The Brownings' Correspondence: Volumes 31-33

FAIN: RQ-271299-20

Baylor University (Waco, TX 76798-7284)
Philip Kelley (Project Director: December 2019 to present)
Edward H. Hagan (Co Project Director: December 2019 to present)

Preparation for publication of volumes 31, 32, and 33 of The Brownings’ Correspondence in print and online. (36 months)

The correspondence of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, comprising some 11,500 letters written over the years 1809–89, represent one of the most significant bodies of literary, social, and political commentary on the 19th century. The aim of The Brownings’ Correspondence is to present the complete text of all the poets’ letters with full annotations. This application requests funding to edit volumes 31-33, January 1865–May 1875. During this period, Robert Browning discusses a wide range of subjects, both private and public, including: his father’s death and the education of his son, Pen; the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars; Italian unification; his masterwork, The Ring and the Book (1868–69); and contemporary art, music, and literature. With NEH support, 26 volumes of The Brownings’ Correspondence have been published. The 40th and final volume of this scholarly edition is expected in 2032. Volumes 1–26 are online at www.browningscorrespondence.com.

Associated Products

The Brownings' Correspondence: Volume 31 (1864-1865) (Book)
Title: The Brownings' Correspondence: Volume 31 (1864-1865)
Author: Robert Browning
Author: Elizabeth Berrett Browning
Editor: Philip Kelley
Editor: Edward Hagan
Abstract: Volume 31 finds RB and his son, Pen, continuing their residence at 19 Warwick Crescent, London. In February 1864 RB’s will is drawn up by his old friend Bryan Waller Procter. It is witnessed and signed by Alfred Tennyson and Francis Turner Palgrave at the latter’s home on the 12th (see letter 5333). On 28 May RB’s Dramatis Personæ (1864) is published by Chapman and Hall to largely positive reviews. A second edition is released in late September. Earlier that month, Ticknor and Fields publishes the American edition of Dramatis Personæ in Boston. RB receives £150 for it and three of his poems that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in the May and June 1864 issues. The fourth edition of RB’s Poetical Works is published by Chapman and Hall in March of the following year, eliciting a wide-ranging and appreciative notice from Gerald Massey in The Quarterly Review of July 1865, the full text of which is reprinted in Appendix III. RB and his family spend their 1864 summer holiday in the southwest of France; first at Cambo-les-Bains (from where RB visits the famous Pas de Roland), then at Biarritz on the Atlantic coast. The following summer the Browning party returns for the third time to St. Marie, near Pornic, in Brittany. In May 1864 RB enters into a short-lived but intense friendship and correspondence with Julia Wedgwood, the intellectual and literary great-granddaughter of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood. In March 1865 Julia abruptly puts an end to their exchange of letters and the visits from RB, writing in letter 5563: “I have reason to know that my pleasure in your company has had an interpretation put upon it that I ought not to allow.” RB reluctantly accepts her decision in letter 5564.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.browningscorrespondence.com/
Primary URL Description: The Brownings' Correspndence: An Online Edition
Secondary URL: https://www.wedgestonepress.com/store/the-brownings-correspondence/the-brownings-correspondence-volume-31/38/
Secondary URL Description: Wedgestone Press (publisher website)
Access Model: Book and online open access
Publisher: Wedgestone Press
Type: Edited Volume
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 978-0-911459-4
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Brownings' Correspondence: Volume 32 (1865-1868) (Book)
Title: The Brownings' Correspondence: Volume 32 (1865-1868)
Author: Elizabeth Berrett Browning
Author: Robert Browning
Editor: Philip Kelley
Editor: Edward Hagan
Abstract: Volume 32 opens in September 1865 with RB and his family still on their summer holiday at Ste. Marie, Brittany. On 12 June 1866, RB receives word from Paris that his father is gravely ill. He arrives in time to spend 24 hours with him, before his death on 14 June 1866. That same month, RB’s growing discontent with his publisher, Frederic Chapman, of Chapman & Hall, leads him to tell Isa Blagden of his intention to “dissolve” the “connection” (letter 5776). The following year, he indicates his preference for the publishing firm of Smith, Elder & Co. (see letter 5897). In October 1866, RB’s great French friend, Joseph Milsand, makes the first of 18 annual visits to RB’s London home at 19 Warwick Crescent. During his month-long stay with the Brownings, he writes to his brother, Philibert, of RB and his family’s kindness (see SD2842). RB, Pen, and Sarianna spend the summers of 1866 and 1867 at Le Croisic, Brittany. RB gathers material he will use in The Two Poets of Croisic (1878) and composes “Hervé Riel” (1871). In March 1867, the degree of M.A. is conferred on RB by Oxford University, and he is made an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College in October. Meanwhile, Pen continues his classical studies in preparation for entering Balliol. At the time of the M.A. conferment, Pen visits Oxford to give Benjamin Jowett (Regius Professor of Greek) an opportunity to evaluate his competence in Greek and Latin. Pen is found to be “far behind” his peers in Greek, and Jowett counsels that the matriculation exam be delayed until Christmas (letter 5887). But in December, the professor again advises delay, until the “Easter Term” 1868 (letter 5991). In late February of that year, volume one of RB’s Poetical Works (6 vols., 1868) is issued by his new publisher, Smith, Elder & Co.; succeeding volumes appear one per month.
Year: 2025
Primary URL: https://www.browningscorrespondence.com/
Primary URL Description: The Brownings' Correspndence: An Online Edition
Secondary URL: https://www.wedgestonepress.com/store/the-brownings-correspondence/the-brownings-correspondence-volume-32/39/
Secondary URL Description: Wedgestone Press (publisher website)
Access Model: Book and online open access
Publisher: Wedgestone Press
Type: Edited Volume
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 978-0-911459-4
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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