First edition, with a 4-page autograph letter signed by the author, Gerald Henry Rendall, laid in at the front.

The 7 inch high by 4-1/2 inch wide letter is penned on 4 sides of a folded sheet of light blue paper. The letter apparently accompanied a copy of the book which the author lent to Mr. Dawson. In his letter, Rendall apologizes for the book "I'm afraid you'll find a good deal of it tedious. Artistically it errs in saying everything, but that has its uses in a monograph - Here as in Neo-Platonism I never got the better of it...." Following a few more words about his "Julian", he speaks at length of his impressions of Huxley who he had enjoyed listening to and whose "living presence quite tallied with all you tell me." From his photo, he'd initially thought of Huxley with his "forward lip corked" as "dogmatic" and though he still retains a little of that impression, Rendall observes that he "failed enormously by seeing & hearing him in person & close. His manner was thoroughly prepossessing, modest without any affectation of compliance or mock-humility...." Signed "G.H. Rendall". Folded for mailing, the last page of the letter is darkened with some offsetting.

Additionally, mounted on both sides of the front blank, are a pair of identical photographic portraits of the author. The author has penciled his initials under one of the portraits and the recipient, [T.J.?] Dawson, has penciled his own initials under both portraits. Dawson's own bookplate, depicting a Greco-Roman vase, is mounted on the front pastedown. Two pages of notes penned on both sides of an 8 inch high by 5 inch wide sheet as well as annotations penciled throughout the book are likely to have been written in Dawson's hand.

Born at Harrow, Gerald Henry Rendall (1851-1945) was educated at Trinity College and made deacon and subsequently a priest in the Church of England. A lecturer and assistant tutor at Trinity College in Cambridge, he was made principal and Gladstone professor of Greek at University College in Liverpool. He held several other noteworthy positions in the British educational system, including that of head master of the Charterhouse School. A classical, Biblical and Shakespearian scholar, he built an extensive collection of the works of Marcus Aurelius and scholarly works relating to Shakespeare, authoring several works and studies on these subjects. 
Price: 250.00 USD