Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘I.E.Aylmer’, to Mrs. Hall, about taking a manuscript to Hurst & Blackett, announcing that “Griffiths and Farren gave me fifteen guineas (what I asked) for a New Zealand story”, wishing she had known about Mrs. Hall’s collection of stories first. 2½ pp. 7 x 4½ inches, in good condition, some thinning at centre fold. 32 Dorset Place, undated, probably 1861. Isabella Aylmer was the author of one of the earliest New Zealand novels, Distant Homes; or, the Graham Family in New Zealand by Mrs. J.E.Aylmer (1862). This letter records the acceptance of the novel by the publishers, Griffiths and Farren. Her correspondent is likely to be the writer Anna Maria Hall (Mrs. Samuel Carter Hall, 1800-1881).