May 23, 2013 - Sale 2316

Sale 2316 - Lot 210

Price Realized: $ 6,480
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
"MY ONLY REPLY . . . MUST BE AN EARNEST STRIVING TO DO BETTER" BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT. Autograph Letter Signed, "Elizabeth Barrett Barrett," to "My dear Mrs. Howitt," declining to contribute to a journal. 2 pages, 12mo, with integral blank; horizontal folds. "50 Wimpole Street," 1 May [1838-46]
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"It is painful to me, and sounds in the ears of my heart almost like an ingratitude, to have to answer 'No' to the just request you did me the honour of making to me. . . . I find it is impossible at present to contribute to your journal . . . .
". . . I have . . . appreciated thankfully Mr. Fox's[?] notice of my poetry. My only reply to his kindness and yours on the same subject, must be an earnest striving to do better, that good work may justify friendly ends. It would be as ungrateful as unworthy, I think, if I were to lie down at noonday, because the sun shines a little. . . ."