Tennyson and The Golden Treasury: A rediscovered revision copy

Journal article

In 1971, Philip Larkin made a rare excursion into academic writing, while editing his Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. His subject was the most successful lyric anthology in literary history: The Golden Treasury, compiled by Francis Turner Palgrave and Alfred Tennyson. Published during his time at All Souls College, Larkin’s article described A. E. Housman’s no less than forty-one neat deletions in his copy of the anthology, alongside Housman’s heavy aesthetic interventions. Three years later, it was revealed that T. S. Eliot had used The Golden Treasury in his years as an extension lecturer on Modern English Literature. The anthology was extensively annotated by its many poetic owners, beginning with Thomas Hardy and stretching well into the twentieth century, offering a link between Victorian and Edwardian literary tastes. Yet for all its importance, no proof, trial or revision copies have previously been revealed, either in Palgrave’s hand, or in that of Tennyson.

This article presents a rediscovered revision copy of The Golden Treasury in Tennyson’s library, and excavates its significance for the anthology’s textual history. By considering the copy’s annotations, the article sheds new light on Tennyson’s poetic influences, and on his aesthetic control over the formation of a Victorian literary canon. Of the nineteenth century’s great versifiers, Tennyson was among the least prolific of literary critics. What survives in The Golden Treasury is his most prolonged and revealing judgment on the full span of English verse.

Authors: Sullivan, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Literary Imagination
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 230-238
• Publication date: 2016-12-24
• Acceptance date: 2016-09-27
• DOI: 10.1093/litimag/imw022
• EISSN: 1752-6566
• ISSN: 1523-9012