ELGAR: Electronic Gateway to Archives at Rylands

Letter(4 Sep 1880)

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from John Morley, Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838-1923), politician and writer, whom Gissing met through Frederick Harrison in 1880. The letter relates to an article on social democracy that Gissing submitted to the Pall Mall Gazette, when under Morley's editorship, 1880-1883 (see Pierre Coustillas, London and the life of literature in late Victorian England: the diary of George Gissing (Lewisburg, USA: Bucknell University Press, 1978), p. 282).

Morley writes: "I shall be glad to use your Notes on Social Democracy. 1. I w[oul]d suggest that you sh[oul]d insert in the early portion a good paragraph giving us a concrete graphic picture of a meeting of one of the London clubs: tobacco, style of speech &c. 2. After enumerating the article of the Socialist programme it might be worth while to add a line or two pointing out how near we approach to socialism in Engl[an]d with our Poor Rates, our vast system of factory legisl[ation], compulsory education, &c. You might add these when the proof reaches you. Have you thought of anything else. I much like the calm style of these notes."

Dated at the Pall Mall Gazette Office.

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume one, 1863-1880 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), p. 298.

Letter(26 Nov 1892)

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from Edmund Gosse (1849-1928), writer. Gosse wrote occasional articles on Gissing's works and helped H.G. Wells to secure a pension on the Civil List for Gissing's sons (see Pierre Coustillas, London and the life of literature in late Victorian England: the diary of George Gissing (Lewisburg, USA: Bucknell University Press, 1978), p. 557).

Gosse writes: "I greatly value the letter which you have had the kindness to send me. It confirms in the most authoritative manner an impression which I had formed more by intuition than experience. May I venture to say with how much interest and sympathy I follow your career and read your powerful and mournful studies of life? With sincere thanks for your valued letter."

Dated at 29 Delamere Terrace, Westbourne Square, [London] W.

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume one, 1863-1880 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), p. 74.

Letter(15 Oct 1894)

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from John Davidson (1857-1909), writer and poet, whom Gissing met for the first time in 1893 (see Pierre Coustillas, London and the life of literature in late Victorian England: the diary of George Gissing (Lewisburg, USA: Bucknell University Press, 1978), p. 311). Gissing also notes the receipt of this letter in his Diary on 16 October 1894, p. 351.

Davidson writes: "No, there is no news but the old news - work and drudgery and more drudgery than work, and not enough of either: days wasted in moping - half-hours snatched by the hair of the head out of gulfs of ennui and hypochondria. I have, however buckled to write a 50,000 word story by the end of November, and have fastened myself down with beeswax."

Dated at 20 Park Ridings, Hornsey, [London] N.

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume five, 1892-1895 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), pp. 244-5.

Letter( 10 Nov 1895)

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from Frederic Harrison (1831-1923), positivist and author, who engaged Gissing as a tutor to his two elder sons in 1880. He writes: "I have watched your growing success and reputation - which, if it has not proved very lucrative, is solid and increasing. You are undoubtedly reckoned in the first line of the higher order of living romancers, & I do not doubt that your fuller recognition is to come. If you have had, as you say, a struggle, it is because you have resisted the temptation to fall back, even partly, on journalism - the only form in which literature can bring in money... The little helping hand that I ever could give you, was not at all the equivalent of your long and invaluable training to my sons. They will never forget you, but look back on your teaching with gratitude."

Harrison goes on to describe the progress of his two elder sons and some family news in general. Gissing noted the receipt of this 'long' letter from Harrison in his diary entry for 11 November (see Pierre Coustillas, London and the life of literature in late Victorian England: the diary of George Gissing (Lewisburg, USA: Bucknell University Press, 1978), p. 393).

Dated at 38 Westbourne Terrace, [London].

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume six, 1895-1897 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), pp. 50-3.

Letter(21 Nov 1896)

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937), playwright and novelist. Barrie writes: "I wish you w[oul]d read, if you have not, 'Nancy Noon' by a new man Benjamin Swift (so called) pub[lished] by Fisher Unwin, a torrent of the Meredithian, very mad but it seems to me with something of the wonderful about it. What I wish much more is that you w[oul]d come here sometime anytime you are so much wanted that the door will fly open to your step, and if you don't there seems no chance of our meeting above once in a decade."

Dated at 133 Gloucester Road, [London] S.W.

Gissing first met J.M. Barrie in June of 1896. He notes in his diary: "I had imagined Barrie rather tall, rather elegant; I found a small, slouching, boyish fellow, carelessly dressed" (see Pierre Coustillas, London and the life of literature in late Victorian England: the diary of George Gissing (Lewisburg, USA: Bucknell University Press, 1978), p. 413).

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume six, 1895-1897 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), pp. 195-6.

Letter(n.d. [18 Jul 1887])

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from Ann Ritchie (née Thackeray) (1837-1919), writer and elder daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray. She writes: "If ever you would be kind eno[ugh] to come & see us it would be a great pleasure to us to make your personal acquaintance besides that spiritual meeting - & may I say friendly sympathy w[hich] we have so much enjoyed."

Dated at Southmead, Wimbledon Park.

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume three, 1886-1888 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), p. 136.

Letter(n.d. [25 Nov 1896])

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), novelist. Wells writes: "If Mr. George Gissing can tear himself away from the pleasant Epsom house at any time he will find a fervent admirer in a charming house (a little defective as to the roof & water pipes) & picturesque (if insanitary) surroundings at Worcester Park... he [Gissing] will be fed & given drink, tea, lemonade, or alcoholic fluids as he may prefer, & he will be conversed with in a genial but respectful tone. But as Mr. H.G. Wells rarely washes and is commonly unshaven and dirty about the cuffs, it will be refined behaviour on the part of Mr. Geo. Gissing if he abstains from any aggressive neatness of costume. (There is some accommodation for bicycles)."

There is a signed note in Gissing's hand: "The first letter I received from H.G. Wells." Gissing notes the receipt of this letter in his diary on 26 November 1896 (Coustillas, 'Diary', p. 428): "An odd letter from H.G. Wells asking me to go and see him in Worcester Park. He seems the right kind of man. Replied that I would go presently." On the front of the letter is attached a fragment of a newspaper clipping to which some of Wells' comments appear to refer, includes a small pen sketch by Wells depicting gate posts and a pathway.

Dated at Heatherlea, Worcester Park, Surrey.

Gissing first met H.G. Wells on 20 November 1896 at the Omar Khayyàm Club dinner at Frascati's, Oxford Street, a meeting which Gissing records in his diary (see Pierre Coustillas, London and the life of literature in late Victorian England: the diary of George Gissing (Lewisburg, USA: Bucknell University Press, 1978), p. 427): "Wells amused me by rushing up, after dinner, introducing himself hurriedly, (only a minute as he must go,) and telling me that, when he first read New Grub Street, he himself was living in Mornington Road, poor and ill and with a wife named Amy! Queer coincidence."

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume six, 1895-1897 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), pp. 197-8.

Letter(n.d. [c.7 May 1900])

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from H.G. Wells. Wells writes: "The good Davary writes vociferously. If I and my brother stop elsewhere than in a bedroom he boasts, he ceases to translate me. So that matter is at an end. I do hope that you will be able to meet him. We will appoint some suitable restaurant & there I insist I must play the host... It was pleasant to us you coming here. I do hope it may be the first of many interruptions."

Dated at Arnold House, Sandgate, Kent.

In his diary of 1 May 1900 (Coustillas, 'Diary', p. 524) Gissing records having spent a couple of days at Sandgate with Wells.

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume eight, 1900-1902 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), p. 43.

Letter(n.d. [25 November 1903])

Scope and Content

Letter to George Gissing from Henry Butler Clarke (1863-1904), historian of Spain, who had resided also at St Jean Pied-de-Port. He writes: "What of you? Does St. Jean Pied-de-Port continue to suit you? Is there any chance of seeing you nearer here? There is now a nice little house to let in the village; the smaller of the doctor's houses. I think Mrs Gissing knows it."

Dated at Sare, [France].

Bibliography

Published in P.F. Mattheisen, et al., The collected letters of George Gissing, volume nine, 1902-1903 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990), p. 163..