The Letters of John Keats

John Keats from The Letters of John Keats Edited by Maurice Buxton Forman

I read the Letters of John Keats when I was writing my novel Mr Hammond and the Poetic Apprentice. A friend from my writing group kindly gave this me this beautiful book, edited by Maurice Buxton Forman, the Oxford University Press third edition, 1947. It was given by Helen Thomas, the wife of the poet Edward Thomas, to a family friend Terance, just before Helen died.

Although only seven of the letters are written during the period my novel covers (1814-1817) I read them all. They gave me a feel for Keats’s personality and how he might have coped being an apprentice to an apothecary surgeon. I did find some of the language and literary references difficult to understand, so I would read a letter or two a day. If you’re tempted to read them I’d recommend reading one of the biographies, eg Keats by Andrew Motion, at the same time as it helps understand the context.

The 241 letters are written to his family, friends and publisher. They show Keats had many good friends in artistic and intellectual circles, and it’s touching to realise how fond they were of him. The letters also offer insights into his grief at the death of his brother Tom, his sadness at his brother George emigrating to America, and fondness for his younger sister Fanny. We read about his money worries and melancholy, his worries about his own health and his approaching death from consumption at age 25. 

They reveal his thoughts about poetry, creativity and philosophy: his ideas on negative capability, life being a large mansion of many apartments, and suffering being a vale of soul making. He has a great love for and and encyclopaedic knowledge of Shakespeare and discusses other writers. There are his letters from his 600 mile walk around Scotland. 

And of course there are the letters to Fanny Brawne, the love of his life, which to be honest I found a little overwrought and obsessional, verging on controlling. One day he was in London after a long separation but didn’t visit her. I couldn’t forgive him for that. But overall the letters are of a young man full of life and enthusiasm about poetry and literature.