Introduction
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was England’s Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death. He and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication of Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth’s masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years that was never published during his lifetime.
The core of the William Wordsworth collection at BYU was donated by Edward M. Rowe, a former professor of English Literature at BYU and consists of primary and secondary works relating to the life and career of William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy. BYU actively seeks to acquire all editions of works by William Wordsworth as well as biographies and criticism about William and Dorothy.
Examples of items in the William Wordsworth collection include the following:
- Lyrical Ballads, With Other Poems, in two volumes. 2nd ed. London: T.N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800.
- The Excursion: Being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814.
- Peter Bell, a Tale in Verse. London: Strahan and Spottiswoode, 1819.