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Theodore Watts-Dunton Collection
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Theodore Watts-Dunton was an English critic and poet. He is best remembered as the friend and caregiver of poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, whom he rescued from alcoholism. Later, he became a good friend of pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Watts-Dunton contributed regularly to the Examiner and to the Athenaeum from 1875 until 1898, being for more than twenty years the principal critic of poetry in the latter journal. He wrote widely for other publications and contributed several articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The collection consists of selected letters and a manuscript poem by Theodore Watts-Dunton. There are twenty-eight letters (1906-1913) to his friends Mr. and Mrs. Walter Jerrold, with a signed Christmas poem Watts-Dunton wrote for them, titled "A Gypsy Child's Christmas." There are eight letters (1905-1910) to editor Sir John Alexander Hammerton in which Watts-Dunton writes about George Meredith's tribute to Swinburne and gives Hammerton permission to reprint Swinburne's sonnet on Dickens and Watts-Dunton's own sonnet "Dickens Returns on Christmas Day." In his four letters (1913) to critic Francis Bickley, Watts-Dunton discusses Bickley's articles on Swinburne and on Matthew Prior. In a letter (1911) to the booksellers Henry Sotheran and Co., Watts-Dunton discusses his work Aylwin. Other correspondents include Ruth R. Chadwick, George Alexander Dewar, and Roden Noel.
The collection is arranged by accession number.
The collection was formed as a result of a Departmental practice of combining into one collection material of various accessions relating to a particular person, family, or subject.
Material in the collection was purchased from different sources over a period of several years.
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
Folder inventory added by Nicholas Williams '2015 in 2012.
No appraisal information is available.
People
Subject
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2008
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
Collection Inventory
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9 secretarial letters by Theodore Watts-Dunton, seven of them signed by him, to the journalist and publicist Sydney Walton, regarding an interview in the Morning Post, with references to Swinburne and Tennyson, and an assessment of his own merits
Physical Description1 folder