Call Number:

C0148

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 2 items
• 0.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Philip James Bailey Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1855-1946 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Bailey, Philip James, 1816-1902

Form:

Correspondence and Manuscripts.

Abstract:

The Philip James Bailey Collection consists of correspondence, clippings, and miscellanea of the English poet Philip James Bailey (1816-1902).

Philip James Bailey was born April 22, 1816 in Nottingham, England. Although a noted poet and literary critic, Bailey's education background was in law, which he studied at the University of Glasgow and in London. He never practiced law, but instead chose to pursue his childhood interest in poetry with the support of his father. He is best known for his first work: Festus: A Poem. His later works did not attract as much praise, but Bailey remained revered in the British literary circle. Bailey eventually retired to Nottingham, where he died on September 6, 1902 from influenza.

Consists primarily of correspondence by Bailey to a selection of correspondents, including letters by both Bailey and his wife, Anna Sophia, to Bailey's nephew John H. Brown. There are also two letters by Bailey to unknown correspondents, and letters written to Bailey, one each by Francis Foster Barham and John H. Brown. The remaining miscellaneous items in the collection include an autobiographical sketch by Bailey, a photograph of Bailey, a page proof of Universal Hymn, and assorted clippings. In addition, there are two bound volumes that belong to the collection but are housed separately: Bailey's The Mystic and Other Poems interleaved and bound with pages of autograph notes and additional verse by the author, and extracts from letters of Bailey to John H. Brown, possibly in Brown's autograph.

Note that two printed volumes by Bailey, both with autograph notes by the author and his wife, which were formerly included in the collection, have been transferred to the Rare Books Division: the tenth edition of A Poem (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1877), and the eleventh edition (fiftieth-anniversary edition) of A Poem (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1889).

Titles of bound volumes in the collection: bd. vol. no. 1 = Bailey, Philip James, The Mystic and Other Poems (London: Chapman and Hall, 1855) (interleaved and bound with pages of autograph notes and additional verse by the author) bd. vol. no. 2 = Extracts from letters of Bailey to John H. Brown, 1857-1885, possibly in Brown's autograph.

The following standard abbreviations, or their variations, are used to identify materials in this collection: ALS = autograph letter signed and AMs = autograph manuscript.

Organized into the following series: