Autograph letter

"AUTHORSHIP WITH ME, HAS BEEN MORE A RECREATION THAN PURSUIT"

SMITH, R[ichard] Penn (1799-1854). American author and editor. ALs to Lewis J. Cist, Cincinnati autograph collector, banker, and author. 1 full-page, with integral address-leaf. Philadelphia, Oct. 25, 1837.

An early addition to what must have the nascent autograph collection of 19-year-old Lewis J. Cist (1818-1885), one of the leading American autograph collectors; his collection being excelled only by the great William E. Sprague collection. Cist, the eldest son of the Cincinnati publisher Charles Cist, became a banker, and also wrote considerable verse. Smith provides a full-page answer to Cist's second request for Smith's autograph. "I have just received a second letter from you requesting my autograph. Your first should have been promptly answered, but really I misunderstood the spirit in which it was written-believing it to be the practical joke of some good natured friend." He says, "Authorship with me, has been more a recreation than a pursuit, and my time has for years been so wholly engrossed with professional and other avocations, that I have ceased to consider myself as belonging to the genus irritabile…I cheerfully comply with your request." Smith was the author of some 20 plays, and Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas (1936). Folded for mailing, with seal tear excising wax seal, otherwise fine. 76924