Description:

Disraeli Benjamin

Young Benjamin Disraeli ALS Asking for Travel Money from Scottish Publishers

 

3pp ALS with integral address leaf inscribed overall and signed by a young Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) as "B. Disraeli" at center of third page. Written in Chiefswood, Melrose, Scotland on September 27, 1825. Watermarked cream bifold paper in very good to near fine condition, with expected paper folds and a small open tear from seal. Bearing several stamped philatelic markings, and docketed by Oliver & Boyd offices at top of address leaf. Each page measures 4.375" x 7.25".

 

20-year-old Benjamin Disraeli wrote this letter to George Boyd (died 1843), a partner of the Edinburgh-based publishing house Oliver & Boyd, in the fall of 1825. At this time, Disraeli was an aspiring writer who had heavily invested in a failing newspaper venture and a South American mining investment bubble. After both investments failed, Disraeli was left penniless. Here, Disraeli begged for 20£ to get him to the Scottish capital.

 

With original spelling.

 

"Chiefswood - Melrose

 

Tuesday -

 

Dear Sir,

 

I have just received a parcel from you - From the contents of my letters I shall most probably - return in a few days to England - I shall feel extremely obliged by your sending to me twenty pounds, as I fear I shall not be able again to reach Edinburg.

 

Mr. Murray desires me to remember him to you + to say that the Quarterly will be published next Saturday, + that he has many important - works in the press -

 

I regret exceedingly that it is not in my power personally to acknowledge your attention + -

 

I am, dear Sir,

Truly yours,

B. Disraeli."

 

Disraeli had been sent to northeastern Scotland to persuade Scottish writer John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) to serve as editor of The Representative, the Conservative daily newspaper that Disraeli had invested in. We know from Benjamin Disraeli's published letters that his visit with Lockhart did not go well. Disraeli's business associate and co-investor John Murray II (1778-1843), irritated that Disraeli had failed, later cut him out of Representative business arrangements. Murray did publish The Representative during the first half of 1826, but it tanked in six months. Its investors were ruined.

 

The publishing firm of Oliver & Boyd was established around 1807 by partners Thomas Oliver (1776-1853) and George Boyd. The firm, whose offices were located in Tweeddale Court on High Street, Edinburgh, published  juvenile books, songbooks, histories, and medical and academic textbooks. After 1836, the firm began large-scale printing, bookbinding, and publishing operations at the same site. The company closed in 1990.

 

John Murray II had continued his father's successful Scottish publishing concern; he later published the work of Lord Byron. Disraeli satirized his erstwhile business partner in his novel Vivian Grey (1826). Murray's London-based Quarterly Review, also mentioned in this letter, stopped publishing in 1967.

 

It took Disraeli 24 years to pay off the debts incurred through his disastrous investments. Eventually Disraeli enjoyed great success as British Prime Minister.

 

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