The Letters of John Keats

The Letters of John Keats Synopsis

This book, published in 1895 for the centenary of the celebrated Romantic poet John Keats (1795–1821), was edited by Harry Buxton Forman (1842–1917). Forman was a Post Office administrator and a keen literary scholar, who had earlier produced important editions of Shelley and Keats. He has since become notorious for his involvement in making fake literary 'discoveries'. This centenary collection of 214 'racy, lively, inimitably good-tempered' letters by Keats aimed for completeness and contained several previously unpublished communications to addressees such as the Jeffrey family. It includes letters from Keats to his brother George (1797–1841), who lived in America, and to his fiancée Fanny Brawne (1800–65). Forman's edition of the Brawne letters had aroused controversy when it appeared in 1878, as being too personal for publication. However, Forman included them in the 1895 collection to help the reader 'complete the picture of the true Keats'.