JANE LOUDON - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 01/28/1841 - HFSID 73059

JANE LOUDON
The pioneering science-fiction writer, author of The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, accepts an invitation for her and her daughter to visit a friend, signs name in black ink
Autograph letter signed: "J.W. Loudon" in faded black ink. 1 page, 4¾x7¾. Addressed to a Miss Murray. Bayswater, London, England. January 28, 1841. In full: "My dear Miss Murray, Agnes & myself will be most happy to accept you Mama's kind invitation for the 18th. We all unite in the kindest wishes to yourself & family & I remain, yours sincerely". Jane Loudon (1807-1858), 'nee Webb, was an English author, best known for her early, pioneering work in science fiction with her novel The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827), which at the time was discussed as if she wrote a gothic fiction, fantasy or horror novel. Unlike other early science fiction works, Loudon didn't write of the future as her own day only with political changes, she filled it with foreseeable changes in technology, society and even fashion; court ladies wore trousers and hair ornaments of controlled flame, surgeons and lawyers were steam-powered automatons, and there was even a kind of Internet predicted in it. When horticulturalist John Claudius Loudon read the book, he was so impressed that he arranged to meet the author and, surprised that it was a woman, married Webb later that same year. Jane Loudon was fascinated in her husband's work and became a gardening specialist herself and, seeing the need for entry-level books, she wrote manuals such as Instructions in Gardening for Ladies, The Ladies' Flower Garden, and Botany for Ladies. She was the mother of children's book author Agnes Loudon. Normal mailing folds. Toned. Irregularly cut. Light surface creases. Otherwise, fine condition.