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 jfortttutie 
 
 1826-1920 
 
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" 'Tis n't life that matters; 
 
 't is the courage you bring to it.' 
 
 - Hugh Walpole. 
 
HUGH WALPOLE STUMBLES ifortituDe 
 UPON PRICELESS LITERARY 
 TREASURE IN A SAN FRAN- 
 CISCO BOOK SHOP: Pays a Big 
 Sum for Long-lost Letters of Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott— ^«/Aor^ IVho Owns World's 
 Finest Scott Colledion, by a Strange Coin- 
 cidence Ends Search of Years 
 
 by 
 Ernest J. Hopkins 
 
 in San Francisco Bulletin of 
 February 13,1 920 
 
 Printed for John Howell 
 by John Henry Nash, San Francisco 
 
 1920 
 

 ^m^~ 
 
 APR IS '5^ 
 
THE long arm of coincidence, JFortitttDe 
 stretching across an ocean, a 
 continent and a century of 
 time, has seleded San Fran- 
 cisco as the one spot on the 
 earth's surface for Hugh Walpole, the 
 eminent English novelist, to stumble 
 squarely on his heart's desire. 
 
 By one of those freaks of chance that 
 makes the life of the colledor a continual 
 extra-hazardous romantic risk, Walpole 
 is now the proud owner of a literary treas- 
 ure for which he has hunted many years— 
 ever since he began to amass England's 
 largest colledion of old editions and 
 manuscript of Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Nearly 150 pages of Sir Walter Scott's 
 letters and memoranda, written to John 
 Gibson, his attorney, during the famous 
 
if ortttuOe financial battle which ended Scott's life, 
 will leave San Francisco in Walpole's 
 trunk when he departs. 
 
 In consideration, he will leave behind 
 him a round sum: something under 
 ^5000, but not very far under. 
 
 And you would n't have picked the 
 ^^ Wild West," off hand, as the most 
 likely point of jundion for a heap of 
 century-old manuscript which originally 
 came from London, and a distinguished 
 London literary man who had wanted 
 those particular letters ever since his 
 boyhood. But, likely or not, that is just 
 what has happened, as follows: 
 
 Three days ago,Walpole dropped into 
 the rare-book shop of John Howell on 
 Post street, to keep a luncheon engage- 
 ment. 
 
I was to be one of the guests, and— i?ortitttDe 
 as usual — I was ten minutes late. In 
 those ten minutes the strange thing 
 happened. 
 
 On Howell's desk lay a stack of 
 neatly written letters, in a small, strong 
 handwriting, by no means easy for 
 modern eyes to read. Walpole glanced 
 at the pile of papers and exclaimed: 
 
 ** Where on earth did you get those?" 
 
 Howell replied they had been brought 
 in two days before — only two days — 
 by a gentleman whose grandfather had 
 been Scott's lawyer. 
 
 " You do n't mean these are Scott's let- 
 ters to JohnGibson, who handled Scott's 
 affairs after the famous failure of James 
 Ballantyne and Archibald Constable, 
 the publishers? "asked Walpole. 
 
 3 
 
iFortitutJe "That's precisely what they are," 
 replied Howell. "Gibson's grandson 
 brought them in only day before yes- 
 terday. He said his mother had had the 
 letters all her life and now wanted to sell 
 them." 
 
 " Hm,"remarked Walpole. "You may 
 not know that I possess the largest col- 
 ledion of Scott's manuscript and letters 
 in England. 
 
 "If these particular letters are what 
 they seem to be, they 're the ones I 've 
 wanted the most of all." 
 
 And thereby hang several tales -good 
 ones, too. For of all episodes in English 
 literary history this of Scott's financial 
 heroism is the one that most deeply ap- 
 peals to the man who wrote"Fortitude." 
 
 You may recall the opening words of 
 
"Fortitude," regarded by manyasWal- ifoititttDe 
 pole's masterpiece: 
 
 "'T is n't life that matters; 'tis the 
 courage you bring to it." 
 
 When a novelist has that theme in 
 him, it is small wonder that he will pay a 
 round price for letters written by the 
 master-author whose life, at its climax, 
 furnished the finest record of courage 
 in literary history. 
 
 Sir Walter, as shown by the Gibson 
 letters, had legal obligations of ^150,000 
 as a firm member of James Ballantyne 
 dC Co., printers. When the house failed 
 for ^600,000, he would not agree to 
 bankruptcy proceedings or a partial set- 
 tlement, but pledged himself to repay 
 every dollar. It killed him ; the debt was 
 finally paid from his life insurance. 
 
ifortittttie "'T is n't life that matters; 'tis the 
 courage you bring to it." 
 
 Among the letters is one that shows 
 the cheery spirit in which Scott took 
 even such a matter as the sale of his 
 furniture: 
 
 *^ I ask it to be advertised as the furni- 
 ture in No. 39, lately occupied by Sir 
 W.S. Your delicacy, Iknow, would bog- 
 gle at this, but mine does not. My dis- 
 pleasure is, that I am not able to pay 
 everyone their own — not on the meas- 
 ures necessary to effed payment. I have 
 some reason to think that if the public 
 are aware it is mine better prices may be 
 given. Some folks are anxious to have 
 even trifling articles belonging to those 
 who have, right or wrong, made some 
 noise in the world. I heard a fellow pass- 
 
 6 
 
ing the house say : ' 'Od, I '11 have one of iFortituOe 
 his chairs if it cost me twenty pounds.' 
 Others may have a similar whim; and 
 if so, why should they go to brokers, to 
 give them the advantage which would 
 be gained by the creditors?" 
 
 The death of Lady Scott, when mat- 
 ters were at their worst, is mentioned 
 in the same heroic spirit. "Anne (the 
 daughter) has behaved wonderfully un- 
 der this severe visitation, but is, poor 
 thing, much exhausted. If we had Mon- 
 day over (the funeral) we should all be 
 better." 
 
 And when his health began to break 
 under the strain of frantic writing, he 
 wrote: 
 
 "The hyasyenus which I was obliged 
 to take for the gravel deranged me a 
 
ifortituDe good deal, and I believe was the cause 
 of some inaccuracies of the copy; for 
 one day I could neither write nor spell. 
 This is over, thank God. I return proofs 
 and copy for 'Woodstock' — I hope 
 they will not smack of the apoplexy — I 
 am going to take the hill in spite of the 
 
 snow." 
 
 There are dozens of such letters, with 
 Gibson's replies, and Scott's own mem- 
 oranda of business matters. They were 
 handed down to Gibson's daughter, 
 and now will leave San Francisco to 
 take their place in Hugh Walpole's li- 
 brary of Scott — linking the author who 
 wrote ** Fortitude" with the author who 
 showed it. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS