The annotated letters of Christopher Smart
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The annotated letters of Christopher Smart
Southern Illinois University Press, c1991
Available at 2 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The only collection of all known letters of Christopher Smart provides the best psychological explanation to date of that complex and elusive eighteenth-century poet.
The significant characteristics that distinguish Smart s prose letters from his poetry, Betty Rizzo and Robert Mahony note, are that his letters were requests for assistance while his verses were bequests, gifts in which he set great store. Indeed, it was Smart s lifelong conviction that he was a poet of major importance.
As Smart biographer Karina Williamson notes, "The splendidly informative and vivaciously written accounts of the circumstances surrounding each letter, or group of letters, add up to what is in effect a miniature biography.""
by "Nielsen BookData"