Ashley MS A1385,B1432,A1436,A1440-4,1446,A1636,A1853,A1870,A1871,A1940,B3864,A3889-90,A4206,A5132,B5255

Letters (84) and one postcard from W. M. Rossetti to A. C. Swinburne; 2 Jan. 1866-20 Sept. 1906. Also included are a letter to Swinburne from Lucy Rossetti, [April?] 1876 (1446, ff. 104-105), and a letter from W. M. Rossetti, not to Swinburne, but possibly to J. C. Hotten, 11 Jan. 1867 (1446, f. 18). The letters in 1446, ff. 9-10b, 52, 52b, 102-103b, and 154, 154b, and in A1871 are imperfect. Vol. A IV, f. 33 is not part of the letter on ff. 31-32b, but is the missing portion of the second letter in A1444.

Swinburne first met D. G. Rossetti at Oxford in 1857 during the 'Jovial Campaign', and W. M. Rossetti towards the end of 1860. Although Swinburne saw no more of D. G. Rossetti after the latter's breakdown in the summer of 1872, his friendship with W. M. Rossetti continued to the end of his life. Their chief common interest was literature, but they were also keen observers of European politics, both being republican and atheist in sentiment, and it is to these two subjects that the greater part of the letters are devoted. As concerns the former subject, the principal publications discussed are Swinburne's Poems and Ballads, 1866, its reception, withdrawal and re-issue, together with Swinburne's reply to his critics Notes on Poems and Reviews, 1866 (1446, ff. 9-14b, 19, 19b; A1441), his William Blake, 1868 (1446, ff. 2-4, 19b-20b, 25, 38, 38b), Songs before Sunrise, 1871 (1446, ff. 52, 58, 58b, 66-67b, 70-84; A1442; A1870; A1871; A3889), Songs of Two Nations, 1875 (1446, ff. 47, 47b, 64-65, 98; A1440; A1871), Essays and Studies, 1875 (1446, ff. 98b, 118b; A1440; A1443; A4206), A Century of Roundels, 1883 (B3864; B5255), Poems and Ballads Third Series, 1889 (1446, ff. 137-140), Collected Poems, 1904, and Channel Passage and Other Poems, 1904, W. M. Rossetti's editions of Shelley (1870 and 1878) (1446, ff. 40-44b, 55-63, 85, 85b, 94-95, 98b, 99, 107, 109, 110b; A1444; A1636; A3889), Blake (1874) (1446, ff. 91-96b; A1444), D. G. Rossetti (1886) (1446, ff. 134-135b), and Christina Rossetti, New Poems, 1896 (A1385) and Poetical Works, 1904 (1446, ff. 151-154), his selection Poems by Walt Whitman, 1868 (1446, ff. 22b-33b), and his own Mrs Holmes Gray (printed in The Broadway in 1868) (1446, ff. 43-44), Lives of Famous Poets, 1878 (1446, ff. 110b-111; A1443), Democratic Sonnets, 1907 (1446, ff. 129, 129b), D. G. Rossetti as Designer and Writer, 1889 (1446, ff. 136-137), and D. G. Rossetti Classified List of his Writings, 1906 (B1432), D. G. Rossetti's Poems, 1870 (1446, ff. 44, 67b), and Ballads and Sonnets, 1881 (1446, f. 131), and Christina Rossetti's Commonplace, (1446, ff. 73, 73b).

Also discussed at some length are Rossetti's sister Maria (A1436), his marriage and children (1446, ff. 91-156 passim; B3864), Swinburne's relations with his publishers Moxon & Co. and J. C. Hotten (1446, ff. 39, 39b, 70-84; A1853), and Edward Trelawny (1446, ff. 65, 65b, 112-113b, 118, 122, 138, 138b; A1443; A3890; A4206; A5132). For further letters from W. M. Rossetti to Swinburne see A1941, A4368, A4369, A4374, A4377 and 5752. Mostly printed in Roger W. Peattie, Selected Letters of William Michael Rossetti, 1990, pp. 139-593 passim. Ashley Library Catalogue, iv, pp. 106, [150, 159], 161-162, 165-173; v, pp. 129, 148; vi, pp. [47], 60-62, 96-97, 206-207; vii, p. 205.