An ALS and manuscript poems Eliza Cook to the editor of The Weekly Dispatch 1837

Cook, Eliza. Autograph letter signed to William Johnson Fox, the Editor of the Weekly Dispatch, [with] three autograph poems (“Gratitude,” “The Mountain Pine,” and “Additional Stanzas to the Song of Adeline”).
 
London postmarked 29 April 1837.
 
Letter: bifolia (c. 240 × 200 mm), 3 pages in ink, with the original address panel (“The Weekly Dispatch, 139 Fleet Street”) and red circular postmark; with large bifolia (c. 330mm x 210mm), 4 pages in ink, with one later typescript transcript supplied. Folds, the letter with small holes and loss across the folds, more moderate on the final sheet, the large bifolia separated in the centre entirely, but held together by repair tape at intersections, small stains not affecting legibility; overall delicate but all there. The letter is very good and manuscript good only. 
 
A remarkable early letter from the working-class poet Eliza Cook (1818–1889), written at the very outset of her literary career. She enclosed three original poems intended for publication in the radical newspaper The Weekly Dispatch. The letter constitutes her first known disclosure to the paper of her identity as a woman writer.
 
Cook writes candidly to the editor—then William Johnson Fox, the Unitarian preacher, journalist, and reformer who encouraged several women writers—confessing that she had previously submitted poems under the initial “C.” to avoid the “prejudice which frequently acts against female scribbling.” In this letter she thanks the editor for his “flattering remarks,” explains her hesitation in revealing her sex, and reflects on her self-education:
 
“I am young, self-educated from very early years, kept as much as possible from improvement by parental interdiction, and with scarcely a friend to applaud or encourage me … all circumstances are against my favourite pursuit.”
 
Cook then states her case to the editor that her gender should not disqualify her from further publication and submits her work. The accompanying poems are “Gratitude,” “The Mountain Pine,” and “Additional Stanzas to the Song of Adeline”. Several of her verses appeared in the Dispatch from 1837 onwards and were later gathered, often revised, in Lays of a Wild Harp (1838) and Melaia and Other Poems (1840). Though these specific poems cannot be firmly traced to extant Dispatch issues, the group represents the very moment she went from anonymity to recognition, within the officers of The Weekly Dispatch and shortly after to the wider public.
 
Cook’s connection with the Weekly Dispatch began earlier that year, when Fox invited her to contribute to its “Facts and Scraps” column. The paper’s radical, reformist tone suited her outlook, and it served as the springboard for her later prominence as poet, journalist, and editor of Eliza Cook’s Journal.