University of Virginia Library

II. A Tabular Synopsis: Probable Evolution of the Biographia Literaria

Note: Abbreviations in parentheses refer to documentary evidence identified in the list following the table.

                         

Month	Year	Probable Events in the Making of the Biographia
October	1800	Coleridge (STC) expresses interest in writing "An Essay on the Elements of Poetry." (A)
July	1802	STC feels a growing need to define a suspected "radical difference" between himself and Wordsworth. (B,C)
September	1803	STC conceives of writing "my metaphysical works as my life & in my life." (D)
October & November	1811	STC writes lecture notes on which he will draw in detail, in 1815, for Chapter XIV of the Biographia. (E)
March	1815	In desperate financial straits, STC plans a collection of his poems. It will include "a general Preface . . . on the Principles of philosophic and genial criticism relatively to the Fine Arts; but especially to Poetry," and should be "ready for the press by June." (F,G,H)
April & May	1815	STC collects his poems. He receives a copy of the 1815 edition of Wordsworth's poems (CL, III, xlviii). At the end of May he tells Wordsworth that he has "only to finish a preface which I shall have done in two or at farthest three days." (I,J)
June & July	1815	STC extends the preface to his poems, making it "an Autobiographia literaria, or Sketches of my literary Life & opinions, as far as Poetry and poetical Criticism is concerned." So extended, the preface consists, by 29 July, of Chapters I through V and XIV through XXII of the Biographia. (K,L,O)
August & September	1815	Deluding himself that he will finish rapidly, STC expands ten to twelve manuscript pages of metaphysics throughout most of these two months. On 10 August, Morgan sends Chapters I-III to Bristol, where the work will be printed. STC revises Chapters IV and V and writes Chapters VI through XIII.
		Perhaps between 10 August and 20 August, certainly by 17 September, STC's conception of his work changes. It is no longer subordinate to the book of poems to which it was to be the preface. It is now the more important work and a book in its own right. He decides to divide it into chapters.
		STC writes into the third week in September. On 19 September (CL, III, xlix) he sends "compleat to my printer" the manuscript of the Biographia. (L,M,N,O,Q, R,S,T,U)
October	1815	Printing of the Biographia begins (CL, III, xlix).
April & May	1816	Gutch tells Morgan he has discovered that the two volumes, one the Biographia Literaria, the other Sibylline Leaves, will be of unequal size. Morgan consults with John Murray and STC, then advises Gutch to split the Biographia into two volumes, making the three volumes proportionate. (V)

               

Month	Year	Probable Events in the Making of the Biographia
July	1816	STC contracts with Gale & Fenner to publish the Biographia, Sibylline Leaves, and all his future works.
		Gutch informs STC that there is not enough manuscript to make Volume II of the Biographia equal in size to Volume I and Sibylline Leaves. (W,X)
August through December	1816	Relations between Gutch and STC disintegrate. In the fall, Gutch stops the printing of the Biographia at the end of page 144 of Volume II. STC plans to assemble additional materials required by "the printer's blunder." (Y,Z,AA,BB)
January through June	1817	Gale & Fenner negotiate with Gutch to obtain the manuscript and the printed sheets of the Biographia. The materials do not arrive in London until April, and the publishers do not finally settle with Gutch until May. (CC, DD, FF, GG, II, JJ, KK, LL)
		Early in the year, STC considers supplying Zapolya to fill out Volume II of the Biographia. Since the rights to publication of Zapolya have been promised to John Murray, however, STC decides to insert "Satyrane's Letters" and the critique of Bertram instead. STC writes the "Conclusion" of the Biographia and possibly pads the last two-thirds of Chapter XXII. (EE, HH, II, MM, NN)
		Samuel Curtis completes the printing of the Biographia.
July	1817	The Biographia Literaria and Sibylline Leaves are published.[4] (OO)

List of Documentary Evidence for Reconstruction of the Composition of the Biographia Literaria

• A) STC, letter to Humphry Davy, 9 October 1800;
• B) STC, letter to William Sotheby, 13 July 1802;
• C) STC, letter to Robert Southey, 29 July 1802;
• D) STC, notebook entry of September, 1803, #1515;
• E) STC, notebook entries of 1811-1812, #4111 and #4112;
• F) STC, letter to Joseph Cottle, 7 March 1815;
• G) STC, letter to Cottle, 10 March 1815;
• H) STC, letter to Byron, 30 March 1815;
• I) STC, letter to Lady Beaumont, 3 April 1815;
• J) STC, letter to William Wordsworth, 30 May 1815;
• K) STC, letter to Dr. Brabant, 29 July 1815;
• L) John Morgan, letter to Thomas Hood, 10 August 1815;
• M) Morgan, letter to Hood, 14 August 1815;
• N) Morgan, letter to Hood, 17 August 1815;
• O) Mary Lamb, letter to Sarah Hutchinson, 20 August 1815;
• P) STC, notebook entry of August-September 1815, #4265;
• Q) STC, letter to John Gutch, 17 September 1815;
• R) STC, letter to John May, 27 September 1815;
• S) STC, letter to Daniel Stuart, 7 October 1815;
• T) STC, letter to Byron, 15 October 1815;

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• U) STC, letter to Washington Allston, 25 October 1815;
• V) Morgan, letter to Gutch, 6 May 1816;
• W) STC, letter to John Gale, 8 July 1816;
• X) STC, letter to Morgan, 17 July 1816;
• Y) STC, letter to Gutch, 6 August 1816;
• Z) STC, letter to Rest Fenner, 22 September 1816;
• AA) Hood, letter to STC, 23 October 1816;
• BB) Gutch, letter with accounts to STC, 18 December 1816;
• CC) Gale & Fenner, letter to Gutch, 14 January 1817;
• DD) Gutch, letter to Gale & Fenner, January, 1817;
• EE) STC, letter to John Murray, 27 February 1817;
• FF) Gale & Fenner, letter to Gutch, 5 March 1817;
• GG) Gutch, letter to Gale & Fenner, March, 1817;
• HH) STC, letter to Thomas Curtis, 14 March 1817;
• II) STC, letter to Curtis, 29 April 1817;
• JJ) Gale & Fenner, letter to Gutch, 13 May 1817;
• KK) Gutch, letter to Gale & Fenner, 14 May 1817;
• LL) Gale & Fenner, letter to Gutch with accounts, 16 May 1817;
• MM) STC, letter to Curtis, May 1817;
• NN) STC, letter to Curtis, 22 May 1817;
• OO) STC, letter to Thomas Poole, 22 July 1817.

All of the letters by Coleridge appear in Professor Griggs's Collected Letters. Mary Lamb's letter is in The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, ed. E. V. Lucas (1935), II, 171-176. The entries from Coleridge's notebooks are in The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. Kathleen Coburn, I (1957) and III (1973). Following parenthetic citations of CN are to this edition. For the letters of Morgan, Gutch, Hood, and Gale & Fenner, I first used George Whalley's transcripts of Biographia correspondence at Victoria College, Toronto, and later travelled to Toronto to examine the original manuscripts. Professor Whalley's transcripts were lent to me by M. H. Abrams. I am grateful to Professors Whalley and Abrams for the opportunity to examine these materials. I also wish to thank Professor Whalley for his permission to refer to an argument he advanced in typescript notes about the birth of the Biographia in the mid-fifties (see text below and n. 14). Subsequent parenthetic citations of capital letters are to the alphabetical listing above.