Letters of Lionel Trotter to John Murray III, John Murray IV and Hallam Murray. The letters 1860-1866 concern Trotter’s wish to be engaged to write biography, and his suggestion of several likely subjects, including Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Murray II.

The letter for 1889 concerns the publication of Trotter’s “Life of the Marquis of Dalhousie” (W.H. Allen and Co., 1889), and his desire to find another subject. The letters 1895-1902 concern the preparation and publication of Trotter’s biography of John Nicholson: “The life of John Nicholson, soldier and administrator” (1897, and subsequent editions). Also mentioned, letters 1899-1900, is Trotter’s preparation of a manuscript of the life of William Hodson. The manuscript was declined by the Murrays, but was published subsequently by William Blackwood, publishers, as “A leader of Light Horse: life of Hodson of Hodson’s Horse” (1901).

The letters are arranged chronologically.

1860, 1866, 1889: folios 1-10;

1895: folios 11-14;

1897: folios 15-109 [Notes 1-4];

1898: folios 110-141;

1899: folios 142-161[Note 5];

1900-1902: folios 162-175.

Receipt, 5 November 1909, concerning £50 paid by John Murray, publishers, to Lionel Trotter for the copyright of Trotter’s “The life of John Nicholson”. Folio 176.

Assignment of copyright, 6 November 1909, transferring the copyright of “The life of John Nicholson” from the author, Lionel Trotter, to John Murray, publishers. Folio 177.



Notes.

[Note 1.] Folio 22. Letter, 27 April 1897, of W.E. Franklin, the Cathedral Book Store, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to Lionel Trotter concerning Trotter’s proposal to publish a life of John Nicholson. The letter was forwarded as an enclosure to Trotter’s letter to John Murray IV, 7 May 1897 (folios 20-21).

[Note 2.] Folios 39-42. Letters, 12 and 18 August 1897, of Lionel Trotter to Rowland Prothero.

[Note 3.] Folio 62. Copy of letter, 10 September 1897, of Hallam Murray to Leslie Trotter.

[Note 4.] Folios 104-105. Copy, by L.W. Trotter, of a letter, 9 December 1897, of William Hunter to Lionel Trotter thanking him for a copy of “The life of John Nicholson”. The copy of Hunter’s letter was forwarded as an enclosure to Trotter’s letter to Hallam Murray, 10 December 1897 (folios 102-103).

[Note 5.] Folio 159. Photographic portrait, [June 1899], of Lionel Trotter. The portrait was taken by Buchanan Wollaston and Bowden, photographers, Sidmouth. It was sent as an enclosure to Trotter’s letter to Hallam Murray, 21 September 1899 (folios 156-157). The image is held in a transparent sleeve with the name of the photographers (folio 158).