CHARLES MACKAY - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 10/25/1852 - HFSID 73091

CHARLES MACKAY
The renowned author and journalist instructs colleague to obtain street sketches of the Duke of Wellington's funeral, signs name in black ink
Autograph letter signed: "Charles Mackay" in black ink. 1 page, 5x8. Written on Illustrated London News letterhead. London, England. October 25, 1852. In full: "My dear sir, Please to call upon Mr. Williams, 147 Strand, with reference to three more sketches of the streets for the funeral. -Take Mr. Williams [illegible]. Ever yours truly". The funeral Mackay is referencing is the state funeral of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, which took place on November 18, 1852. Charles Mackay (1812-1889) was an accomplished Scottish poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist and songwriter. An educated writer and scholar of languages, Mackay's career began as a journalist in London, where in 1834 he worked as an occasional contributor to The Sun; it was this same year that his first book Songs and Poems (1834) was published. The following year he took a job at the Morning Chronicle as an assistant sub-editor, a job he held until 1844, and during which he published his best known book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), a history of popular folly. Eventually the editor of the Illustrated London News, Mackay had become a successful literary figure in Great Britain, and in the 1850s and 60s began travelling North America, publishing his observations in Life and Liberty in America (1859) and working as a The Times correspondent during the American Civil War, during which he discovered and disclosed the infamous Fenian conspiracy. He is the father of novelist Marie Corelli and of the minor poet Eric Mackay. Normal mailing folds. Slightly toned. Left edge frayed and lightly torn. Staple punctures in top right corner. Ink slightly smeared. Light surface creases. Pencil notes (unknown hand) below signature. Otherwise, fine condition.