Call Number:

C1325

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

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

Date:

1889-1897 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Dowson, Ernest Christopher (1867-1900)

Form:

Letters. -- 19th century

Abstract:

Consists of selected letters, both in English and French, by the nineteetnh-century English poet and novelist Ernest Christopher Dowson. His correspondents include other writers, poets, journalists, and editors from France and England.

Ernest Christopher Dowson was a nineteenth-century English poet, novelist, and writer of short stories associated with the "Decadent Movement". He attended The Queen's College, Oxford, but left before obtaining a degree. He led an active social life while working assiduously at his writing. Dowson was a member of the Rhymers' Club, which included W. B. Yeats and Lionel Johnson. He was also a frequent contributor to the literary magazines The Yellow Book and The Savoy. In August 1894, his father died of tuberculosis complications. His mother, who was also consumptive, hanged herself a few months later, and Dowson began to decline rapidly. Robert Sherard, the journalist, found him almost penniless in a wine bar and took him back to his own home. Dowson spent the last six weeks of his life at Sherard's house and died there of alcoholism at the age of 32.

The collection consists of selected letters of the English poet and novelist Ernest Dowson, some of which are unpublished. Dowson's correspondents are other authors, poets, and editors of his time. There are two letters to Henry Davray, the French author and journalist with the Mercure de France. One of the letters is in French, where Dowson asks Davray to send him a copy of Liaisons Dangereuses; in his second, Dowson asks to be introduced to someone in the Mercure. There are eight letters to the English poet Victor Plarr, and in one letter Dowson suggests that they publish a joint book of poetry, proposing a title and a price. Included with this letter is a manuscript poem by Plarr, which Plarr suggested to be the title poem for their book. On the verso of another letter to Plarr, written on Jan. 16, 1893, is a manuscript copy of Dowson's poem "Terre Promise." After 1895, having lost both parents, Dowson began to decline rapidly, which can be seen in his letters to the London publisher Leonard Smithers, to whom Dowson complains about his declining health and poverty. In a letter to the British poet and editor Arthur Symons, dated Nov. 15, 1894, Dowson writes an epigram, "Pygmalion au Rebound." In another long letter to Symons, dated July 5, 1896, Dowson asks him to tone down certain phrases in an article he is writing about Dowson.

Also included are photostats of letters to Plarr, Davray, and Smithers.