ELIOT, GEORGE (pseudonym of Mary Anne Evans Lewes)
Autograph letter signed. The Priory, Regents Park: 22 December 1877. A 2 1/2 page autograph letter on a bifolium in Eliot's characteristic purple ink, signed "M.E. Lewes," the letter to [Joseph] Langford. 6 x 4 inches (15 x 9 cm). Minor dust soiling.

"It would be very pretty if there were some blessing in store for [Emma] in the disguise of a 'Mr Harris.' Let us help to make good romances of the practical kind if we can." George Eliot, upon receipt of a letter from John Blackwood expressing romantic interest in Emma Gwyther (daughter of Reverend John Gwyther, model for Amos Barton in Scenes of Clerical Life), inquires of Joseph Langford, London manager of her Edinburgh-based publishers Blackwood & Sons, to seek out Gwyther's family in his local directory. Eliot also mentions a new "handsome & handy" edition of Romola and sends her atheistic version of a Christmas greeting: "I hope you are in good condition for enjoying the reputed pleasures of 'the season.'"

The letter is published in volume six of the Letters, p. 435, and was sold Phillips, London, 13 June 1996, lot 239.