Wordsworth and Coleridge Manuscripts

The friendship and partnership between William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge is one of the most legendary in the history of literature. The duo composed together, traveled together and even lived within miles of each other for much of their lives. While the camaraderie between these two Lake Poets has been well documented, this book lends new insights into the importance of their friendship not just in the creation of their poetry, but also the English Romantic movement. Included in the book are a series of manuscripts set forth by T. Norton Longman, as well as detailed descriptions of each.  Careful study of these manuscripts reveals the extent to which Wordsworth and Coleridge, and even Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy, composed their poetry collaboratively. The poets’ intermixed handwriting  shows that many of the most famous Romantic Era poems were the result of a joint intellectual endeavor. Not only does the book demonstrate the poets’ group effort, but perusing the collection also illuminates the writing process itself. The book highlights several examples of revisions and improvements to poems such as Wordsworth’s "The Idiot Boy" and Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In addition to the manuscripts themselves, the book contains respective transcripts of the poems and letters to make for easy reading.