Query: The Letters of Thomas De Quincey

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Dear everyone,

I am editing the letters of De Quincey, forthcoming in two volumes with OUP. I have conducted an extensive search of online manuscript catalogues, auction house catalogues, bookseller catalogues, and so on. I have found De Quincey letters in several of the major archives in the UK and US, as well as in places ranging from the Maine Historical Society to the Auckland City Libraries. 

I am writing now to ask if anyone knows of De Quincey letters that might be in uncatalogued manuscript collections, or in Asian or European archives, or that, for one reason or another, might not turn up in the kinds of searches I have done so far.

I am especially interested in letters that are in private hands. There is, for example, a collection of thirty-seven unpublished De Quincey letters to his publisher William Tait, dated from 20 February 1838 through 15 August 1846. These letters were in private hands in 1941 and, as far as I have been able to determine, they are still in private hands. For more details, please see Claude E. Jones, ‘Some De Quincey Manuscripts’ in ELH, 8.3 (1941), p. 216.

Any information or leads would be very welcome. Thank you very much your assistance.

With best wishes,

Robert

r.morrison@bathspa.ac.uk

Robert Morrison

British Academy Global Professor

Bath Spa University

HWA Crown Awards 2020: The Regency Revolution (London: Atlantic, 2019)

Thomas De Quincey: Selected Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)