Selection for Margarett Root Brown Chair in Robert Browning and Victorian Studies Announced

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Jennifer Borderud

During the Armstrong Browning Library’s annual Browning Day celebration on May 7, Pattie Orr, Vice President for Information Technology and Dean of University Libraries, publicly announced the selection of Dr. Joshua King, Associate Professor (effective August 2014) of English at Baylor University, as the next holder of the Margarett Root Brown Chair in Robert Browning and Victorian Studies.

Dean Pattie Orr announces the selection of Dr. Joshua King as holder of the Margarett Root Brown Chair in Robert Browning and Victorian Studies

As Chair, Dr. King will serve as a scholar-in-residence for the Armstrong Browning Library, researching and publishing on materials related to the Library’s holdings and attending and designing scholarly and outreach events to promote the Library’s standing as a world center for Victorian studies.

Since its establishment by the Brown Foundation in 1971, this position has been held by members of the Baylor faculty as well as visiting international scholars. Past Chair holders include Dr. Jack W. Herring (1971-1984), Dr. Roger L. Brooks (1987-1994), Dr. Mairi Rennie (1996-2002), Dr. Stephen Prickett (2003-2008), and Dr. Kirstie Blair (2012). Dr. King will begin his three-year term as Chair this summer (2014) and will be eligible for additional terms thereafter.

Browning Day Program 2014

In addition to Dean Orr’s announcement, this year’s Browning Day, celebrating Robert Browning’s 202^nd birthday, featured music organized by ABL Artist-in-Residence Carlos Colón and performed by Chris Martin, recognition of D.M. Edwards in appreciation of the D.M. Edwards Library Internship Endowed Scholarship Fund, and a presentation on The Browning Letters project. The presentation, given by Darryl Stuhr and Eric Ames from Baylor University, Ian Graham from Wellesley College, and Anna Sander and Fiona Godber from Balliol College, was followed by a reception in the Library’s Seminar Room. Visit the Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections Blog to learn more about the presentation and The Browning Letters project.

…from America: The Brownings’ American Correspondents–Moncure Daniel Conway (1832–1907)

Posted on May 6, 2014 by melindacreech

Moncure Daniel Conway was an American abolitionist, Unitarian clergyman, and author. His life took many turns. He moved from being the son of a wealthy slaveholder in Virginia, to a Methodist minister, and to an outspoken abolitionist with transcendental tendancies. He traveled to England to become an advocate for abolition and to Venice, spending most of the remainder of his life in England as minister of the South Place Chapel, occasionally traveling back to the United States. In England, having become a journalist and a literary agent, he admired the poetry of Robert Browning and became a close acquaintance. After his wife died, he moved to France, devoting his life to the peace movement and to writing. He died alone in Paris.

Letter from Robert Browning to Moncure Daniel Conway. 20 December 1881.

In this letter Browning explains the origin of a story he had recounted in the epilogue to his book, The Two Poets of Croisic, about a cricket and a singer, explaining that the story came from a Greek myth.

Robert Browning. La Saisiaz: The Two Poets of Croisic. London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1878.

The story that Browning was explaining to Conway in the letter appears in the “Epilogue” to The Two Poets of Croisic.

Tell the gazer “’Twas a cricket

Helped my crippled lyre, whose lilt

Sweet and low, when strength usurped

Softness’ place i’ the scale, she chirped?

The Armstrong Browning Library’s holdings related to Conway include three books and four letters.

…from America: The Brownings’ American Correspondents–Cornelius Mathews (1817–1881)

Posted on May 5, 2014 by melindacreech

Cornelius Mathews was an American writer, best known for his crucial role in the formation of a literary group known as Young America in the late 1830s. He called for a new literary style that would express a distinctly American identity. He corresponded with Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Charles Dickens. He was the first to publish Barrett Browning’s works in America.

Letter from Cornelius Mathews to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 30 January 1844.

In this letter Cornelius Mathews thanks Elizabeth Barrett Browning for her letter and reports about the publication of her work in America.

A collection of ‘English Poetry’ is to be made in this country [by Mr R. W. Griswold] & that to a friend of mine is deputed, at my request, the charge of your writings, Mr. Horne’s & Mr. Browning’s & I hope you will live to be pleased when you see what is done & said in your & their behalf.

Letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Cornelius Mathews. [26] March 1844.

In this letter Elizabeth Barret Browning thanks Mathews for his interest and help in publishing her poems in America.

I am at the end of my paper & have yet to thank you warmly & gratefully for your kind interest about the American edition of my poems.

Elizabeth went on to make an acknowledgment of Mathews contribution to the publication of her work in America in the preface to the first edition of her poems published in America.

The Armstrong Browning Library’s holdings related to Mathews include eight Browning letters and three manuscripts.

…from America: The Brownings’ American Correspondents–James Thomas Fields (1817–1881)

Posted on May 4, 2014 by melindacreech

James Thomas Fields was an American publisher, editor, and poet. He joined with William Tichnor in creating a publishing and bookselling firm, first known as Ticknor and Fields, and later known as Fields, Osgood & Company. Fields became the publisher of leading contemporary American writers, with many of whom he developed a personal relationship. In addition to being a publisher, Fields also wrote poetry, and after his retirement, he was a popular lecturer. Fields published Robert Browning’s poetry.

Letter from Robert Browning to James Thomas Fields. 12 July 1868.

In this letter Robert Browning discusses with Fields the procedure of getting the proofs to him for the American publication of his poetry.

Letter from James Thomas Fields to Robert Browning. 12 November 1868.

In this letter Fields assures Robert Browning that his revisions have been made and expresses his pride in being allowed to publish Browning’s poems:

I cannot tell you what a satisfaction it is to me personally, to have the opportunity of putting my name on the title page with yours in this new venture.

This book of James T. Fields’ own poetry was inscribed by the author as a gift to his friend, Judge Richard Fletcher of Boston.

James Thomas Fields. Poems. Boston: William D. Tichnor and Company, 1849.

The Armstrong Browning Library’s holdings related to Fields include more than fifteen books and three letters.

…from America: The Brownings’ American Correspondents–Daniel Sargent Curtis (1825–1908)

Posted on May 2, 2014 by melindacreech

Daniel Sargent Curtis was among the Brownings’ cohort of American friends living in Italy. In 1881 Daniel Sargent Curtis rented the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice and purchased it in 1885. Curtis and his wife Ariana repaired and restored the Palazzo Barbaro and hosted many artists, musicians, and writers. The palace became the hub of American life in Venice with visits from Henry James, James Whistler, Robert Browning, and Claude Monet. Palazzo Barbaro was used as a location in the 1981 Brideshead Revisited TV series.

Letter from Daniel Sargent Curtis to Robert Browning. 27 March 1886.

In this letter Curtis discusses his purchase of the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice.

Letter from Robert Browning to Daniel Sargent Curtis. 4 June 1886.

In this letter Browning presents further discussion of the Palazzo Barbaro. He also discusses meeting and being favorably impressed by Oliver Wendell Holmes, an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932, and as Acting Chief Justice of the United States January–February 1930.

Photograph of the Palazzo Barbaroon the Grand Canal in Venice.

The Armstrong Browning Library’s holdings related to Curtis include six letters and a diary of his conversations with Browning from 1879 to 1885.

…from America: The Brownings’ American Correspondents–William Wetmore Story (1819-1895)

Posted on May 1, 2014 by melindacreech

William Wetmore Story (1819-1895) was an American sculptor, art critic, poet, and editor. He was the son of Joseph Story (1779-1845), who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811-1845. Story initially practiced law but abandoned his legal career in 1847 to pursue training in Europe as a sculptor. Story, along with his wife Emelyn (née Eldredge, 1820-1894), daughter Edith “Edie” (1844-1917), and son Joseph “Joe” (1847-1853), met Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Florence, Italy, in late 1848 or early 1849. The two families became close friends and spent a great deal of time together whenever the Storys were in Italy. Browning and his son Robert Weideman Barrett Browning, called Pen, remained intimate friends of the Storys following Elizabeth’s death in 1861. Story sculpted busts of Robert and Elizabeth, reproductions of which can be viewed in the Martin Entrance Foyer of the Armstrong Browning Library.

Letter from William Wetmore Story to Robert Weideman Barrett Browning. 13 December 1889.

In this letter to Robert Browning’s son, Story reflects on his long friendship with Robert Browning following the poet’s death on 12 December 1889:

He was one of my oldest & dearest & most valued friends—& the world seems poor now that he has gone. … The last words he said to us when we said Goodbye to him at Asolo were ‘We have been friends for forty years—ay—more than forty years—& with never a break’– How true it was—there was never a break—never a cloud on our friendship for a moment—& the more I knew him the more I loved him. … He was one of the best & noblest of men. … I do not think that a small or mean thought ever knocked at the door of his spirit—much less ever was allowed to enter– Ever large hearted as large minded, grand in all his impulses—generous in all his feelings—vivid in his enthusiasms and the most loving man I ever knew.

William Wetmore Story. “Robert Browning.” Autograph manuscript. Undated.

This poem of thirty-eight lines was signed by Story and presented to Browning’s son and daughter-in-law Fannie Coddington Browning. The inscription reads:

To my dear friends—Pen & Fanny—with the warmest love of their, & their Father’s & Mother’s old friend.

Story’s poem about RB begins:

It scarcely seems, dear Friend you can be gone—

Your voice still lingers in my ear—that tone

So clear & quiet it scarce could wait to say

Your eager thought in our prosaic way,

But leaped our critic rules, assured that we

Could follow where you leaped so easily

Still pressing on in thought, stopped by no gaps

Of broken phrasing—careless of all lapse—

William Wetmore Story. Fiammetta: A Summer Idyl. Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1886.

A member of the Browning family owned a copy of this edition of Story’s novel.

William Wetmore Story. Graffiti d’Italia. Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1868.

The poem “Praxiteles and Phryne” is dedicated to Robert Browning.

The Armstrong Browning Library owns one manuscript, eight letters, and eight books by Mr. Story.

Armstrong Browning Library & Museum

A blog that explores the work of Robert & Elizabeth Browning and 19th-century Victorian literature and culture

Monthly Archives: May 2014