29 Dec 86
Dear Mr Barrett Smith,
I am sending you a copy of my new book which I hope that you will accept. I don't know how you will like it. It is a humble attempt to deal with the probable effect of the immortality informing the substance of the mortal - not an easy subject. I fear that the atmosphere of gloom & terror necessarily surrounding such a subject may prevent the book from being as popular as K[ing] S[olomon's] Mines with the general as distinguished from the cultivated public. Myself however I think that 'She' is worth 20 K.S. Mines, certainly it has cost me nearly twenty times as much thought & labour.
Hoping that you may like it, believe me,
very truly yours
H Rider Haggard
Shepheard's Hotel was the leading hotel in Cairo and one of the most celebrated hotels in the world from the middle of the 19th century until it was burned down in 1952 in the Cairo Fire. Five years after the original hotel was destroyed, a new one was built nearby and was named the Shepheard Hotel, but this hotel closed for renovations in 2014, and it doesn't appear the hotel is open again even though it has been 5 years.
http://www.shepheard-hotel.com/history.html http://www.shepheard-hotel.com/index.html
I doubt Cook's Steamboat Service exists today. http://grandhotelsegypt.com/?tag=thomas-cook-son http://grandhotelsegypt.com/?p=1639
This letter is in my collection, accompanying a copy of the "seventh edition" of SHE that HRH signed and presented to Mrs Traquair. HRH misspelled her surname as "Traquiar" swapping the "a" and the "i."
My Dear Mrs Graham,
I am sorry to say that I cannot accept your kind invitation. I shall be busy here with election matters till the middle of July. I expect to go to Hanbury to doctor up my liver after various doses of the influenza. I shall hope to give you a book however sometime when I am your way. I hope that you, Mr. Graham, and your children are all well.
With very kind regards believe me ever sincerely yours.
H. Rider Haggard