striking power in its treatment of characters and events. This letter, one of the earliest communications between Oliver Brown and William Smith Williams of Smith, Elder publishers, shows Brown's willingness to make the suggested changes: "... certainly faults difficult to eliminate from the already-written chapters, can at any rate, be easily avoided in the forth-coming ones." John Henry Ingram (Oliver Madox Brown A Biographical Sketch) presents at length the entire sequence of events, but cites only a Sept. 27, 1872 letter predating this letter, and the next, January of 1873.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
