Poet Laureate Robert Southey signed letter to John May in Lives British Admirals
Lives of the British Admirals, with an Introductory View of the Naval History of England (VOLUME 1.) (1833) Longman, London
Personal letter to his friend John May revealing Southey's sentiment on writing these biographies.
At the time of the letter (1836) not all of the volumes had been published (and perhaps not completely written)
Letter is in pencil on front end page. Wear to boards, binding is intact.
Military Library stamp
throughout.
Robert Southey 12
August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and
Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a radical but became
steadily more conservative as he gained respect for Britain and its
institutions. Other romantics such as Byron accused him of siding with the establishment
for money and status. He is remembered especially for the poem "After
Blenheim" and the original version of "Goldilocks and the Three
Bears".