WCP1432

Letter (WCP1432.4230)

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

August 21st 1904

Sydney C. Cockerell Esq[uire]

Dear Mr. Cockerell,

Pray do not think there is the least necessity for haste in getting me the further information you have so kindly promised to obtain for me. Pray let it lie by till you are quite free of your own business engagements.

I have really no use for any more information as to my family till, with your assistance, later on, I can have all that is available. It will come in my first chapter, which is [2] written & put by till I can complete it, and I am now at work on the early years of my manhood, before I went abroad. I do not think I can finish the book for another 6 months at least — perhaps not for another year, as I have so much correspondence, & housework in the Garden & house, & so many interruptions from callers of all sorts.

I mention all this to show you that I really mean it, when I say there is no hurry, & that I had rather you did nothing more till you feel [2] you have ample leisure to pay a visit to Somerset House say once a week, till we come to a stop for abit want of the necessary preliminary information.

Many thanks for Tolstoy's latest, which I shall read with intense interest.

I am just now reading Robert Owen's "Autobiography". What a marvellous man he was! A most clear-seeing Socialist and Educator ages before his time, as well as one of the most wonderful organisers the world has seen. Both this and his son’s — R. Dale Owen’s — [3] "Threading my way" are intensely interesting. One only regrets that neither were completed.

Believe me | Yours very truly | Alfred. R. Wallace [signature]

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP1432.4230)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Bevan, Deniz [2013-06-04]

Transcription (WCP1432.1211)

[1]1

Broadstone, Wimborne.2

August 21st 1904.

3

Pray do not think there is the least necessity for haste in getting me the further information you have so kindly promised to obtain for me. I have really no use for any more information as to my family till, with your assistance, later on, I can have all that is available. It will come in my first chapter, which is written and put by till I can complete it, and I am now at work on the early years of my manhood, before I went abroad. I do not think I can finish the book for another 6 months at least — perhaps not for another year,4 as I have so much correspodence, and home work in the garden and house,5 and so many interruptions from callers of all sorts.

I mention all this to show you that I really mean it, when I say there is no hurry, and that I had rather you did nothing more till you feel you have ample leisure to pay a visit to Somerset House6say once a week, till we come to a stop for want of the necessary preliminary information.

Many thanks for Tolstoy's latest,7 which I shall read with intense interest.

I am just now reading Robert Owen's "Autobiography".8 What a marvellous man he was! A most clear-seeing Socialist and educator ages before his time, as well as one of the most wonderful organisers the world has seen. Both this, and his [2] son's, R.Dale Owen's, 'Threading my Way'9 are intensely interesting. One only regrets that neither was completed.

1
Typewritten text across the top of the page reads "Copy letter from A. R. Wallace to S. C. Cockerell." Cockerell, Sir Sydney Carlyle (1867-1962). Museum director and book collector. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2
Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. Wallace lived here from 1902 until his death in 1913. The Alfred Russel Wallace Page http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/index1.htm [accessed 29 May 2019]
3
There is no salutation recorded in the letter, written to Sydney Carlyle Cockerell.
4
Wallace was collecting material for his autobiography which was published in October 1905. Wallace, A. R. 1905. My Life; A Record of Events and Opinions. 2 Vols. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd. http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/bib4.htm [accessed 29 May 2018]
5
At Christmas in 1902 Wallace and his wife Annie had moved into the Old Orchard, where there was a lot of work to do "especially in the garden which has been for a year a wilderness of clay heaps & builder's rubbish". Raby, Peter. 2002. Alfred Russel Wallace, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. [pp.269-70]
6

The General Register Office where birth, marriage and death certificates were stored, was located in Somerset House, Strand, London, from 1836 to 1970. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/history [accessed 29 May 2018].

Cockerell had been looking at the wills of Wallace's grandfather and other relatives (see WCP1431_4227) which would have been kept in Somerset House.

7
Tolstoy, Count Lev Nikolayevich ("Leo") (1828-1910). Russian writer. Wallace may be referring to Tolstoy's philosophical work Thoughts of Wise Men, first published in 1904.
8

Owen, Robert (1771-1858). Socialist and philanthropist. ODNB.

Owen, Robert. 1857-58. The Life of Robert Owen by Himself. 2 Vols. London: Effingham Wilson. https://books.google.co.uk/books?

id=VyQ6AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false [accessed 29 May 2018]

9

Owen, Robert Dale (1801-1877). Social reformer and emancipationist. ODNB.

Owen, Robert Dale. 1874. Threading My Way. New York: G.W. Carleton & Co. https://archive.org/details/threadingmywayt01owengoog [accessed 29 May 2018]

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Transcription (WCP1432.1211)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2018-08-15]

Transcription (WCP1432.4229)

[1]1

Broadstone,

Wimborne.2

August 21st 1904

Dear Mr. Cockerell,

Many thanks for Tolstoy's latest,3 which I shall read with intense interest. I am just now reading Robert Owen's "Autobiography".4 What a marvellous man he was! A most clear-seeing Socialist and educator ages before his time, as well as one of the most wonderful organisers the world has seen. Both this and his son's, — R. Dale Owen's, — "Threading my Way"5 are intensely interesting. One only regrets that neither was completed.

Believe me | Yours very truly | signed Alfred R. Wallace

1
The text "COPY" is typed in the middle of the top of the page.
2
Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. Wallace lived here from 1902 until his death in 1913. The Alfred Russel Wallace Page http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/index1.htm
3
Tolstoy, Count Lev Nikolayevich ("Leo") (1828-1910). Russian writer. Wallace may be referring to Tolstoy's philosophical work Thoughts of Wise Men, first published in 1904.
4

Owen, Robert (1771-1858). Socialist and philanthropist. ODNB.

Owen, Robert. 1857-58. The Life of Robert Owen by Himself. 2 Vols. London: Effingham Wilson. https://books.google.co.uk/books?

id=VyQ6AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false [accessed 29 May 2018]

5

Owen, Robert Dale (1801-1877). Social reformer and emancipationist. ODNB.

Owen, Robert Dale. 1874. Threading My Way. New York: G.W. Carleton & Co. https://archive.org/details/threadingmywayt01owengoog [accessed 29 May 2018]

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Transcription (WCP1432.4229)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2018-08-15]

Transcription (WCP1432.4231)

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne1

August 21st 1904.

2

Pray do not think there is the least necessity for haste in getting me the further information you have so kindly promised to obtain for me. I have really no use for any more information as to my family till, with your assistance, later on, I can have all that is available. It will come in my first chapter, which is written and put by till I can complete it, and I am now at work on the early years of my manhood, before I went abroad. I do not think I can finish the book for another 6 months at least — perhaps not for another year,3 as I have so much correspodence, and home work in the garden and house,4 and so many interruptions from callers of all sorts.

I mention all this to show you that I really mean it, when I say there is no hurry, and that [2] Aug 21 1904 contd

I had rather you did nothing more till you feel you have ample leisure to pay a visit to Somerset House5say once a week, till we come to a stop for want of the necessary preliminary information[.]

Many thanks for Tolstoy's latest,6 which I shall read with intense interest.

I am just now reading Robert Owen's 'Autobiography'.7 What a marvellous man he was! A most clear-seeing Socialist and educator ages before his time, as well as one of the most wonderful organisers the world has seen. Both this, and his son's, R. Dale Owen's, 'Threading my Way'8 are intensely interesting. One only regrets that neither was completed.

1
Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. Wallace lived here from 1902 until his death in 1913. The Alfred Russel Wallace Page http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/index1.htm
2

There is no salutation to the letter, but it was written to Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, as recorded on another, typed, transcription. See WCP1432_L1211.

Cockerell, Sir Sydney Carlyle (1867-1962). Museum director and book collector. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

3
Wallace was collecting material for his autobiography which was published in October 1905. Wallace, A. R. 1905. My Life; A Record of Events and Opinions. 2 Vols. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd. http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/bib4.htm [accessed 29 May 2018]
4
At Christmas 1902 Wallace and his wife Annie had moved into the Old Orchard, where there was a lot of work to do "especially in the garden which has been for a year a wilderness of clay heaps & builder's rubbish". Raby, Peter. 2002. Alfred Russel Wallace, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. [pp.269-70]
5

The General Register Office where birth, marriage and death certificates were stored, was located in Somerset House, Strand, London, from 1836 to 1970. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/history [accessed 29 May 2018].

Cockerell had been looking at the wills of Wallace's grandfather and other relatives (WCP1431_L4227) which would have been kept in Somerset House.

6
Tolstoy, Count Lev Nikolayevich ("Leo") (1828-1910). Russian writer. Wallace may be referring to Tolstoy's philosophical work Thoughts of Wise Men, first published in 1904.
7

Owen, Robert (1771-1858). Socialist and philanthropist. ODNB.

Owen, Robert. 1857-58. The Life of Robert Owen by Himself. 2 Vols. London: Effingham Wilson. https://books.google.co.uk/books?

id=VyQ6AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false [accessed 29 May 2018]

8

Owen, Robert Dale (1801-1877). Social reformer and emancipationist. ODNB.

Owen, Robert Dale. 1874. Threading My Way. New York: G.W. Carleton & Co. https://archive.org/details/threadingmywayt01owengoog [accessed 29 May 2018]

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Transcription (WCP1432.4231)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2018-08-15]

Published letter (WCP1432.5476)

[1]1[p. 210]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Aug. 21st, 1904

Dear Mr. Cockerell,

Many thanks for Tolstoy's latest, which I shall read with intense interest. I am just now reading Robert Owen's Autobiography. What a marvellous man he was! A most clear-seeing Socialist and educator ages before his time, as well as one of the most wonderful organisers the world has seen. Both this, and his son's—R. Dale Owen's—Threading my Way are intensely interesting. One only regrets that neither was completed.

Believe me

Yours very truly

Alfred R. Wallace

1
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: First of four letters from the period 1904-1906, printed in Cockerell's Friends of a Lifetime; Letters to Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, edited by Viola Meynell and published in 1940.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP1432.5476)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Smith, Charles Hyde [2013-02-06] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-02-08]

Please cite as “WCP1432,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1432