[Manuscript poem:] 'Impromptu'.

Cook (Eliza)

[Manuscript poem:] 'Impromptu'.

Description: mounted at one edge with cloth-tape to thin card, the original envelope (in author's holograph and with initials 'EC' at foot) likewise on a separate sheet, p. [1], oblong 8vo, the envelope with only front and flaps and some tape repair to verso, the poem itself in good state with some light handling

Publication Details: [1849]

Notes: The subtitle of the poem clarifies its context: 'To one who said the death of my mother would leave a scar on my heart'. Its four lines begin, 'That stroke indeed would deeply gash...' and end 'the wound would never heal' - signed by the author at foot. The envelope is addressed to a Mrs Priestley in Bradford, postmarked to May 1849 - whether the recipient was an ancestor of the author J.B. Priestley is hard to establish, but the location makes it a possibility. This poem is seemingly uncollected, although it was cited in full in Belfast's 'Morning News` in April 1885 as something 'lately [......moreThe subtitle of the poem clarifies its context: 'To one who said the death of my mother would leave a scar on my heart'. Its four lines begin, 'That stroke indeed would deeply gash...' and end 'the wound would never heal' - signed by the author at foot. The envelope is addressed to a Mrs Priestley in Bradford, postmarked to May 1849 - whether the recipient was an ancestor of the author J.B. Priestley is hard to establish, but the location makes it a possibility. This poem is seemingly uncollected, although it was cited in full in Belfast's 'Morning News` in April 1885 as something 'lately [...] rescued from a lady's album'.The death of her mother, at whose encouragement she had begun to write, had occurred some twenty years before the present example. Cook's appearance was 'unconventionally masculine' in her hair and dress, and she was 'most probably a lesbian' - her most notable friendship being with the American actor, Charlotte Cushman. HIDE

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