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Up for sale is a fine two-page autograph letter signed (ALS) by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) — physician, poet, essayist, and one of America’s famed Fireside Poets. Dated Boston, October 2, 1876, this is a richly personal and literary letter referencing The Atlantic Monthly, the magazine Holmes co-founded.
> Boston, Oct. 2d 1876
My dear Sir,
I am very sorry that I can not be a guest at the dinner of the Fish Cultivists Association to which they have politely invited me.
To cheer me about under my disappointment I have just read your story in the Atlantic, in which I found myself greatly interested. Let me thank you for the compliment you have paid me by your quotations and the comment on it in your notice and for the very pleasant half hour I have been spending over your story.
Very truly yours,
O. W. Holmes
Highlights & Significance:
Literary content ALS: Holmes praises a story in The Atlantic Monthly, the influential journal he helped establish in 1857 and to which he contributed extensively.
References both his social life in Boston (declining a dinner invitation) and his engagement with contemporary literature.
Signed clearly at the close, “O. W. Holmes.”
Letters in which Holmes discusses The Atlantic and literature are scarcer and highly desirable compared to routine social notes.
Condition:
Two pages, clean and bright overall with light age spots and toning typical of the period. Bold, legible ink. Original folds present.
Provenance:
From a private estate, offered publicly here for the first time in over 70 years.
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A wonderful piece of American literary history, connecting Holmes directly to The Atlantic Monthly and his literary contemporaries during the centennial year of the United States.
