ALS signed “R. W. Emerson,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 8 x 10, October 10, 1893. Letter to James Monroe and Company in Boston. In part, “Mr. Sartain of Phila.a applied to me lately on the subject of Carlyle’s portrait, thinking I had a better one than the D’Orsay profile. I have that one, & also the full length sketch, a duplicate of the one you send me. Mr. S. wished it for Campbell’s magazine, & I suppose is now preparing one of the two for that work. Had you not better buy of him, than make a new engraving? I am content to pay half the cost as you propose.” Intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, small holes to second page, and some scattered light toning and soiling, otherwise fine condition.
Since their initial meeting in 1838, Emerson and Thomas Carlyle enjoyed a lifelong correspondence and friendship that would span nearly four decades. With a letter to Emerson in April of 1840, Carlyle sent the aforementioned portrait, recounting an interesting visit from the fashionable Parisian artist Alfred d’Orsay with comical detail, exclaiming, ‘the emperor of European Dandies pourtraying the Prophet of spiritual Sansculottism! He came rolling down hither one day, many months ago, in his sun-chariot, to the bedazzlement of all bystanders; found me in dusty grey-plaid dressing-gown, grim as the spirit of Presbyterianism.’ Over fifty years later, a decade after Carlyle’s death, Emerson still kept the portrait of his dear friend, suggesting it to James Monroe & Co. for a new publication. A lovely letter highlighting the famous literary friendship. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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