LETTER: Two Autograph letters signed, to printer John McCreery.
[Mary Mullion, juvenile author.] Two Autograph Letters Signed (the first with incomplete signature 'Ma<...>', and the second 'Mary Mullion') to the London printer John McCreery, giving instructions regarding her 'New Sacred Dramas for Young Persons'.
Both letters undated.
The first from 'Pla<...> Tuesday mor[nin]g', with postmark of 10 October <1820>, and docketted 14 October 1820. The second from 'Dover Street [London] Tuesday mor[nin]g', with postmark of 6 July 18. The identity of the author of the 'New Sacred Dramas for Young Persons', published by Longmans in 1820, has been hitherto unknown, but the context of these letters allows us to attribute it to Mary Mullion, author of 'The Curate's Daughter, A Tale for Young Persons' (London: G. & W. B. Whittaker, 1823). That attribution is confirmed by a reference in the 'Advertisement' to 'The Curate's Daughter', in which Mullion states that she previously 'ventured to present the Sacred Dramas to the Public [...] after years of mature deliberation'. Both letters are in poor condition, on aged paper and trimmed paper, with some loss of text; both have been spiked by the recipient. Both carry oval red postmarks, and both are addressed by Mullion to 'Mr McCreery | Tooks Court | Chancery Lane'. Letter One: 2pp., 4to. (Containing a reference to the children's booksellers Darton & Harvey, successors to John Newbery of St Paul's Churchyard.) Reads: '[D]ear Sir | I will thank you to send four 4 [cop]ies of the dramas to be put neatly into boards and [to b]e forwarded by Saturday to Mr Procters [at Gr]ace Church Street, directed for the [R]evd. Pastor Proctor - Newland - [to] the care of Mrs Proctor - | [I] have to than[k] you my dear [S]ir for your kin[d]ness in calling upon the Booksellers[.] I will take care that Messrs Darton and Harvey shall be properly secured for the advertisements. As they have given their promise to circulate the work - I hope - they will not serve me, as I have been served - I certainly must take other means <...> [b]een adopted [for?] the last [sort?] < ...> [page 2] <...> I am sanguine - Not <...> because it is - a true picture of <...> girls - I am dear Sir yours respectfully / Ma | I hope the binder will not fail sending the books on <...> as they are to be forwarded into Gloucestershire'. Letter Two: 'I will thank you to get twenty [co]pies - just into boards - and send them on Tuesday [underlined] without fail to Mr T Merry - <...> the Dovecotts - Grays Inn Square - [I] hope they can be completed in the [ti]me - as a Gentleman near Bolton [w]ishes to have them immediately [a]nd they are to go down by his nephew -'. Practically nothing is known regarding Mullion. For more information on the recipient, see J. R. Barker's 'John McCreery: A Radical Printer', The Library, June 1961.
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