Richard Francis Burton
British explorer, 1821-1890
Burton was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. Burton's best-known achievements include a well-documented journey to Mecca, in disguise at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.
Source: Wikipedia
English explorer and diplomat (1821-1890). Autograph letter signed ("R. F. Burton"). Trieste, Consulate. 16.10.1876. 3 pp. Small 8vo.
$ 6,283 / 6.000 €
(33837/BN29406)
To the publisher and author George Bentley (1828-95), complaining that his "letter has certainly miscarried. I accept the conditions provided we print at once [...]". He asks for an "agreement to settle at the end of six months or a year and to allow me a dozen copies for friends. Could we manage to print without destroying the two old volumes. Of course you can take them to pieces and I will have them rebound when you have done with them [...]". He continues, "For corrections a single revise will suffice.
Kindly let me have proofs in duplicate accompanied by the manuscript - which saves time [...]." He asks his opinion on illustration, and repeats that he has sketches and photographs suggesting that "perhaps the best way would be to prefix one to each volume, say Sir Charles Napier to vol. I and the photo of a Sindi girl to vol. 2 [...]". He offers to send them off at once if it suits..
English explorer and diplomat (1821-1890). Autograph letter signed ("R. F. Burton" and in Arabic). [London]. 15.10.1885. 16mo. 4 pp. on bifolium with United Services Club embossed letterhead. In custom quarter morocco folder.
$ 26,180 / 25.000 €
(62343/BN45559)
To Colonel Montgomery, referencing the success of the "Arabian Nights": "[...] To my great astonishment The Nights has hit the public taste: it has of later years been so stuffed with goody-goody, namby-pamby Maria-Matilda that it wants 'strong meat' and by Jove it has got it. We had the pleasure of seeing my good friend Thayer here and I (unhappily) forgot to put his name down for the Athenaeum Club - London without a club is like a park without games. We are both living well under influence of beef and port (wine) and shudder at the lean flesh pots of Trieste (veal) [...]".
- Burton published his famous translation of the "Arabian Nights" ("The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night") in a private printing for the Kama Shashtra Society in 1885. The private publication, by subscription only, was necessary to avoid Victorian obscenity strictures. - Reinforcement at fold, a little smudging to signatures..
English explorer and diplomat (1821-1890). Autograph letter signed ("R. F. Burton"). Trieste. Small 8vo. 3½ pp. on bifolium. On his blue notepaper with his Arabic "Hadji Abdullah" heading, marked "Private".
$ 2,932 / 2.800 €
(76285/BN49016)
To "My dear Green", congratulating his correspondent on a promotion ("your services amply deserve it") and recommending that he secure an equivalent position "in some decent country". He mentions enclosing "a pamphlet showing the result of my last Expedition" - perhaps one of his visits to the Middle East or West Africa hunting gold - before reporting his wife's illnesses, and asking if a "Sale" is related "to the Sir Robert of Jelealabad" (i.e., Sir Robert Henry Sale, who died in 1845 as commander of the garrison of Jalalabad).
"Is there any thing I can do for your here? [...] Any chance of any of you coming to Trieste? [...]" - Old horizontal fold; traces of mounting at lower edge of pp. 2 and 3. A well-preserved example..
English explorer and diplomat (1821-1890). 10 autograph letters signed and one autograph postcard signed ("R.F. Burton", "Rich. F. Burton", "R.F.B.", and "Abdullah"). London, Trieste and Geneva. (Oblong) 8vo and 12mo. Altogether 32 pp. on 8 bifolia, 2 single sheets, and one postcard. 2 letters on Athenaeum stationery. With 10 autograph envelopes.
$ 47,124 / 45.000 €
(95641/BN63281)
Exceptional collection of correspondence on the "Arabian Nights". Burton advises the poet John Payne on his translation of the Arabic classic, published just before Burton's pre-eminent edition. He offers assistance to Payne in preparing his edition, for which he refuses any royalty payment ("I cannot accept them"), often asking for Payne's latest proofs or volumes of the Nights: "Kindly send me at once vol. I and I will go through it with the text. When do you want to get no. 2 out? And when should ms.
go to print?" (5 August 1882). - At other times, Burton makes textual and linguistic comments on Payne's translation: "How is it that you have no references marginal or top-page to the number of the Nights? Surely this is one of the first things for students? Also a notice of the Edit. from which you take the Nights. In your place too I should have strictly kept to the formula of the Original 'And when it came to be the 10th night' etc. This would have broken those long & heavy-looking Paras. English readers would have only skipped them - as they ought" (1 September 1882). - He criticises the Arabic inherited from earlier editions, including the transliteration of certain words by Lane in his 1847 edition, and mentions his own struggle with Arabic calligraphy: "As regards the calligraphy it has been ryling me up from the beginning and at last came to a head" (12 May 1884). Also, he mentions that a friend of his greatly enjoyed Payne's "Nights" but lacks a number of volumes: "Will you kindly tell your publisher to send me [...] the vols. after vol. III. The latter being the last I received. A friend here is reading them [...] with huge delight. He would be much disappointed to break off [...]" (19 January 1884). - Burton makes occasional reference to his position as consul in Trieste, including the 1882 Grand International Exhibition, where his friend Alexander von Dorn (1838-1919), editor of the Triester Zeitung, was wounded at a bomb attack, causing fear among exhibition visitors including himself: "I expect more to come and dare not leave my post" (5 August 1882). Despite his position as consul he longed to go further East, as expressed in a lengthier complaint on 19 January 1884: "I am suffering from only one thing, a want to be in Upper Egypt. And of course they won't employ me. I have the reputation of being 'independent' [...] Chinese Gordon has been sacked for being 'Eccentric' which Society abominates. England is now ruled by irresponsible clerks mostly snobs. My misfortunes in life began with not being a Frenchman". - The "Arabian Nights" had been an important part of Burton's life for decades. In 1882 he began translating the work in earnest; at the same time, the poet John Payne wrote to Burton to ask for his assistance in preparing his own translation (published in nine volumes between 1882 and 1884 as "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night"). Burton's version was published almost immediately afterwards, under the title "The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments" (1885-88, 16 volumes); it was distinguished by his retention of the sexual content of the original Arabic versions, while his extensive footnotes drew on a lifetime of travel and research. Both Payne and Burton's translations - unabridged and unexpurgated - were printed as private subscribers' editions, partly owing to strict Victorian laws on obscene material. Despite its deliberately archaic style, Burton's has become the pre-eminent English translation of this Middle Eastern classic, and the keystone of Burton's literary reputation. - Includes: an autograph letter signed by Bernard Quaritch (1819-99) to Burton, London, 28 August 1882. 1 page. Informing him that he has not a copy of Macnaghten's Arabian Nights in stock, sending a copy of the Bulaq edition instead, annotated by Burton ("useless to me") and Payne ("Sept 1/ Just received this. What shall we do?"). - A very well preserved ensemble, and a unique survival..
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Autograph letter signed ("R. F. Burton").
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To the publisher and author George Bentley (1828-95), stating that he has "polished up Scinde, now 'Sind' or the Unhappy Valley, that is I have almost re-written it. As your late father was the first to publish it I think it only fair to offer it to you. The augmentations will fatten the volumes, and I have a lot of photographs and old sketches (caricatures of Sir Charles Napier etc.etc.) which I think might be introduced with advantage, but are you inclined so to do? [...]". He says he will wait, "before giving the last touches to the book and then send it [...] When you receive it you will make up your mind and let me know [...] I shall probably be at Trieste for some time, but residence is always doubtful under the F.O. After Iceland, 6 months in India & Sind a little rest is of course desirable, to get it however is the difficulty [...]". - Burton brought Napier much detailed information on wife killing and bizarre reality although Napier had signed the death warrants of several rich convicted murderers. Napier was impressed by Burton's reports and would accept counsel from him. Burton, for example, suggested that Napier continue the practice of killing a murderer by shooting him out of a cannon rather than hanging, as a lack of proper burial would mean the Muslim would never reach paradise. Napier was disturbed by reports of homosexuality amongst the Muslims. Certain reports spoke of male brothels in Karachi which were corrupting the troops, and Napier asked Burton to investigate. Burton agreed to do this on the "express condition that my report should not be forwarded to the Bombay Government, from whom supporters of the Conqueror's policy could expect scant favour, justice, or mercy."