Algernon Charles Swinburne Collection

An inventory of the collection at Syracuse University

Overview of the Collection
Creator:	Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 1837-1909.
Title:	Algernon Charles Swinburne Collection
Inclusive Dates:	1858-1948
Quantity:	1 linear ft.
Abstract:	Papers of the English poet, author.
Abstract:	76 outgoing letters; 8 items of incoming correspondence; 32 letters by Swinburne's contemporaries, some mentioning him; ms. poems and miscellaneous writings by Swinburne; 6 ms. items by others; and a small amount of Swinburne miscellany, including a photograph, a watercolor drawing by Pauline Trevelyan, and a reproduction of a Swinburne caricature by Carlo Pellegrini. Includes letters by William Allingham, Laurence Alma-Tadema, Edward Burne-Jones, Edmund Gosse, Victor Hugo, Benjamin Jowett, E. Lynn Linton, Frederick Locker-Lampson, William M. Rossetti, Richard Herne Shepherd, and Ellen Terry.
Language:	English
Repository:	Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 http://scrc.syr.edu

Biographical History

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a Victorian era English poet. He was born in London to Admiral Charles Henry Swinburne and Lady Jane Henrietta, a daughter of George, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, but grew up on the Isle of Wight. Swinburne attended Eton college and then Balliol College, Oxford where he took several prizes for French and Italian but was "rusticated" (temporarily expelled) from the university in 1859. He is considered one of the Pre-Raphaelites, a collective term for a group of English artists, poets, critics and writers which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and William Holman Hunt. Two early works, Atalanta in Calydon (1865) and Poems and Ballads, First Series (1866), established him as England's premier poet, though critics have noted with disfavor his florid style and his tendency to choose words for their fitness to rhyme scheme rather than their contribution to the meaning of a piece.

Besides his poetry, Swinburne was active as a critic, and authored several volumes of literary criticism including Note on Charlotte Brontë (1880), Study of Shakespeare (1877), and The Age of Shakespeare (1909). His criticism was less reasoned than passionate, being strongly influenced by his personal likes and dislikes.

His personal life was chaotic owing to his excitable temperament, which was not improved by his excessive drinking, and a fondness for portraying himself as a master of vices of all kinds (though Oscar Wilde alleged that Swinburne's vices were all invented fictions, calling him "a braggart in matters of vice, who had done everything he could to convince his fellow citizens of his homosexuality and bestiality without being in the slightest degree a homosexual or a bestializer."). In 1879 his legal advisor Theodore Watts-Dunton persuaded him to adopt a healthier lifestyle; as a result of this and of his increasing deafness he saw less of those of his friends who were a negative influence. Swinburne lived the rest of his days at "The Pines," Watts-Dunton's house outside London. He died of influenza in 1909.

[Portions of this biographical sketch adapted from "A. C. Swinburne: Biography" by Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English, University of Tennessee at Martin.]

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

Spanning 1858 to 1948, the Algernon Charles Swinburne Collection consists of Correspondence, Writings, and Miscellany pertaining to the 19th century English poet and author (1837-1909). The Correspondence comprises 76 outgoing letters, 10 incoming letters, and 32 letters, some referring to Swinburne, written by his contemporaries. Manuscript poems and miscellaneous writings (41 items), writings by others (6 items), and assorted material relating to Swinburne constitute the remainder of the collection. Cecil Y. Lang's The Swinburne Letters (1959-1962), as well as the curatorial files of John S. Mayfield housed in the Department of Special Collections, were used to establish many of the names and dates found in this inventory.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions on this material.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Subjects

Genres and Forms

Occupations

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Algernon Charles Swinburne Collection
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library

Acquisition Information

Assembled through gifts by John S. Mayfield and Library purchases.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: ASE
Date: May 1994
Revision history: 18 Apr 2007 - converted to EAD (AMCon)

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Inventory

	Correspondence
		Correspondence of Swinburne
Box 1			Charlemont (Lady) no year Je 20
Box 1			Appleton, C. E. no year D 18
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund undated
Box 1			Hatch, Edwin undated
Box 1			Meredith (Mrs.) undated
Box 1			Tupper, Martin F. undated
Box 1			Venturi, Emilie Ashurst no year Ja 9
Box 1			Watts-Dunton, Theodore undated
Box 1			"Dear Sir" (2) undated
Box 1			Hatch, Edwin 1858 F 17
Box 1			Brown 1864 Jl 5
Box 1			Ruskin, John 1866 Mr 21?
Box 1			Knight, Joseph 1866 Ag 4
Box 1			Hotten, John Camden 1866 S 20
Box 1			Rossetti, William Michael (fragment) 1866 O 15
Box 1			Hotten, John Camden 1866 N 4
Box 1			Hotten, John Camden 1866 N 6
Box 1			unidentified (fragment) 1866?
Box 1			Stoddard, Richard Henry 1867 Ja 1
Box 1			Taylor, Bayard 1867 Mr 18
Box 1			Routledge, Edmund 1867 D 11
Box 1			Collingwood, J. Frederick? 1868 Ja 31
Box 1			"My Dear Sir" 1868 My 14
Box 1			Haweis, Hugh Reginald 1870 F 13
Box 1			Haweis, Hugh Reginald 1870 My?
Box 1			Ellis, F. S. 1870 Ag 26
Box 1			Forman, H. Buxton 1872 Ja 22
Box 1			Watts-Dunton, Theodore 1875 Ja 20
Box 1			Jeremiah, John 1875 N 20
Box 1			Hueffer, Francis 1875 D 11
Box 1			"Sir" 1876 Ja 15
Box 1			Watts-Dunton, Theodore 1876 Ap 19
Box 1			Bentley, Richard 1876 Jl 27
Box 1			Hayne, Paul Hamilton 1877 Mr 20
Box 1			Pfeiffer, J. E. 1877 Mr 22
Box 1			"Dear Sir" 1877 Je 12
Box 1			Chatto, Andrew 1878 Ja 31
Box 1			Watts-Dunton, Theodore 1878 F 7
Box 1			Forman, H. Buxton (subscription) 1878 Ap 23
Box 1			Forman, H. Buxton 1878 D 8
Box 1			Chatto, Andrew 1879 Jl 14
Box 1			Rossetti, William Michael 1879 N 15
Box 1			Rossetti, William Michael 1879 N 27
Box 1			Pearson, John 1880 O 12
Box 1			"Dear Sir" 1880 O 14
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund 1881 Mr 1
Box 1			Chatto, Andrew 1881 Ap 4
Box 1			"Sir" 1881?
Box 1			Chatto, Andrew 1882 F 26
Box 1			Forman, H. Buxton 1882 Ap 17
Box 1			Forman, H. Buxton 1882 Jl 29
Box 1			Purnell, Thomas 1884 F 14
Box 1			Locker-Lampson, Frederick 1886 Mr 24
Box 1			Pollington (Lord) 1887 Ja 11
Box 1			Patrick, David 1887 Ja 27
Box 1			Arnold, Edwin 1887 My 1
Box 1			Nutt, Alfred T. 1888 Ap 22
Box 1			unidentified 1888 O 4
Box 1			Black, William 1888 N 4
Box 1			Every, Frederic 1889 Mr 14
Box 1			Graves, Charles L. 1889 Jl 29
Box 1			"Dear Sir" 1892 O 10
Box 1			Knowles, James Thomas 1895 Mr 19
Box 1			Watts-Dunton, Theodore 1896 Jl 20
Box 1			Grosart, Alexander Balloch 1898 Je 16
Box 1			"Dear Sir" 1898 Je 25
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund 1899 Mr 1
Box 1			Swinburne (Lady) 1899 Je 9
Box 1			Ingersoll, Eva Farrell 1899 D 5
Box 1			Heinemann, W. 1901 Ja 10
Box 1			Saturday Review (receipt) 1901 Ja 12
Box 1			Swinburne sisters (postmarked Ap 9) 1901 Ap 16
Box 1			Payne, John 1902 S 28
Box 1			Grainger, H. A. 1903 Jl 27
Box 1			Earle, Algie 1906 Je 7
		Incoming correspondence
Box 1			Aubertin, John James 1878 Je 2
Box 1			Black, William 1888 N 7
Box 1			Dalston & Son 1867 Ja 1
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund 1879 D 31
Box 1			Harrison, Edwin 1876 My 22
Box 1			Lytton-Bulwer, Edward 1866 Ag 5
Box 1			Morley, John 1874 Ag 15
Box 1			Morley, John 1880 Jl 11
Box 1			Powell, George 1877 Ag 9
Box 1			Venturi, Emilie Ashurst 1886 Je 5
		Correspondence of others
Box 1			Allingham, William (to Knowles) no year Je 9
Box 1			Alma-Tadema, Laurence (to Young, W. P.) 1893 Mr 28
Box 1			Buchanan, Robert (to Clarke, Campbell) 1872 Ag 22
Box 1			Burne-Jones, Edward (to Shaw, R. Norman) 1886 (2 letters)
Box 1			Currie, James (to Swinburne, John) 1803 Ag 8
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund (to Stuart (Mr.)) 1884 S 24
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund (to Ward, William C.) 1892 Ap 9
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund (to Ward, William C.) 1892 Ap 11
Box 1			Gosse, Edmund (to Ward, William C.) 1893 F 23
Box 1			Greene, Fannie H. (to Hotten, John Camden) undated
Box 1			Hugo, Victor (to Haweis, Hugh Reginald) 1870 Ap 24
Box 1			Jowett, Benjamin (to Holland, H. M.) 1877 D 21
Box 1			Lambe, John Lawrence (to Ellis (Mr.)) 1920 Mr 8
Box 1			Linton, E. Lynn (to unidentified) 1868 My 23
Box 1			Linton, E. Lynn (to unidentified) 1890 N 27
Box 1			Linton, E. Lynn (to unidentified) 1893 Ja 19
Box 1			Locker-Lampson, F. (to unidentified) no year F 24
Box 1			Masefield, John (to Mayfield, J. S.) 1952 D 2
Box 1			Moreton, R. L. (to Gosse, Philip) 1948 Ag 14
Box 1			Morley, John (to Austin (Mr.)) 1881 My? 5
Box 1			Mosher, Thomas Bird (to unidentified) 1902 My 30
Box 1			Rossetti, Christina (to Heimann (Mrs.)) 1864 D 14
Box 1			Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (to Shorter (Mr.)) no year N 11
Box 1			Rossetti, William M. (to unidentified) 1850 F 18
Box 1			Rossetti, William M. (to Sandys, Frederick) 1884 Ap 8
Box 1			Rossetti, William M. (to Anthony, Constance) 1895? Ap 12
Box 1			Shepherd, Richard Herne (to Kitton, F. G.) 1884 Ja 23
Box 1			Shepherd, Richard Herne (to Kitton, F. G.) 1885 D 5
Box 1			Shepherd, Richard Herne (to Kitton, F. G.) 1886 Ja 6
Box 1			Shepherd, Richard Herne (to Kitton, F. G.) 1886 Mr 8
Box 1			Terry, Ellen (to Watts-Dunton, T.) 1904 S 2

	Writings
		Writings of Swinburne
Box 2			"Adieux a Marie Stuart"
Box 2			Ah, what is it to give up all! . . .
Box 2			"Autumn in Cornwall"
Box 2			Ballad of Life (fragment)
Box 2			"Before Dawn"
Box 2			"Birthday Ode" [to Victor Hugo]
Box 2			"Chanson" (photostat only)
Box 2			Chastelard
Box 2			Chastelard (fragment) / Italian poem (verso)
Box 2			The Cup of God's Wrath (photostat only)
Box 2			"The Death of Richard Wagner"
Box 2			"Elegy 1869-1891"
Box 2			"Frank Fane" ; "Will Drew and Phil Crewe"
Box 2			"Government of Florence"
Box 2			"Hawthorne Tide"
Box 2			"In San Lorenzo" (photostats only)
Box 2			"An Interlude"
Box 2			Lines from a respectable rat-catcher
Box 2			"The Litany of Nations"
Box 2			Love's Cross Currents / A Year's Letters
Box 2			Lyrical poem - untitled
Box 2			"Mary Beaton"
Box 2			"Nell Gwyn"
Box 2			Nevertheless there was. . .
Box 2			"A New Year's Message to Joseph Mazzini"
Box 2			Notes on Aeschylus
Box 2			"An Old Saying"
Box 2			"On the Death of Louis Blanc"
Box 2			"On the Death of Sir Henry Taylor"
Box 2			"On the Distinction between Annals and History"
Box 2			Pocket notebook
Box 2			"Rondel"
Box 2			"Satia te Sanguine"
Box 2			The sun & the wind & the spring. . .
Box 2			Untitled play
Box 2			"What He Was Not"
			"Will Drew and Phil Crewe"
				See "Frank Fane" ; "Will Drew and Phil Crewe"
Box 2			"William the Ranter on William the Canter"
Box 2			The Young Tamlane
			Miscellany
Box 2				Quotations of others in Swinburne's hand
Box 2				John Heath book
Box 2				The Standard (London, England) 17 Mar. 1884
		Writings of others
Box 2			Gosse, Edmund Life of A. C. Swinburne (ms. notebook)
Box 2			Gosse, Philip Henry "Sanguinaria"
Box 2			Hugo, Victor "Les Enfants Pauvres"
Box 2			Rossetti, Dante Gabriel "The entail"; also "Venus Verticordia"
Box 2			Scott, Clement William "Quid Foemina Possit"
Box 2			unidentified prose fragment (French)

	Miscellaneous
Box 2		Bank check signed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Box 2		Caricature of A. C. Swinburne by Carlo Pellegrini
Box 2		Certificates (4) - Balliol College (copies only)
Box 2		List of Poems and Ballads recipients
Box 2		Material relating to Lesbia Brandon assembled by R. Hughes
Box 2		Photograph of A. C. Swinburne by Thomas Ashburnham
Box 2		Watercolor drawing of A. C. Swinburne by Pauline Trevelyan.

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