Romantic literature saved for the nation
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The greatest collection of Romantic literature in private hands, including a long-lost version of a poem by Coleridge, has been bought for the nation with the help of a £565,500 lottery grant.
The greatest collection of Romantic literature in private hands, including a long-lost version of a poem by Coleridge, has been bought for the nation with the help of a £565,500 lottery grant.
The collection, which includes the only complete set of Shelley first editions in Britain outside the British Library and rare editions of Keats, has been bought by the Wordsworth Trust. Many items will go on public display in a new centre in Grasmere next year.
The trust, which runs a museum dedicated to Wordsworth, has purchased the 1,300 items from Geoffrey Bindman, the human rights lawyer, for £640,000. The collection was started by his father Gerald, a GP who began to track down rare first editions in bookstores in the North-east in the 1920s, when they were still affordable.
Among the highlights are Annals of Fine Art 1820, the first publication of Keats's work, including "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode to a Grecian Urn", and a pirate edition of Shelley's Queen Mab, once thought so profane that the publisher was prosecuted. But the item that most excited the trust was an anthology that once belonged to Coleridge, containing his final annotations - long believed lost - to his early poem "Lewti".
Mr Bindman said he was sad to sell the books, but they were expensive to insure and needed environmentally controlled conditions. "I wanted the Wordsworth Trust to have them. I felt a certain responsibility," he said.
If the trust had not been able to raise the money, the collection would have been split up and sold at auction.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments