Collections of an Only Child: Seventy Years a Bibliophile, the Library of Justin G. Schiller

The Chestnuts, Guildford (Surrey, England), January 1, 1877. One sheet, 7 1/4 x 4 5/8 in. (184 x 117 mm). Two-page autograph letter on mourning stationery, signed by Carroll, in his characteristic purple ink, to his speech therapist Henry Frederick Rivers, trying to arrange an appointment with him, and inquiring about his friend Mr. Napier, whose two sons were also Rivers's patients. Creasing from when folded.

"My dear Rivers, A very happy New Year, & many of them, to you & yours! Would you kindly direct this letter on to Mr. Napier, as I don't know where he is at present. How is his boy going on with you?

I am happy to be able to give a good account of myself just now, having very little difficulty, in reading or speaking. But I vary a good deal, I may perhaps be in town on Thursday next (not if this pouring rain continues, though) & if that is one of your London days, & you could name a time when I might have a chance of a leisure half-hour, I would like to call. But don't disarrange any of your plans, or any other proposed visitors, as it is quite possible I might not appear at all. Yours Sincerely CL Dodgson".

Carroll writes to his speech therapist Henry Frederick Rivers (1830-1911) updating him on his progress and inquiring about arranging an appointment with him in London. Carroll asks about a Mr. Napier, whose sons, Herbert and Clive, were also patients of Rivers's. Carroll first met the Napiers as early as 1873, when vacationing in Sandown, on the Isle of Wight, where they resided.

Carroll began seeing Rivers for speech therapy in the summer of 1873 to help with his stammering, an impediment he struggled with for most of his life. Carroll had previously been the patient of James Hunt (1833-69), the leading speech therapist in Great Britain at the time, and upon whose death, Rivers (who was married to Hunt's sister) took over his practice.