Lot 11
Arthur Chester 1829 - 1886 In a rare ALS as President, Chester Arthur apologizes to a wealthy and eccentric New York widow for not writing sooner, "having been out sailing & driving all the afternoon..."
Autograph Letter Signed, "Chester A Arthur," as President, 2 pages, 4.5"x 6.75" , [Newport], "Friday Evening," September 21, [1883?] to "Mrs Paran Stevens." Expertly laid into a larger sheet, a few contemporary ink smudges, else fine.
Arthur, summering at Newport, responds to a dinner invitation from Mrs. Paran Stevens, a noted New York socialite: "It will give me much pleasure to dine with you tomorrow evening, at 8 o'clock[.] I did not get your note until late this evening _Ü_ having been out sailing & driving all the afternoon; _Üî or I would have sent you an earlier answer."
Arthur had been sailing that afternoon with Cornelius Vanderbilt aboard his yacht, TheTidal Wave. The next day, after enjoying a luncheon hosted by Vanderbilt (with Mrs. Paran Stevens in attendance), he took dinner with Mrs. Stevens, but not before spending the afternoon with Washington Robeling and his wife. (Truth, New York, September 22, 1883, 2; St. Albans Daily Messenger, Vermont, September 21, 1883, 1)
The recipient, Henrietta (nee Reed) Stevens (d. 1895), was the widow of Paran Stevens (d. 1872), a successful cotton manufacturer who switched to the hotel business in the 1860s. He was best remembered for the hugely successful Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, as well as the spectacular failure of the Victoria Hotel. Formerly New England shop girl, she was extremely prominent in New York social circles and well-known for her eccentricities, and was often politely ridiculed in the press for her "pretensions."
From the library of John Augustin Daly (1838-1899). Daly, one of the most important figures in nineteenth-century American theater, worked as a critic, manager, playwright and stage director. At the time of his death, he owned two major theaters, one in New York and the other in London. Daly is considered personally responsible for the careers of such acting greats as John Drew Jr. Maurice Barrymore, Fanny Davenport, Maude Adams, Sara Jewett, Isadora Duncan, Tyrone Power, Sr. and many others.
Daly was also an avid book lover and collector, amassing an enormous library of books and original manuscripts. That collection was dispersed in an epic, two-week auction at the American Art Association in New York in March 1900. The present letter was part of an extra-illustrated volume, described in the catalog as a "Unique copy, with autograph letters of all the Presidents inserted..." Walter Benjamin, writing in The Collector, described the sale as a "blaze of glory, due to the total having reached nearly $200,000." Benjamin attributed the sale's incredible success to "a small bookseller on 42d street, who appeared at the sale with apparently unlimited cash, and was soon the master of the situation." That "small bookseller," was George D. Smith (d. 1920), who, up until that time, had been an obscure and unsuccessful book dealer who began his career in 1883 with Dodd & Mead. Smith would dominate the market for the next two decades, working as an agent for some of the wealthiest collectors in the country_Üîmost notably Henry E. Huntington, for whom Smith purchased a portion of the Duke of Devonshire Library in 1914 for $1.5 million (American Art Association, Catalogue of the Valuable Literary and Art Property Gathered by the Late Augustin Daly, New York, 1900; The Collector, New York, May 1900, 1-2; Publisher's Weekly, March 13, 1920, 801; Ibid, March 21, 1914, 1008; "Geo. D. Smith Dies in HIs Book Store, New York Times, March 5, 1928, 13).
The extra-illustrated volume of presidents from which this piece derives fetched $850, nearly four times above the going rate for presidential sets at the time. According to Walter Benjamin, Smith quickly resold the volume for $1,000. The collection did not surface again until it appeared in a minor auction in early 2016. (The Collector, New York, May 1900, 1-2)
Provenance: John Augustin Daly; American Art Association, New York, March 19, 1900, Lot 3122; George D. Smith, New York.
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