47. H. Rider Haggard handwritten letter discussing King Solomon's Mines. Haggard, H. Rider. (1856-1925) Autograph Letter Signed, Three pages, Octavo, dated 29. Dec. 1886. Written to Barnett Smith. Haggard pens (in full): "Dear Mr. Barnett 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 immortality informing the substance of the mortal, not an easy subject. I fear that the atmosphere of doom & terror necessarily surrounding such a subject may prevent the book from being as popular as K. 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" Two years after the wildly successful King Solomon's Mines, Haggard wrote She: A History of Adventure, first serialized in The Graphic from October 1886 to January 1887. The book was an instant success and has remained in print continuously to the present day. She is regarded as one of the classics of imaginative literature, a work in which he continued to develop the conventions of the "Lost World" sub-genre. The book went on to be one of the best-selling books of all time with over 80 million copies sold. Content such as this, with Haggard assessing his two most famous books and decisively choosing She over King Solomon's Mines, is quite unusual. $1,200 – $1,500