CHARLES MACKAY - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED 07/06/1843 - HFSID 73362

CHARLES MACKAY
The popular Scottish author and journalist asks friend what time should he arrive tomorrow, signs name in black ink
Autograph letter signed: "Charles Mackay" in black ink. 1 page, 5x6¼, affixed to 6½x8¾. July 6, 1843. Addressed to J. Britton, Esq. In full: "My dear sir, I expect to be with you at Richmond at 5 tomorrow. Tell me by what conveyance I can get there starting after 2, and whether I can get away at 8 or ½ past 8". 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 worn and soiled. Corners rounded. Otherwise, fine condition.