Letter from Samuel Lucas, London, to Madame Blaze de Bury, 1859 October 18 : autograph manuscript signed.

Promising to contact John Delane of the Times on her behalf with a proposal (to write on the subject of Madame Juliette Recamier), cautioning her that he may not be successful, however, as "there are some impediments which I will mention and which may prove invincible", including the fact that the Times is able to review only a small percentage of books and "rarely very rarely does it treat such a subject as Madame Recamier", and the newspaper's general tendency to only rarely "go beyong its own staff for its requirements in this way."; confirming that he received a proof from her and noting that the piece may be a little too long "But I will spare you excision if I can."; discouraging her from pursuing an article "on the production and consumption of coffee & paper in France", deeming the subject "more suited to the Economist", and stating that a piece on the conditions of the "labouring or other classes of France" would be of more general interest and "to me much more promising"; adding that as a rule 3 rather than 4 pages is a manageable length.