Description:

George Trevelyan Recollections on Disraeli, Nearly 50 Years After His Death

A group of four autograph letters signed with a 10pp autograph manuscript signed by Sir George Trevelyan (1838-1928). The letters, dated March 15-30, 1927, are correspondence between Trevelyan and Mr. Barry, the Editor of The Saturday Review, in which the elderly statesman offers to provide a publication for the journal regarding his interactions with the late Benjamin Disraeli. All letters are signed "Go. Trevelyan." Below are excerpts from the correspondence and manuscript submitted for publication:

March 15, 1927. 4pp, measuring 4.5" x 7", marked "Private": "…I have read an extremely interesting Review in your Journal (by A.A.B.) in which my name is mentioned in connection with Disraeli's great speech on his 1852 budget. It so happens that, by rare good fortune, I heard every word of that great debate, from first to last. I do not say that it was as exciting as what happened in the Roman Senate on the same day of the year as that on which I am now writing: but I do say that the occasion exceeded in interest and brilliancy anything that I remember in the course of the thirty-two years which I spent in the House of Commons. I suppose no living human being, except myself, heard that marvelous speech…"

March 17, 1927. 2pp, measuring 4.5" x 7": Trevelyan writes that he is unable to write the promised manuscript at the time due to illness, but that he plans to provide two "curious and characteristic personal stories" about Disraeli.

March 25, 1927. 10pp, measuring 7" x 9", manuscript: "…Mr. Disraeli's reply was a unique, an indomitable and (for anyone who did not hear it, an inconceivable masterpiece. Bristling with points; blazing with fierce and fiery outbursts of rhetoric; and all alive with an inexhaustible profusion of epigrams and sarcasms, it was intelligible and comprehensible to the multitude of hearers who listened to it eagerly for two, or three, hours after midnight had sounded, and who were sorry when the speech was over…[in 1865 the Dowager Lady Cowper hosted a large group at her house at Wrest in Bedfordshire] I was standing in front of the first when the door opened, and Mr. Disraeli entered, clad in velvet of a showy and cheerful colour. He walked straight up to me, and said that on the previous evening he had not been aware that I was the son of his old and valued friend Sir Charles Trevelyan; and then he plunged into a very lively anecdote - told in old-fashioned and almost obsolete, but exquisitely comical terms, at the expense of the then Duke of Argyll whom he did not profess to regard with any great affection or reverence. From that time forwards…he treated me with a flattering, and rather mocking, freedom quite irresistible to younger men whom he was desirous to conciliate. His indulgent irony was interspersed with archaic phrases which gave a flavour to his conversation…"

March 30, 1927. 2pp, measuring 4.5" x 7": Trevelyan returns his proof for publication and asks for twelve copies of the final edit to five to friends and family members. All letters and manuscripts have flattened folds. Some areas of soiling, including a small rust mark from a removed paper clip. A few areas of ink feathering. Overall very fine.

George Trevelyan had been 14 years old at the time he witnessed Disraeli's 1852 speech. He would go to serve as the Secretary for Scotland under Prime Ministers William Gladstone and Archibald Primrose. He also served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chief Secretary for Ireland. He resigned from Parliament in 1897 to retire to private life, and died the year after this collection was written, at the age of 90.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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