Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

The Romantic Poets

William Blake, Songs of Innocence
(1789 [this copy ca. 1802]).
Hanley Library.

Early and rare editions of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats as well as presentation copies of their work were acquired with the Wrenn, Stark, and Hanley Collections. The work of William Blake is represented by Poetical Sketches (1783), his first book, and one of eleven hand-colored copies of the magnificent Songs of Innocence (1789). First editions of all of Wordsworth's books, beginning with An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches (both 1793) are in the collections. Wordsworth's own copy of S.T. Coleridge's Statesman's Manual is inscribed and annotated by Coleridge. The Coleridge family library of some 600 volumes contains books owned (and often annotated by) Samuel Taylor, Derwent, Herbert, and Ernest Hartley Coleridge.