EDWARD Z.C. "NED BUNTLINE" JUDSON - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 12/27/1881 - HFSID 73802

EDWARD Z.C. JUDSON (NED BUNTLINE). ALS: "EZC Judson", 2p, 5½x8½, front and verso. On letterhead of Headquarters, Eagles Nest, Stamford, Del. Co., N.Y., but written from New York City, 1881 December 27. To "Friend Gilbert". In full: "Yours recd. I do not want that double faced wretch Edgar Johnston to have that mortgage. When I gave it to you & got Anna to sign it, you pledged your honor it should not leave your hands! Never! It has gone far enough now. If Olmstead holds it, I will pay interest & take it up next summer. If you & Maynard cannot hold it, & it goes into other hands than Olmstead I will not pay interest, but will let it be foreclosed. Tho, I do not deserve that kind of treatment from you. You know that! If Judge [name illegible] belongs to the Maynard, Churchill & Co. instead of the people, whose Judge he should be, let him show his hand at once. Mrs. J & boy, gaining & [illegible]. If you come to the city come & see me. I will never pay that school tax." Handwritten postscript at left margin of first page: "My best love to Newell & all 'friends!'" Judson had been born and would die in Stamford. He had returned to the city with his last wife, the former ANNA FULLER, who is mentioned in this letter, in 1872 and drew up plans for a country estate to be built on his father-in-law's land. Judson named his home Eagle's Nest after his Adirondack camp. American writer and adventurer Edgar Zane Carroll Judson (1823-1886), who wrote under the pen name Ned Buntline, is credited with helping to create the "dime novel" genre of fiction. In 1845, he had founded "Ned Buntline's Own", a magazine as sensational as his own life, which included being lynched for murder (1846; he was secretly cut down and released), leading a mob in the Astor Place riot (1849) against English actor Macready and helping to organize the Know-Nothing Party (after espousing the party's stance on temperance, Judson was often found drunk). Beginning in 1846, Judson began writing the first of his more than 400 action novels, which include The Mysteries and Miseries of New York (1848), Stella Delorme; or, The Comanche's Dream (1860), The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main; or, The Fiend of Blood and Buffalo Bill. In 1872, he persuaded William F. Cody, whom he had first dubbed "Buffalo Bill", to act in his play, The Scouts of the Plains, which launched Cody's stage career. Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. Ink smudged at the "Ju" of signature and at some words (all legible). 1¼-inch separation at upper margin at mid-vertical fold touches 4 words on verso (all legible). Ink note (unknown hand, but likely in the hand of the recipient) at upper right margin of first page. Lightly shaded at margins, chipped at upper edge. Overall, fine condition.