Additions in 2022 to the Swinburne collection of Rikky Rooksby at Balliol College
In November 2022 Balliol acquired two letters by the Victorian poet and critic A. C. Swinburne from Rikky Rooksby’s remaining collection, the bulk of which came to the college in 2013.
The first letter (March 1867) is addressed from the Arts Club to George Meredith, with Swinburne playfully referring to Bradshaw’s Railways Timetable as ‘the present writer of double acrostics’. The second from 1907 (Swinburne died in 1909), written at ‘The Pines’ in Putney, is addressed to his last surviving sister, Isabel. It accompanies a facsimile edition of Coleridge’s poem Christabel which Swinburne has signed. The four-page letter has comments about Coleridge, the book, and descriptions of nature from one of Swinburne’s daily walks on Wimbledon Common.
Additional gifts by Rooksby are recent editions of Swinburne by Alex Wong and Francis O’Gorden; a collection of essays Swinburne: Unofficial Laureate (with a note from one of the editors Catherine Maxwell); Margot K. Louis’ study Swinburne and his Gods (with a letter from Louis); Jerome McGann’s study Swinburne An Experiment in Criticism (with a letter from McGann); a letter from John D. Rosenberg to go with his 1968 Selected Poetry and Prose of Swinburne (already in the collection); Swinburneiana (1974) signed by its author John S. Mayfield and with a second presentation signature from Terry L. Meyers to Rooksby; Karl Beetz’s Secondary Bibliography of Swinburne Criticism (1981); a second US edition of The Tale of Balen; and a new paperback of Swinburne’s early French skit La Fille du policeman in the Petite Bibliotheque Ombres series (2007).
A further gift of two signed Swinburne biographies mean that the Rooksby Swinburne collection at Balliol now has biographical works signed by Sir Edmund Gosse, Clara Watts-Dunton, Georges Lafourcade, Humphry Hare, Jean Overton Fuller, Philip Henderson, and Donald Thomas. Signed copies of Henderson’s 1974 Swinburne: The Portrait of a Poet are rare, and this one is special because it was presented to Cecil Y. Lang, editor of the six-volume The Swinburne Letters and founding father of modern Swinburne studies.
Swinburne books given to Balliol College by Jeremy Mitchell
In 2019 independent scholar Jeremy Mitchell gave his collection of books relating to A. C. Swinburne to the college. Mr Mitchell has an MA in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford. Formerly the Director of the UK National Consumer Council, he is the author and editor of a number of books and articles, including a 1965 essay (later reprinted) on Swinburne in Yale French Studies. His wife Janet Powney has a PhD from the University of East Anglia and is an educational researcher and published author.
Based in Edinburgh, over many years they researched the life of Swinburne’s cousin Mary Gordon (later Mrs Disney Leith, 1840-1926) and her family, authored her DNB entry, and published articles about her in journals such as The Victorian and Hampshire Studies. In June 2019 their article “Romance, Death and other Predicaments: Guidance for the Young in the Fiction of Mary Gordon (Mrs. Disney Leith)” was a chapter in The Lure of Story-Books: Scottish Children’s Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century, edited by Sarah Dunnigan and shu-Fanh lai. (Copies of most of these were donated by Mitchell.)
Mary Gordon became widely acknowledged as a central figure in Swinburne’s life following a 1959 PMLA article ‘Swinburne’s Lost Love’ in which Cecil Y. Lang identified her as the probable inspiration for the poem ‘The Triumph of Time’. A manuscript of this poem is part of Balliol’s original Swinburne archive. With only three years difference in age, Swinburne and his cousin had known each other since childhood. It seems to have come as a shock to the poet when late in 1864 he was told she would be marrying Col. Robert Disney Leith, a retired soldier 17 years older than her. This caused a break in contact between the cousins, though Swinburne maintained a correspondence with Mary’s mother. When her husband died early in the 1890s Mary and Swinburne resumed their contacts.
From the 1960s onwards Swinburne researchers strove to find out more about Mary, who published a dozen or so novels, three volumes of poetry, several books about Iceland, a country she visited many times later in life, and a small selection from the Swinburne family letters to which she had access. Mary’s books are very difficult to find. Consequently, in the course of their research Janet Powney had to spend many hours reading them in the National Library of Scotland (fortunately, the Bodleian Library has examples of most of them.)
Mitchell’s Swinburne-material features one fine association copy: J. C. Atkinson’s Forty Years in a Moorland Parish (1891) signed by Swinburne to his mother Lady Jane Swinburne. In Terry L. Meyers’ edition of Uncollected Swinburne Letters (III, 145) a note of February 20, 1899 has Swinburne asking Mary if she has ever read this book.
There is a good run of most of the original works Swinburne published during his lifetime via Edward Moxon, John Camden Hotten or Chatto & Windus, and a selection of critical and biographical studies. It starts with the poet’s second book Atalanta in Calydon in a blue Moxon binding (1865), a rebound Hotten edition from 1866, and red and blue bindings of the 1868 edition. There are two examples of the American printing. There are four copies (two bound) of the paperbound Tauchnitz Atalanta and Lyrical Poems later edited by William Sharp. His third book Chastelard is represented by an unopened 1865 Moxon first edition in blue; an 1868 edition by Hotten also in blue; and two of the 1878 Chatto & Windus printing.
Swinburne’s fourth volume, the controversial Poems and Ballads (1866) is present in three 1866 first editions by Moxon; four second issues by Hotten, and two American editions (re-titled Laus Veneris), from 1866 (in brown cloth) and 1868 (in green cloth). These examples of Swinburne’s works of 1865 and 1866 will be valuable to any scholars exploring the as-yet fully documented history of their printings and textual variants. Also present are first editions of Swinburne’s defence of his poems, Notes on Poems and Reviews, and William Michael Rossetti’s essay on them.
Of Swinburne’s later publications, the Mitchell gift includes most of the Chatto titles after Songs Before Sunrise (F.S.Ellis, 1871), including Bothwell in single and two-volume forms, Erechtheus (1876), Studies in Song (1880), Song of the Springtides (1880), a second edition of Locrine (1896) signed by Edith Sitwell, Astrophel (1894, bookplate of Michael Sadler), the second and third series of Poems and Ballads, and an American edition of The Sisters (1892), and others.
It was amusing to discover that Mitchell’s copy of the pale orange pamphlet of Swinburne’s Ode on the Proclamation of the French Republic (1870) is unopened, as was the example in my collection. Either this was a poem some purchasers were not eager to read, or they were keen to preserve the future value of a pristine copy. (The poem was reprinted in Songs of Two Nations in 1875). Another limited pamphlet is the poem A Word for the Navy in the ‘popular edition’ (George Redway, 1896).
The world of private press Swinburne is represented by Songs Before Sunrise (Florence Press, 1909, in a white/gold Heinemann binding); Laus Veneris, Atalanta in Calydon and Tristram of Lyonesse in turn-of-the-century limited printings by Thomas Mosher of Portland, Maine; and Albert Wainwright’s 1926 printing of the poem Cleopatra. The limited edition Riccardi Press Atalanta of 1923 and the OUP facsimile of 1930 are present; The Springtide of Life and a Selected Poems have illustrations by Arthur Rackham and Harry Clarke respectively. There are also a number of other smaller private press printings in a separate folder.
The famous Swinburne collector John S. Mayfield is represented by the limited edition Hide and Seek (1975), a printing of Swinburne’s Le Prince Proletaire (1963) and an issue of the Syracuse Courier which has Swinburne’s undergraduate On the Duties of a University Toward the Nation.
The publishing of Swinburne’s works in America is also marked by a volume of Swinburne dramas edited by Beatty (Crowell, 1909), David MacKay’s Swinburne Works vol 1, and the selections in the Home Library edited by A. L. Burt (1904).
A great many of Swinburne’s poems and essays first appeared in Victorian periodicals such as The Nineteenth Century and the English Illustrated Magazine. The Mitchell collection has a few of these, either as cuttings or the original issues. With publication dates between 1879-1895 the poems ‘Les Casquettes’, ‘A Ballad of Sark’, ‘The Interpreters’, ‘An Autumn Vision’, ‘The Union – a song’, ‘Astrophel’, ‘Elegy’, and ‘Trafalgar Day’ are present. The Gentleman’s Magazine for August, 1879 contains Swinburne’s ‘Note on the Historical Play of King Edward III’. A Mermaid edition of the plays of Thomas Middleton edited by Havelock Ellis and an edition of Pericles edited by Sidney Lee (1907) have prefaces by Swinburne.
Two final items. A possibly unknown anonymous review of Swinburne’s pioneering William Blake appears in The Broadway Annual, a miscellany of poetry and prose (Routledge, 1868) alongside such writers as Clement Scott, Robert Buchanan, W. S. Gilbert, W. M. Rossetti and G. A. Sala. A very unusual piece of Swinburneiana: a parody ‘Algernon Charles Swinburne. An Ode, Apparently to Freedom by ACS’ which carries the footnote: ‘This valuable unpublished MSS, has been kindly contributed for publication in Indian Ink. The Indian Imperial War Fund Annual, Xmas 1918, Calcutta.’ This parody was written by W. C. Wordsworth, about whom Mitchell has provided a biographical note. As he commented to me, “Perhaps this is the only surviving copy in the world, unless there is one in the University of Calcutta library.”
Rikky Rooksby
ACS editions
Atalanta 7 copies; 4 Tauchnitz ed by Sharp two bound and two unbound, 1905 new edition rebound, Rebound 1866 small size Moxon blue 1865 ads Nov 1865, 3rd edition Hotten 1868 blue and red
Golden Pine 1928
ACS contributions to:
Mermaid edition of Thomas Middleton ACS / Ellis bkpl David Garnett Hilton Hall Huntingdon n.d
Shakespeare Pericles ed Sidney Lee NY George D Sproud MCMVII intro by ACS
1879-1895 original periodical publication of Les Casquettes, A Ballad of Sark, The Interpreters, An Autumn Vision, The Union – a song, Astrophel, Elegy, Trafalgar Day, some cuttings some original magazine.
Selections
Beatty Dramas Crowell 1909 vol 1 (same as RR?)
David MacKay Works vol 1 rebound n.d.
A L Burt Selections The Home Library poems arr in alphabetical order USA n.d. circa 1904?
Heinemann anthology The windmill includes poem ‘Love’ and facsimilea ‘What boots us to have heard’
Miscellaneous
Broadway ori miscellany of poetry and prose Routledge 1868? With contrib by Clement Scott, R Buchanan, W S Gilbert, W M Rossetti G A Sala
Includes anon review of ACS Essay on Blake which takes a critical view of ACS
Pierce Arrow Susan Howe poems New Directions 1999?
Algernon Charles Swinburne. An Ode, Apparently to Freedom by ACS p.53 (satire)
Anon parody footnoted ‘This valuable unpublished MSS, has been kindly contributed for publication in Indian Ink The Indian Imperial War Fund Annual Xmas 1918 Calcutta
‘With reference to the Swinburne parody in Indian Ink, you will see that I have loosely inserted a note about the author. Perhaps this is the only surviving copy in the world, unless there is one in the University of Calcutta library.’
Gent Mag Aug 1879 note on Hist play of King Edward III pt 1 ACS parody?
Prince Napoleon by Justin McCarthy
R Hughes ? 21 March 1955 Tunbridge Wells
Anthea Ingham Dreams of Impossible Pangs 2014 novel about ACS (a kind of biog)
The Dark Angel Fraser Harrison Aspects of Victorian Sexuality 1878 ACS not in the index
The Pines Sothebys auction March 22 1939
C WD death ? 17 1938
Bonchurch Biliog vol separate
London Mercury Dec 1920 Goss on ACS and Kirkup
Nov 1920 2 new poems A Feb Roundel ‘the heavy day hangs’ and A reminiscence ‘the rose to thr wind has yielded
Writings and speeches of R Monckton Milnes Lord Houghton in the last year of his life signed by his sister H Galway 1888 presented to Lady Mollam pr prin Chiswick Press 1888
Horizon 95 Nov 1957 H Hare article also Stravinsky as Symphonist; 114 June Hare article
Jeremy Mitchell has an MA in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford. Formerly the Director of the UK National Consumer Council, he is the author and editor of a number of books and articles. Janet Powney has a PhD from the University of East Anglia and is an educational researcher and published author. They have published a number of articles on the life and works of Swinburne’s cousin Mary Gordon (Mrs Disney Leith 1840-1926)
DNB article on her
Published on ACS and MG in the Victorian (2013); Yale French Studies 1999; Hampshire Studies 2014
3rd edition of the Children of the Chapel in 1910 was the first to acknowledge ACS as joint writer?
Their book: The catchy title is “Romance, Death and other Predicaments: Guidance for the Young in the Fiction of Mary Gordon (Mrs.Disney Leith)” in The Lure of Story-Books: Scottish Children’s Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century, ed. Sarah Dunnigan and shu-Fanh lai. Edinburgh: Association of Scottish Literary Studies, June 2019.
Romance, Death, and other Predicaments: Guidance for the Young in the Fiction of Mary Gordon (Mrs Disney Leith) (Janet Powney and Jeremy Mitchell)V: Fairytale and Fantasy
THE LAND OF STORY-BOOKS:
Scottish Children’s Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century
Occasional Papers series No. 23
Edited by Sarah Dunnigan & Shu-Fang Lai
Published in: Paperback.
By: Scottish Literature International, 2019.
‘Her younger son, Robert Thomas Disney Leith, died of the plague on 21 April 1898 while serving as an officer in India. Her elder son, Alexander Henry (Alick), by then Lord Burgh, died a few months after she did, on 19 August 1926. My understanding is that at the time he was living at North Court, but I cannot lay my hands on any definitive evidence of this. Come to think of it,I may be wrong, as there were big sales of the contents of North Court at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in June and July that year, so perhaps he had moved out.’
‘Janet performed the Herculean task of reading all the Mary Gordon novels in the National Library of Scotland, attracting sidelong glances from readers at neighbouring tables as she wept quietly at the death of yet another young child. The originals are almost impossible to find. We have only come across a couple in the last 40 years or so. There are some reprints, but I have come to be sceptical about these. We bought one of one of her books of poems only to find that the whole thing was nonsense, with whole poems run into each other and no line breaks. Not a novel, but we do have a spare copy of her Three Visits to Iceland, which is actually very readable and gives a good insight into the way she observed her surroundings and what she thought was important.
Historic Collections @Balliol 