Apr 27, 2017 - Sale 2444

Sale 2444 - Lot 261

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(PUBLISHING.) Scribner, Charles. Small archive of family correspondence of the young publisher. 6 Autograph Letters Signed to his brother-in-law George Washington Schuyler of Ithaca, NY, plus 6 Autograph Letters Signed from brother Walter Scribner to Charles, 3 leaves of pencil financial calculations (apparently by Schuyler), and 2 envelopes addressed to Schuyler; folds, minor wear. Vp, December 1857 to February 1858
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Additional Details

Charles Scribner I (1821-1871) was the founder of the publishing house that still bears his name. The main subject of these letters was Charles's brother Walter Scribner (1827-1873), a dry-goods merchant in Rock Island, IL caught up in the panic of 1857. Charles was seeking the advice of his brother-in-law George Washington Schuyler (1810-1888), a lawyer in Ithaca, NY, on how best to rescue Walter's rapidly failing business.
The letters make passing reference to the Scribner publishing house, then only eleven years old and growing. In 1857, Scribner was launching a side partnership of Scribner & Welford to handle imported books. In his 25 December 1857 letter, he states that "it will be impossible for me to go [to Rock Island], for I am in the midst of the English business arrangements." Provenance: found among the papers of George Washington Schuyler and his daughter (see lots 11, 88, and 260).