HARDY THOMAS: (1840-1928) English Novelist & Poet. A good A.L.S., Thomas Hardy, one page, 8vo, Mandeville Place, London (although on the blind embossed stationery of the Athenaeum Club), 4th June 1891, to Miss [Hilda] Gorst. Hardy explains ('lest you should be thinking severely of me for not sending the little story') that 'owing (I believe) to a wish to secure the American Copyright the publishers are keeping back the tale for a time - thus preventing me from being so good as my word' and assuring her that he will send it when it appears. With blank integral leaf. About EX Hilda Gorst - daughter of John Eldon Gorst (1835-1916) British Lawyer and Politician. Hilda had met Hardy at one of Lady Susan Jeune's weekly dinners which were famous for bringing writers and politicians together. In 1891 Hardy published Tess of the d'Urbervilles and a collection of short stories under the title A Group of Noble Dames. The present letter is apparently unpublished and not contained in the Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy edited by Millgate and Purdy (1978-88)