SUN YAT-SEN

Autograph letter signed ("Yours truly Sun Yat Sen") to Felix Volkhosky, 1897; with a copy of Kidnapped in London, 1897

Footnotes

'KIDNAPPED IN LONDON' - SUN YAT-SEN ON HIS NOTORIOUS ABDUCTION, WITH A RARE COPY OF HIS PUBLISHED ACCOUNT.

Rare letter from one of the greatest Chinese leaders, the first president of the Republic of China and a founding father. Sun Yat-sen (12 November 1866–12 March 1925), known as the "Father of the Nation", holds a unique position in the Chinese-speaking world as the only twentieth century leader who is revered by those in both the People's Republic of China, for his instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1911, and in the Republic of China, Taiwan.

Felix Volkhovsky (1846-1914) was one of several Russian political exiles that Sun Yat-sen met in London when he arrived in 1896. Volkhovsky was editor of the monthly journal of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, Free Russia, having previously spent seven years in solitary confinement in St. Petersburg, and eleven years in exile in Siberia before he eventually managed to escape to Canada under a pseudonym, arriving in London in 1890. Volkhovsky's experience and knowledge were hugely influential and inspiring to Sun, who inscribed a copy of his book Kidnapped in London to him, suggesting in an accompanying letter now in the Hoover Library that the Russian may have helped him with the book, a copy of which is included in the lot. Sun Yat-sen's wry published account of the affair is rare: no copies are listed as having sold in auction records.

Accounts of Sun's kidnapping and imprisonment at the hands of the Chinese are well documented, if sometimes contradictory, but the role of Hugh and Mabel Cantlie in freeing him is undisputed. Although the Times held back from printing Cantlie's first report of the incident, the newspaper's journalists were prominent amongst the crowd that surrounded the Chinese legation, and the day after his release he wrote to the paper thanking its readers for their support. This helped his fame to spread worldwide, and greatly improved his fundraising prospects. For further details of the event, see the Sun letters to Cantlie sold in these rooms, 15 September 2021, lots 110-112.

Provenance: Letter from the Estate of Robert Batchelder, via University Archives to the current owner. Book with old stamp of Arnhemsch Lees-Museum on title-page, with date stamp (1924) at front; H.E. Romelingh, bookplate with note of purchase below dated 8 May 1978.