(19) [Letters to Mary Borrow: 1913]
Letters / To his Wife / Mary Borrow / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.
Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. 38; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse), pp. 3–4; and Text of the Letters pp. 5–38. The head-line is Letters to His Wife throughout, upon both sides of the page. Following p. 38 is a leaf, with blank reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A (a half sheet of 4 leaves), plus B and C (2 sheets, each 8 leaves), inset within each other.
Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front. The leaves measure 7½ × 5 inches.
Thirty Copies only were printed.
Holograph Letters by Borrow are extremely uncommon, the number known to be extant being far less than one might have supposed would be the case, considering the good age to which Borrow attained. His correspondents were few, and, save to the officials of the Bible Society, he was not a diligent letter-writer. The holographs of this series of letters addressed to his wife are in my own collection of Borroviana.
The majority of the letters included in this volume were reprinted
in George Borrow and his Circle. By Clement King Shorter, 8vo, 1913.
There is a copy of Letters to his Wife, Mary Borrow, in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 32.