Horace Walpole turns to the letters and argues that: Walpole's numerous letters are often used as a historical resource. In one, dating from 28 January 1754, he coined the word serendipity which he said was derived from a "silly fairy tale" he had read, "The Three Princes of Serendip". The oft-quoted epigram, "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel", is from a letter of Walpole's to Anne, Countess of Ossory, on 16 August 1776. The original, fuller version appeared in a letter to Sir Horace Mann on 31 December 1769: "I have often said,
Lewis Walpole Library Lewis Walpole Library The Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut, possesses important collections of eighteenth-century British literary remains, including an unrivalled quantity of Horace Walpole's papers and effects from his estate at Strawberry Hill. The collections include eighteenth-century British books, manuscripts, prints, drawings and paintings, as well as important examples of the decorative arts. It was gathered by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (1895–1979, himself a graduate of Yale in 1918) and his wife Annie Burr Lewis (1902–1959) in a group of eighteenth-century buildings at Farmington. The Lewis Walpole Library was presented to Yale University, of whose Library it forms a department.