MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Autograph letter signed ("H Melville") to Osmond Tiffany, Pittsfield, 26 August [1855].

One page 189 x 126mm, identification of author in pencil on verso (minor wear to left margin, lightly toned at top margin).

Melville agrees to assist a fellow author in finding a publisher: "With pleasure I comply with your request, but hardly think that any letter will further your object; still, If the accompanying one can be made of the least service, I shall be happy." Published in Horth, p. 277-278. Osmond Tiffany (1823-1895) was a Baltimore merchant and occasional author who contributed to the Atlantic Monthly and the Knickerbocker Magazine. In 1855 he reached out to several authors, including Washington Irving, seeking assistance to find a publisher for his novel, Brandon; or, A Hundred Years Ago. Based on Irving's response (15 December 1855), Lynn Horth has dated this letter to that year. Tiffany's work, set during the French and Indian War, was published in New York by Stanford & Delisser in 1858 (Ibid). Provenance: Charles Goddard Slack – Dawes Memorial Library, Marietta College – Sotheby's, New York, 16 December 1992, lot 91.