The only collection of all known letters of Christopher Smart provides the best psychological explanation to date of that complex and elusive eighteenth-century poet.
The significant characteristics that distinguish Smart s prose letters from his poetry, Betty Rizzo and Robert Mahony note, are that his letters were requests for assistance while his verses were bequests, gifts in which he set great store. Indeed, it was Smart s lifelong conviction that he was a poet of major importance.
As Smart biographer Karina Williamson notes, "The splendidly informative and vivaciously written accounts of the circumstances surrounding each letter, or group of letters, add up to what is in effect a miniature biography.""
- ISBN10 0809316099
- ISBN13 9780809316090
- Publish Date 30 May 1991
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 25 October 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Southern Illinois University Press
- Edition Annotated edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 184
- Language English