com. Notes by the transcriber,
including identification of historical characters and translations of
foreign expressions, follow the paragraphs to which they refer, and
are enclosed in {curly brackets}. The spelling of the original has
been reproduced as printed, with unusual spellings identified by
{sic}. Because of the limitations of the the Gutenberg format, italics
and accents (used by the author for some foreign words, and in a few
quotations) have been ignored. A few missing periods and quotation
marks have been silently inserted.
{A brief introduction to "The Lumley Autograph.":
{"The Lumley Autograph" was inspired, as Susan's introductory note
states, by the constant stream of letters received by her father,
asking in often importunate terms for his autograph or for pages
from his manuscripts, and even requesting that he supply autographs
of other famous men who might have written to him. He generally
complied with these requests courteously and to the best of his
ability; after his death in 1851, Susan continued to do so, as well as
selling fragments of his manuscripts to raise money for charity during
the Civil War.
{"The Lumley Autograph" is of interest today primarily because it is a
good story. Its broad satire about the autograph collecting mania of
the mid-nineteenth century is deftly combined with the more serious
irony of a poet's frantic appeal for help becoming an expensive
plaything of the rich, while the poet himself has died of want.
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