Autograph letter, signed ("John J. Audubon"), to Edinburgh bookseller Alexander Hill, concerning Harriet Douglas, the first American subscriber to the double-elephant folio Birds of America by Audubon, John James - 1830

London, 1830. 1p., plus integral address leaf. 4to. 1p., plus integral address leaf. 4to. Audubon writes: "I have been in London a fortnight and am yet without any answer to my last letter sent to you from Liverpool about a month ago, in which I desire you to collect the money due to me by Miss Harriet Douglas of New York. I am extremely anxious to have your answer and some money from you and I again ask you to send in a regular list of my Subscribers with you and their respective residence to have the whole engraved in the sheets of my 1st Jany next plates of frontispieces. I hope you received the 19th number in good order..."

Harriet Douglas Cruger (1790-1872), the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant and member of the Scottish Douglas clan (the niece of Sir William Douglas), was often referred to in the 19th century as the "social lioness of New York" -- in part due to her red-gold hair, but also because of her headstrong personality. She agreed to marry her long-time suitor Henry Cruger in 1833, but their stormy relationship ended in a contentious divorce eight years later, with Douglas accused of controlling her husband (after all, she insisted that she and her husband maintain her surname in addition to his), and she was said to have sawed their marriage bed in half.

She travelled extensively in America and Europe, befriending Maria Edgeworth, who introduced her to Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, James Fenimore Cooper and other literary and social elite. It was on one of those trips, visiting her ancestral home in Scotland in October 1827, that Douglas met Audubon. "Miss Douglas, much like Audubon, was much entertained and they met at a party given by Professor, and they met at a party given by Professor Jameson" (Fries). After meeting privately with Audubon and viewing some of the prints she became the first American subscriber. Audubon records in his Journal a subsequent meeting with Douglas in March of the following year: "To my surprise I saw the prints she had received the evening before quite abused and tumbled. This, however, was not my concern, and I regretted it only on her account, that so little care should be taken of a book that in fifty years will be sold at immense prices because of its rarity." The present location of the Douglas set is unknown, though she did complete and pay for the subscription.

In the present letter, besides asking about Douglas's payment, Audubon writes to bookseller Alexander Hill, his subscription agent in Edinburgh, about other new subscriptions so that the names may be included among the engraved lists of subscribers, but also due to his deteriorating financial position due to the costs of the project. "Between 27 April [1830] ... and 1 October ... the Naturalist spent much of his time traveling the English provinces, ever seeking new subscribers. The quest was an inescapable necessity, for it was currently incoming subscription money that sustained the ongoing publication of the 'Great Work,' and there was evidence that Audubon's finances were quite precarious at times" (Fries). The "19th part" referred to in the letter contained plate numbers 91-95: Broad-winged Hawk; Pigeon Hawk; Sea-side Finch; Grass Finch or Bay-winged Bunting; and Yellow-poll Warbler.

The present letter ends with a postscript asking the whereabouts of young Scottish landscape artist Joseph B. Kidd (1808-1889). Audubon had first met Kidd in 1827 and shortly after the present letter contracted with him to paint his watercolors in oil for a planned (but never held) exhibition as a marketing event for the sale of the double-elephant folio. In all, Kidd produced 94 such paintings on millboard for Audubon, before being injured in 1833 when the floor gave way at the sale of Lord Elgin's pictures and having a falling out with Audubon. See Fries, Appendix C for a detailed discussion of the relationship between Audubon and Kidd. Fries, The Double Elephant Folio, p. 13; Davidson, Miss Douglas of New York (Viking Press: 1953)