LOVE'S WIDOWHOOD AND OTHER POEMS WITH 4 page ALS Signed by Alfred Austin with ownership signature of Ellen Terry.
London: Macmiljan & Co., 1889.
First Edition. Signed by Author. First Edition. A very good copy in the publisher's navy cloth covered boards with gilt lettering to the spine. 8vo. 144 pp. Size: 5 3/4" x 8" with moderate wear. Some toning to the decal edge pages, with the ownership signature of ELLEN TERRY dated 1890.
One four page ALS, double sides, on cream coloured note card with folds and minor aging from Swinford Old Manor, Ashford, Kent. SIZE: 9" x 7", folded to 4 1/2" x 7" written in black ink.
Dated: June 29, 89 to Ellen Terry From Alfred Austin who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896 following the death of Tennyson.
Austin, inspired by Ellen Terry, wrote a poem dedicated to her.
Ellen Terry was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain as well as had much success in her American tours. Two of her most famous roles were Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.
Virginia Woolf’s was obsessed with this Victorian actress.
She captivated many an artist and was painted by the famous John Singer Sargent in 1889 as Lady Macbeth, as well as by her first husband George Frederic Watts in 1864 in a portrait called Choosing
She was a muse to many.”…during that short time, she had the opportunity to meet many cultured, talented and important people, such as poets Robert Browning and Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Prime Ministers William Ewart Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli; and photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Because of Watts's paintings of her and her association with him, she "became a cult figure for poets and painters of the later Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements, including Oscar Wilde” Michael R. "Terry, Dame Ellen Alice (1847–1928)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn,4 January 2010.
Item #33512 Price: US$780.00