Beschreibung:

RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Seven autograph letters signed, including six to Miss Forman and one to Mrs. White (the same ?), Arras, Denmark Hill, Appleby and n.p. (2), 24 September [1856] - 5 October [1857] and n.d. (1) , advising her about the mountains in the Valais, proposing a meeting in London, 'Perhaps you will think the dome of St. Paul's inferior to the Dôme du Goute, but as a true bred Cockney I am bound to hope not', congratulating her on climbing Monte Rosa, and commenting on her letters to him, 15 pages, 8°, and 3 pages, 4° (letter of 24 September splitting at folds), and one letter by his father, John James Ruskin . FORMAN, Emma ( fl . 1853-1857). Three autograph journals recording her visits to Switzerland in 1853, 1856 and 1857, describing her ascent of Mont Blanc and meeting with Ruskin at Chamonix, and her subsequent climbs of Monte Rosa and other peaks, approximately 410 pages, 8°, written in 5 notebooks (176 x 115 mm.) , and a printed Certificate recording ascents of Mont Blanc from 1786 - 1856 and confirming that Miss Forman and her father reached the summit, one page, 480 x 330 mm. (splits at folds, repaired on verso) . The interesting combination of these letters and journals throws light on an unexplained entry in Ruskin's published diary for 1 August 1856, 'Today up to Aiguille Blaitière and then to meet Miss Foreman ( sic ) coming down from Mont Blanc'. Ruskin was at Chamonix to draw and study geological formations. Emma Forman had climbed Mont Blanc ('my dream for many many years'), and was something of a celebrity. She gives a lively account of her exploit, including an overnight stay in a 'disgustingly dirty hut', the danger of avalanches, the dramatic scenery, the crossing of glaciers, mountain-sickness ('The guides were all most kind and attentive making me sit on their knee when tired and overcome'), and at last the arrival at the peak where they drank toasts and lit a fire to be seen in Chamonix. On August 7 'Mr. Ruskin called and we found him most gentlemanly and agreeable. He is quite a savant and extremely well informed. He is quite an enthusiast about mountains and geology'. He called again and 'remained a long time'. Emma evidently wrote to Ruskin on leaving Chamonix, for he replies from Arras with a long, enthusiastic and knowledgeable letter about the mountains, '....I imagine that the higher summits of the Bernardino and Spluga are hardly known either, not to speak of the multitudes of wonderful ravines and lower summits commanding noble solitudes which no traveller has ever seen'. His correspondent's taste for the intrepid leads him to reflect that 'In the middle ages there was plenty of occupation for the courage and adventurousness of either sex and you would have had to keep your husband's cattle for him or seek him through an army of Saracens', and even to suggest the possibility of showing the Swiss 'how to live better'. It seems, however, from another letter, that Emma became a school-teacher. There is no information about her later life. (14)