Manuscripts

James Smith poem: Dr Gall

Description: Fair copy made by Amelia Opie of the poem by Smith, "Doctor Gall;" with slight differences in wording from published poem.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: approximately 1811
Call number: mssOpie
Creator: Opie, Amelia (1769-1853)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased for the Huntington from Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd by the Library Collectors' Council, March 2021. Amelia Opie bequeathed her manuscripts to her friend Thomas Brightwell. The material later came into the possession of Ethel I. Carr, who was related to Amelia Opie via the Briggs family; Eliza Alderson Briggs and her husband, Henry Perronet Briggs were cousins of Opie. It was through their daughter Eliza, who had married the Rev. J. H. Carr, that the papers came into the Carr family, and thus to Ethel I. Carr. Upon Ethel's death in 1953, the material passed to her nephew who put them up for sale at Sotheby's.

James Smith, 1775-1839, letter to Amelia Opie, Norwich

Manuscripts

A collection of manuscripts and correspondence by Amelia Alderson Opie; with related family material which includes manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera. The Opie material includes two corrected manuscript travel journals, poems, and songs; the correspondence includes letters to various family members. There is also a poem, "To Mrs. Opie," by Sir Edward Denny (1796-1889), the hymnist, and one letter to Opie by James Smith (1775-1839), the writer and humorist. The manuscripts and letters are written by Opie unless otherwise noted. The family-related manuscript material includes fair copies of poems, prose pieces, and excerpts from Jane Austen. The correspondence includes letters from, among others, Elizabeth Alderson Briggs, Henry Perronet Briggs, Hilda Mary Carr, and James Haslewood Carr; many of the letters are addressed to Catharina M. Briggs. Some of these letters date from when Amelia Opie was alive, and a few make brief mention of her, but many of these letters date from after her death. The collection also contains the will of Samuel Dickens (1774) and one folder of ephemera.

mssOpie

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