^ R 5334 H6 :opy 1 jfortttutie 1826-1920 T " '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. 8 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS