[Rarebooks] fa: JOHN BULL 1826 - 47 ISSUES - w/ ALS of Editor THEODORE HOOK

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, July 6. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/oktqup4

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[Theodore Hook, ed.:] John Bull. Vol. VI. No. 264. January 1, 1826 [to] Vol. VI. No. 316. December 31, 1826. London: Edward Shackell, 1826. Forty-seven issues. Tall folio (40.5 cm; 16 in) bound in modern brown cloth and paper-covered boards, printed spine label.

Six issues shy of a complete run for the year 1826 (lacking nos. 280, 290, 291, 298-300). A rare collection of this lively, virulently high-Tory newspaper, "that pestilential paper" (Countess of Jersey), "a thoroughly scurrilous publication, assailing the private as well as the public characters of those whom it singled out for attack" (Henry Vizetelly). John Bull was launched by Theodore Hook in 1820, initially for the purpose of attacking Queen Caroline and her adherents, and quickly attained "a success which has probably never been surpassed in the history of any weekly newspaper." After the death of the Queen, it persevered in defending God and King while gleefully assailing, mocking and libeling Catholics, cockney poets, and the forces of reform and "Radicalism." Occasional browning, some rubbing where the sheets were originally folded, several issues with damp-staining to the margins, a few with short edge-tears or small holes. Binding with a small abrasion on the rear board, otherwise clean, sharp and fresh.

Loosely laid in is an Autograph Letter Signed (initials) from Theodore Hook (1788-1841), playboy, practical joker, satirist, and the newspaper's editor. Written on both sides, headed "Cleveland Row" (where Hook resided), undated but the paper is watermarked 1827. Fully deciphering Hook's penmanship would require more patience than we have at the moment, but the first line appears to read: "Many thanks my dear  Dubois for your kindness." This would presumably be Edward Dubois (1774-1850) a fellow wit and man of letters, and editor of the Monthly Mirror, where the young Hook had once served as his assistant. Towards the end of the letter Hook writes, "I think myself sure of getting Lockhart, Croker, Lady Charlotte Bury, Mrs. Hemans" and several other names we can't make out, but whether he means as party guests or as contributors to his newspaper, we haven't a clue.