Call Number:

C0208

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 6 boxes
• 3 volumes
• 2.6 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); George H. Boker Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1847-1888 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Boker, George H. (George Henry), 1823-1890

Form:

Correspondence., Manuscripts, American -- 19th century., Plays., and Poems.

Abstract:

Consists chiefly of manuscripts of poems and plays by George H. Boker, a nineteenth-century American dramatist and poet.

George Henry Boker was a playwright, poet, patriot and diplomat. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1842. He was the founder and the first editor of the Nassau Monthly. He published two volumes of poetry, wrote a number of plays, and served as United States Minister to Turkey and Russia. His most successful play was the verse tragedy Francesca da Rimini.

The collection consists chiefly of manuscripts of poems and plays by Boker (Princeton Class of 1842). Most of the eleven plays in the collection appear in several versions; generally, there is an autograph manuscript and typescript copy for each, but for many of the plays there are also revised versions and actors' copies. Francesca da Rimini, for example, is represented by five versions dated from 1853 to 1882. Other plays included in the collection are All the World a Mask, Anne Boleyn, Glaucus, and The Widow's Marriage. There are folders containing Boker's poems and sonnets, both published and unpublished. Many of these are complete; several appear to be fragments, notes, or drafts. Also present is some original correspondence, typescript copies of 102 letters to Richard Henry Stoddard (1849-1869), and a poem "To J. Lorimer Graham, Jr., November 16, 1866."