DODGSON CHARLES LUTWIDGE: (1832-1898) Lewis Carroll. English author, poet and mathematician whose works include ...

DODGSON CHARLES LUTWIDGE: (1832-1898) Lewis Carroll. English author, poet and mathematician whose works include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). A very fine, rare manuscript poem, unsigned, one page, oblong 8vo, n.p., 18th February 1884. The poem, penned in Dodgson's characteristic violet ink, is dedicated 'To a young Lady, of whom I was in doubt whether she expected to be called ''Miss so-and-so'' or ''So-and-so'' without the ''Miss''' at the head, with the two quatrains beneath, reading, in full - 'Take not amiss this missile dread: Nor maim my mystic hope, Miscalling me a much misled Mistaken misanthrope! My missive's meant to murmur this, With mute mysterious touch:- If I should merely miss the 'Miss', Would you, Miss, miss it much?' Autograph poems by Dodgson are extremely rare and desirable, and the present example (marked '[Copy]' alongside the reference number 46309, both in the writer's hand, and therefore presumably his own retained manuscript) is particularly inventive and humorous and with an interesting association, having been composed for [Miss] Elizabeth Hussey. A couple of very light, extremely minor creases, VG Elizabeth 'Bessie' Ley Hussey (1852-1919) was the daughter of Robert Hussey (1803-1856) and his wife Elizabeth née Ley (1810-1896). Robert Hussey was the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, where the family lived until moving to Brighton following Robert's death. When Dodgson arrived in Oxford as an undergraduate at Christ Church in 1851 he took rooms with Jacob Ley, Elizabeth Hussey's brother. Dodgson is known to have photographed members of the Hussey family, including the young Elizabeth and her mother on 26th April 1864, some twenty years prior to writing the present verse. The present poem originally came to light in July 2014 at which time it was noted as being both 'unrecorded and unpublished', and it has not appeared on the market since being acquired by the present vendor almost a decade ago.