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A New Treasure at the ABL

Remarkable Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetry notebook added to Armstrong Browning Library collection

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In October 2008, a notice from Chris Coover, an English literature specialist at Christie's auction house in New York, caught the attention of scholars, librarians and collectors worldwide, by stating: "I am truly delighted to report that an extensive Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript album, sold in 1913 in the London dispersal of the Browning Collections . . . has resurfaced after some 95 years in the shadows."

Immediately, the staff of the Armstrong Browning Library determined that the notebook was an essential item for Baylor University and soon gained support from Dean of University Libraries Pattie Orr for its purchase. Scholars and special collection librarians from across the United States and England also confirmed the album's importance and shared their feelings with Rita S. Patteson, ABL Curator of Manuscripts and Interim Director, proclaiming that it deserved a home at the Armstrong Browning Library, an institution with a commitment to promoting Browning scholarship.

Written in 1839, the marble-edged notebook contains a hand-written title-page, "MSS. By Elizabeth Barrett," and 68 pages of verse, written mostly on rectos (the front sides of a book's pages), with added or reworked verses on some of the versos (the back, or reverse, sides of a book's pages)--all in a blank book of 117 sheets of wove paper, housed in a dark blue morocco pull-off box, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

This remarkable and extensive concentration of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's early mature verse contains drafts and working manuscripts of 15 poems, with one series of nine sonnets. It offers unique drafts of works whose texts differ from published versions, or that are partly unpublished, and four wholly unpublished poems. It is certainly the most important manuscript to come to light in recent years. It complements the current holdings of the Library and will provide several generations of scholars the opportunity to study the thought processes behind Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry.

Thanks to the Margaret Cox Endowment, the 1839 notebook was purchased at a Christie's auction on December 5, 2008. The Armstrong Browning Library possesses only one other similar poetical notebook, written in 1842 and bought in 1979 at the Houghton Collection sale. This lapse of 29 years confirms that original Browning items are becoming very scarce; and each year that passes, their monetary values increase. We, at ABL and Baylor University, are very grateful to our donors who support our efforts to promote opportunities for the study, appreciation, and understanding of the Brownings.

Interim Director Rita Patteson proudly displays the "new" notebook to former Provost Dr. John S. Belew and his wife, Ruth, generous donors to the Armstrong Browning Library.

Rome Window Honoring the Wrights Dedicated

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The "Rome Window," one of the newest stained glass windows in the Armstrong Browning Library, was dedicated on December 6, 2007. The window, given by Gail Wright, Cheryl and Bill Henry, and Kelly and CeCe Wright, honors their parents, Bob and Anna Wright of Vernon, Texas. All were in attendance for a program hosted by Reagan Ramsower, Baylor's Vice President for Finance and Administration, with the participation of Baylor President John Lilley, Vice President for Information Technology and Dean of Libraries Pattie Orr, Director of ABL Stephen Prickett, and former Development officer Tom Purdy.

Other special guests at the occasion--Jim and Helen Cole, Bob and Betty Mitchell, and Katie Stokes--have been close friends of Bob and Anna Wright since their Baylor days (1943 - 1949). Friends from the Baylor community also gathered to show their appreciation to the Wright family. A luncheon followed the ceremony where centerpieces of pink roses and greenery echoed the roses portrayed in the wreath of the window.

Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning frequented Rome and often leisured in the city through the month of May, which is the season depicted in the window. The design was inspired by a quotation from Marie Hansen Taylor in her book, On Two Continents (1905), as she reminisced about meeting the poetic couple there.

This was May. He who has never spent that exquisite month in Rome knows not how beautiful she is. The gray masonry of the ruins ... are covered as if by enchantment with green blossoming vines, the villas are gardens of roses in which nightingales sing, luxuriant vegetation is everywhere ...."

The window, a product of Willet Hauser Architectural Glass in Philadelphia, was installed in the Cox Reception Hall on the first floor of the Armstrong Browning Library on January 5, 2007. Vignettes in each corner of the window depict scenes that were significant to the Brownings--the Colosseum, Via Bocca Di Leone (their address while living in Rome), the Spanish Steps, and Trajan's Column. The central image of the window depicts ruins from the Temples of Saturn and Vespasian and is surrounded by a wreath of pink roses and laurel leaves. Poetic quotations from each of the Brownings express the influence of Rome in their works:

See the crush'd column, and the ruin'd dome--
'Tis all Eternity has left of Rome!
EBB, An Essay on Mind

What is left for us, save, in growth
Of soul, to rise up...from the finite to infinity,
And from man's dust to God's divinity?
RB, "Christmas-Eve"