Holmes' Works (Spine Title, 10 volumes, with a charming contemporary holograph letter and illustrated card laid in). Including The Autocrat, Professor, Poet at the Breakfast Table; Medical Essays; One Hundred Days in Europe; Moral Antipathy; Poems; Essays by HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL - 1889

Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Good. 1889. Hardcover. 8vo; half brown polished calf and marbled paper over boards; spines lettered & decorated in gilt; Autocrat & Poetical Works with engraved portrait frontis; Poet at the Breakfast Table, with engraved frontis; Poet title and text has Professor on spine, thus Professor has Poet on spine - bound to confuse!? Mortal Antipathy dated 1887; Poetical Works, no date. So a mixed up grouping in uniform bindings, with rubbing at spine ends and edges; top of two spines repaired. Margin mark in pencil p. 176 Solid reading set overall. The volume, One Hundred Days in Europe, has a letter and card laid in. The holograph letter, dateline Elmhurst (Illinois)July 21st, 1896, from Geo. M. Higginson, to a Mrs. King: "Will you please thank your husband for the loan of the book by Holmes of his Tour in Europe, which I have read with much pleasure & now return promptly, that no unpleasant misgiving may weigh on his mind as the result of any delay.Noticing that a mark had been placed at p. 176, I beg leave to replace it by a little effort of my own and made the attempt to embellish it by a little off hand pen & ink sketch. I have also ventured to send a slightly altered quotation from Shakespeare, and a copy of verse of Moore's on the reverse side which I have always admired." The drawing and quotes are actually executed on a 3 1/4" x 1 1/4 card in a minuscule hand, and signed G.M.H. The folded, lined sheet has a half-inch split at top fold line and a two inch split at bottom fold line. A cursory search online shows a George M. Higginson of Elmhurst as a prominent figure in the northwest lumber industry, real estate, and as a member of the Chicago Historical Society, 1869-1897. The letter certainly echoes some of the manners of a bygone era.; Signed by Author(s) .