Description
Autograph Letter Signed, to George Cruickshank, suggesting a number of titles for their next work, and hoping to find a better printer for it. 3 pp. 7 x 4½ inches, in good condition. Cheltenham, 27 February 1841. William Henry Merle [later de Merle], [pseuds. A. B., A. Bird, the White Blackbird] (1791–1878), author. Cruickshank illustrated a collection of Merle’s journalistic pieces, Odds and Ends in Verse and Prose (April 1831; 2nd edn, 1836). Merle also published Costanca, a Poem, in 1828, and two novels, Glenlonely (1837), and the quasi-autobiographical Melton de Mowbray, or, The Banker’s Son (1838).Their fraught professional relationship lasted sixty years, during which Merle bombarded Cruickshank with his ideas for literary projects. This letter reflects the theme of their collaboration: “It has occurred to me that I have not sufficiently bowed to the humour and taste of the day in the pains bestowed in my unfortunate last. Wd not – might not – the public rise a bite better at? … The Sporting Days of Fox Hunting Parsons, by the Author of Melton & Mowbray.”