Autograph Letter, Signed ("H. Melville"), to Rossiter Johnson

104 E. 26th St. [New York], 1888. Written in brown ink, dated in another hand (likely Johnson's), 1 p. 8vo. Integral blank leaf apparently removed ("Davis and Gilman reported that it was written on the same paper as that of Melville's 29 January 1888 letter to Edmund C. Stedman" Horth); old folds; very good. Custom cloth folding case. Written in brown ink, dated in another hand (likely Johnson's), 1 p. 8vo. In December, Rossiter Johnson, editor of various encyclopedias, dictionaries, anthologies, and volumes of abridged classics (including Melville's piece "The Bell-Tower" in the third volume, "Tragedy" (1875), of his Little Classics, 1874-81), wrote to Melville requesting that he contribute to a work that Rossiter was editing, either the Annual Cyclopaedia or Appletons' Annual Cyclopadia. Melville had written on December 11, declining his invitation: "I am unpractised in a kind of writing that exacts so much of heedfulness-heedfulness, I mean, of a sort not demanded in some other departments."
This letter is the follow-up, returning the proof [not present]: "Herewith you have the proof. I have supplied the dates and names wanted and see nothing else to do. Many thanks for your courtesy, Very truly yours / H. Melville."

Melville had retired as a customs inspector in New York in 1885 and did not published a book between Clarel in 1876 his death in 1891. Horth, Lynn, ed., Herman Melville: Correspondence, Northwestern U. Press, 1993, pp. 503-504 (Inventory #: 369787)