Letters of John Keats to his Family and Friends

Abstract

Assembled in 1891 by Sir Sidney Colvin (1845–1927), this collection of John Keats' correspondence contains 164 letters written to the poet's family and friends during his short life. Colvin was 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. He had a long-standing interest in Keats and eventually published a biography of the celebrated poet (also reissued in this series) in 1917. Among the letters included here are those written to Keats' publisher John Taylor, his sister Fanny Keats, his close friend Charles Armitage Brown, the artist Benjamin Haydon, writers John Hamilton Reynolds and Leigh Hunt and many others, providing a rich insight into the poet's character. The book also includes an explanatory preface containing background information and brief biographical sketches of Keats' correspondents.