Books and Manuscripts

Ruskin, John
Autograph Letter, signed
Oxford, no date  (presumed ca. 1870s-80s). Two sheets, each measuring approximately 7 x 4 1/2 in. (178 x 114 mm). Autograph letter on Corpus Christi College stationery, signed by John Ruskin to his friend, the American journalist and artist, William James Stillman, thanking him and sending him some words of advice, “Don't despair nor concern yourself--about the future no mortal knows or can know anything of it. We have no business with it. but each to do what is near us of best…” Creasing from old folds. In mat with photogravure portrait of Ruskin, and in frame, 19 x 12 5/8 in. (483 x 321 mm). 

Ruskin first met Stillman, an aspiring American artist, in London in the 1850s. Frequent correspondents, in the 1860s they traveled throughout Europe, where Stillman developed his painting skills and first experimented with photography, a medium he would use to great effect throughout his career. Stillman later established himself as a magazine editor and founded the influential journal The Crayon, America's first successful journal devoted to the arts.