English Men of Letters 39 Volume Set
2 total works
Sir Sidney Colvin (1845-1927) was the obvious choice to write a book on John Keats (1795-1821) for the first series of English Men of Letters. At various times Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, Colvin had a long-standing interest in the poet, publishing an edition of his letters to family and friends in 1891, and later writing a longer biography, published in 1917. This introduction to the poet, which used print and manuscript sources not available to earlier biographers, was first published in 1887. In his preface, Colvin admits that 'I have not attempted to avoid saying over again much that in substance has been said already, and better, by others ... I hope to have contributed something of my own towards a fuller understanding both of Keats's art and life'.
Published in 1881 in the first series of English Men of Letters, this biography by Sir Sidney Colvin of the poet Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) opens with the claim 'few men have ever impressed their peers so much, or the general public so little'. Landor's turbulent life included suspension from both Rugby and Oxford, numerous love affairs, an illegitimate child, and frequent legal trouble over his writing, including a libel case which caused him to leave England permanently. He is best known for his six-volume Imaginary Conversations, a series of dialogues between characters ranging from antiquity to Landor's literary contemporaries. This book not only describes Landor's life but also discusses his poetry and prose. Colvin (1845-1927), who was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and later keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum, also wrote the volume on Keats in this series.