National Portrait Gallery (Great Britain)

David Crane

Stephen Hebron

Robert Woof

"First published to accompany the American tour of the National Portrait Gallery's Regency paintings in 2002"--T.p. verso.

Regency Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery London

Romantics & Revolutionaries

John Keats died at an early age, leaving what have become some of the best-known English poems, such as "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode to a Grecian Urn," "Ode to Melancholy" and "Ode to Autumn." In this biography of Keats, Stephen Hebron traces Keats' life and development as a poet, assessing his work in the context of the contemporary social and literary scene. After leaving school, Keats gained an apprenticeship to a surgeon and went on to qualify as an apothecary. But increasingly poetry dominated as his principal interest. He began to move in poetic and artistic circles, counting among his friends and acquaintances Leigh Hunt, Benjamin Haydon, Charles Lamb and Percy Bysshe Shelley and it was not long before his poetry was published regularly. Despite admiration of him by contemporary literary figures, reviewers were not as favourable and in his lifetime the majority of his poetry met with harsh criticism. Having lost his mother and brother to tuberculosis, Keats knew the signs of the illness when he too succumbed. Sent to Italy by his doctors to recuperate, he never returned, dying in Rome aged just 26. His poetry inspired Tennyson and Browning, and the pre-Raphaelite painter ranked him on a par with Dante, Homer, Chaucer and Goethe. Today, Keats is recognised as one of the great poets of the Romantic age, confirmation of his own assertion " I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death."

John Keats

Elizabeth Campbell Denlinger

Few families enjoy such a remarkable reputation for their contribution to the literature and intellectual life of Britain as the Godwins and the Shelleys. Yet this reputation was shaped in a subtle way by the selective release of literary manuscripts into the public realm and the suppression of others.This book explores the lives and posthumous reputations of Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley, and Mary's parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. It tells the story of how Mary Shelley, haunted by the past, directly sought to enhance the public's appreciation of her husband and parents by the selective publication of relevant manuscripts. It also explains how she passed on this legacy to her son, Sir Percy Florence Shelley and his wife, Jane, Lady Shelley. As guardian of the archive until giving part of it to the Bodleian in 1893-4, Lady Shelley too helped shape the posthumous reputations of these important writers.Drawing on the Bodleian Library's outstanding collections of letters, literary manuscripts, rare printed books and pamphlets, portraits and relics, including Shelley's working notebooks, a letter from Keats to Shelley, William Godwin's diary, and the original manuscripts of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Stephen Hebron charts the history of a family blessed with genius but marred by tragedy.The final chapter by Elizabeth C. Denlinger of the New York Public Library explores the material relating to the Shelley family that slipped beyond the family's control. Reproducing many of the archive documents and Shelley relics, this highly illustrated book accompanies an exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Dove Cottage, Grasmere and the New York Public Library.

Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family

Shelley's Ghost

This Collector's Edition of Marks of Genius designed in the Bodleian Library is quarterbound in Nigerian goatskin with gold tooling and blind blocking on the spine and front cover, and comes with a matching blocked, lined slipcase. It is limited to 350 individually numbered copies. Every copy is signed by the author and contains a hand-numbered limited declaration. Marks of Genius pays tribute to some of the most remarkable testaments to genius throughout human history, from ancient texts on papyrus and the extraordinary medieval manuscript The Douce Apocalypse to the renowned children's work The Wind in the Willows. Bringing together some of the most impressive treasures from the collections of the Bodleian Libraries, it tells the story of the creation of each work and its afterlife, offering insight into the breadth and depth of its influence as well as its power to fascinate. Illustrating works from Euclid, Dante and Handel to Einstein, Austen and Gandhi, Marks of Genius showcases over 100 books and manuscripts that constitute the pinnacle of human creativity and which we continue to revere and revisit. More information on the Collector's Edition: Limited to 350 copies Printed on Tatami paper with coloured inks Handbound in Finedon, Northamptonshire by the Fine Bindery in Nigerian goatskin Quarter binding and faux vellum, with edges also tipped in goatskin Blocked blind and in gold Presented in a lined slipcase bound in faux vellum with a blind blocked panel and raised printing

Stephen Hebron

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