Thousands of letters written by the controversial Poet Laureate Robert Southey (1774-1843) are to be published in full and for the first time on a free access website. Once complete The Collected Letters of Robert Southey will contain some 7,000 letters penned between 1791 and 1839.
This major new edition, which will be complete in 2014, is being undertaken by a team of internationally acknowledged experts led by
Dr Lynda Pratt from the School of English Studies. As well as establishing a unique resource, this project provides a radical reassessment of a writer recently described as the 'missing link' in British Romanticism.
The 'Collected Letters' commenced in 2006 and is currently funded by a Resource Enhancement Grant of over £360,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Dr Pratt and her fellow researchers have trawled the manuscripts of 215 archives dispersed throughout the world, from Brazil to Siberia. As well as bringing to light hundreds of new letters by Southey, their research has uncovered other important finds, including the medical records of his first wife, Edith, (who was committed to an asylum) and a new Southey portrait.
The
'Collected Letters' are available on a free access website and are therefore available to all.
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Posted on Friday 19th February 2010