Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Autograph letter signed : Oxford, to William Angus Knight, 1897 December 16.

BIB_ID
409273
Accession number
MA 9256.15
Creator
Carpenter, J. Estlin (Joseph Estlin), 1844-1927.
Display Date
1897 December 16.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1908.
Description
1 item (7 pages) ; 17.7 x 11.3 cm
Notes
Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Written on stationery engraved "109, Banbury Road, / Oxford."
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from William Angus Knight, 1908.
Summary
Concerning a misunderstanding about the disposition of Knight's collection of correspondence from Martineau and Knight's interest in lecturing at Harvard; saying he never intended his suggestion that he donate his collection to the Library at Manchester College immediately (see MA 9256.14); saying "...it never occurred to me that you would interpret so innocent a suggestion as a demand that you should 'hand over' (to use your own words) the whole collection not only during your own lifetime, but (as you appear to have imagined) at once, during Dr. Martineau's lifetime, so that it would be needful to obtain his consent;" explaining that he was speaking of the eventual gift as a bequest "...many years off, I hope - not of immediate gift;" explaining his efforts on Knight's behalf with President Eliot at Harvard saying "As to Harvard you must further bear with me if I remind you that I have twice written there in successive years, the first time tentatively last year more urgently. I communicated with the President & the two Professors in the philosophical faculty whom I thought most likely to influence him. The President wrote to me himself about the matter, specifying his preference for your literary rather than philosophical lectures, as they had already five lecturers or professors at work in that department. He asked whether I thought you would accept such & such a fee, & I replied with the full expectation that an invitation would be sent to you & you would accept it, if it fitted in with your other arrangements...I supposed that you went, & only learned from your letter of two days ago that your journey had after all been abandoned. My difficulty in the matter is that I did not feel it right to take up the time of the President again in making arrangements which might once more be frustrated."