RICHARD DOYLE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/20/1869 - HFSID 295988

RICHARD DOYLE
The English illustrator appraises the writings of a critic.
Autograph Letter signed: "Richard Doyle", 2 pages (integral leaf), 4½x7½. 54 Clifton Gardens, Mindon Mile [?], 1869 May 20. To "My Dear Mr. Cameron", in full: "I have read the Saturday on Mr. Taylor, and send you my opinion according to promise. Strange to say, it seemed to me to be written by a not unfriendly hand! It is curious that any man should sit down with an amiable intention toward the subject of the article and yet gratuitously sneer at 'a Pact governing forty colonies' or his 'condescending to write on a subject of interest to ordinary mortals'. And there are one or two other expressions such as 'pretensional dogmatism' which must be painful to read for anyone who knows U. T. Nevertheless I think the intention is on the whole not unfriendly. But the writer could not resist the temptation to amuse himself. Yours always sincerely". Richard Doyle (1824-1883) was an English illustrator whose drawings appeared on many covers of Punch magazine from 1843 to 1850, when he resigned from Punch to protest its anti-Catholic bias. Doyle illustrated three volumes of Charles Dickens' Christmas stories, and a new edition of Grimm's fairy tales. The latter work earned him many more opportunities to illustrate fantasy works. Doyle also published two collections of his own satirical drawings, Manners and Customes of Ye Englishe (1849) and A Bird's Eye View of Society (1864). He was the author of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Toned and soiled. Multiple mailing folds. Mounting residue on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.