ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841 - 1901)

LETTERS FROM COLLECTIONS

1. England

Leeds - University of Leeds Library

Letter to Edmund Gosse - 17th February [1887].

11^a Park Road
Regents Park
         N.W.
Feb. 17

Dear Mr Gosse,

                   Thanks for your letter. Mine would indeed be a phenomenal book if it awakened no disagreement, especially since it contains so much heterodoxy. On one great point I am glad, however, to receive authoritative corroboration. Herbert Spencer writes to me saying that he long ago came to similar conclusions with myself, concerning Goethe.
         Your friend Dogbery may have stumbled on the truth concerning Hugo; he is nevertheless, in most of his utterances, a silly fellow—and as spiteful as silly—& as disingenuous as spiteful. But nearly all criticism is vicious & wicked, & honest men are scarce.

                   Yours truly
                   Robert Buchanan.

Edmund Gosse Esq.

[The year, 1886, has been added to the date in another hand, but I am assuming that the book referred to by Buchanan is A Look Round Literature, which was published in February, 1887 and included essays on Goethe and Victor Hugo.
Given Gosse’s opinion of Buchanan revealed in his diary during the Swinburne libel trial of 1876, this seems a very gentlemanly exchange of views. However, Buchanan had leapt to Gosse’s defence with a letter to The Pall Mall Gazette in October 1886, which might have thawed relations somewhat.]

__________

Stratford-upon-Avon - Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Letters to Marie Corelli

1. 21st February [1887].

11^a Park Road
Regents Park
N.W.
Feb. 21.

Dear Madam,

                   I am obliged to you for your kind and complimentary letter, just sent to me by Messrs. Ward & Downey; and I am very glad, of course, that my Essays have amused you. Of your own writings, to which you allude, I know very little beyond their titles; but I shall certainly take an early opportunity of making myself acquainted with them, as you suggest. Again thanking you I remain

         Dear Madam
                   Faithfully yours
                   Robert Buchanan

Miss Marie Corelli

[A Look Round Literature was published by Ward & Downey, in February 1887. Since this is the only book of Buchanan’s published by that firm, it is safe to assume the year of the letter is 1887.]

_____

2. 25th March [1890].

Vaudeville Theatre
March 25

Dear Miss Corelli,

                   Pray forgive me — I have been so worried, & flurried, & hurried! — Enclosed please find Box for Friday evening next, when I hope you will be able to be present at Clarissa. I will write again later on. Meantime believe me

                   Yours always
                   Rob^t Buchanan

         N.B. Never become a dramatic author! “That way madness lies!”

[Written on headed notepaper with the printed address (MERKLAND|25, MARESFIELD GARDENS|SOUTH HAMPSTEAD) crossed out.]

_____

3. 8th June [1898].

55 Christchurch Road
Streatham Hill
S.W.
June 8

Dear Miss Corelli,

                   As I wired you I deeply regret to say that I cannot come as I had proposed tomorrow. I was in bed up to Sunday with somewhat dangerous symptoms, & my doctor is afraid that I am not yet fit for exposure to wind & weather & the accompanying physical fatigue. I am truly sorry, for I was most anxious to pay my last respects to a brother-poet. Pray believe however that my spirit will be with you, tho’ my body is absent, & again accept the assurance of my profound sympathy.

                   Always yours
                   Rob^t Buchanan.

Miss Marie Corelli

[On envelope.]

Am returning to London tomorrow, but shall in all probability be down again.

                   B.     )

[‘heart’ is crossed out and ‘spirit’ written above.
The letter and envelope have a black border and Buchanan is responding to an invitation to attend the funeral of Marie Corelli’s step-brother, Eric Mackay, who died on 3rd June, 1898.]

[The Times (Friday, 3 June, 1898 - p.4)]

[The New York Times (3 June, 1898 - p.4)]

[Funeral announcement in The Times (Tuesday, 7 June, 1898 - p.1)]

From Memoirs of Marie Corelli by Bertha Vyver (p.87) (london: Alston Rivers Ltd., 1930):

     At that time Marie was a close friend of Mr. and Mrs. Skirrow, and often went to their famous luncheon parties, where one met many of the celebrities of the day. There she was introduced to Robert Browning (whom she describes as “a charming old gentleman, so cheery and kind”), and to Sir Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Wilson Barrett, Mr. Willard, and to Oscar Wilde and his pretty wife. To Robert Buchanan, too, who possessed that freshness which made listening to him a real pleasure, and whose gifts approached to genius. Of him Marie says in a letter: “Yes, I like him; that he has enemies is as it should be, if we believe, ‘Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.’
     His poetry evoked her great admiration. His novel, The Shadow of the Sword, Napoleonic in theme and the scenes laid in Brittany, is a really fine story, and one that she watmly recommended me to read.

__________

The Open University -  The Sampson Low Collection

Letter to Edward Marston - 14 June [1868 or 1869]

Gourock
         N. B.
June 14th

My dear M^r Marston,

                   M^r William Black, who will send or give you this, is desirous of making some new arrangements ab^t a very successful novel wh: he recently published with Tinsley; and I have recommended him to you. Apart from the immediate reason for the introduction, you will find him a gentleman with whom it is in many ways desirable to make acquaintance.

                   Yours sincerely
                   Robert Buchanan.

E. Marston Esq.

[Buchanan seems to have settled for a time in Gourock, probably from the spring of 1868 to the summer of 1869, when he moved to Oban. So, this letter could be from either of those years. Edward Marston was a partner in the publishing firm of Sampson Low. Black’s novel, Love or Marriage? was published by Tinsley Brothers in 1868 (reviewed in The Athenæum on 11th April 1868) and his next, Kilmeny, was published by Sampson Low, so this could indicate 14th June, 1868 as the more probable date for the letter. A copy of the letter is available at the Open University Digital Archive.]

_____

Letters from Collections - continued

or back to Letters from Collections - List