ALS signed "C. L. Dodgson," three pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.5 x 7, January 12, 1885. Letter to the editor of Vanity Fair, Thomas Gibson Bowles. In part: "Forgive my delay in writing about your newly-projected Journal [The Lady]…I have such a quantity of irons in the fire that I see little or no chance of being of any use to you as a writer: still, if some 'happy thoughts' should occur, on a subject germane to your scheme, I will try to set it down for you…I would suggest the omission of the dogma 'to look beautiful is one of the first duties of a lady,' which excited the scornful criticism of the first two ladies to whom I showed it. I don't think ladies care to be told that—at least, not publicly. To the newly-married wife you might usefully suggest, in some article on 'the Home' that she must make it one of her chief objects to make her husband's home pleasant and beautiful: and that one chief element in the picture is herself: so that it becomes her duty 'still to be neat, still to be dressed' in whatever fashion best becomes the face and figure God has given her. But the maid does not need to be thus counselled: and to the elderly, whose charms are matters of history, such words are a mockery. So I would not put it as an axiom in the forefront of your scheme." In fine condition, with toning along top edges, a pencil and ink notation to top of first page, and a few creases. A charming letter from Dodgson, who was in the midst of his mathematical writings, but still sought after by literary magazines.
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