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Creator
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822
Call number
Pforz MS
Physical description
304 items
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Percy Bysshe Shelley manuscript material, Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, The New York Public Library
Repository
Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Access to materials
Restricted access. Request an in-person research appointment.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, the English Romantic poet. This guide lists and describes the manuscript materials held by the Pforzheimer Collection that were created by Percy Bysshe Shelley, including original holograph writings, letters, and documents.

Scope and arrangement

The Percy Bysshe Shelley manuscript material in the Pforzheimer Collection consists of writings, correspondence, and documents. Among the writings are the manuscript of his political treatise, A Philosophical View of Reform; a volume of his juvenile poetry, the "Esdaile Notebook"; and extensive revisions in a printed copy of his Queen Mab. The bulk of the correspondence is dated between 1816 and 1821. Correspondents include: Lord Byron, poet; William Godwin, philosopher and novelist; Thomas Jefferson Hogg, lawyer and writer; Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist; and over fifty others. The documents include a number of autograph checks and two holograph versions of his last will and testament.

Items treated in Shelley and his Circle or included in Frederick L. Jones's Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1964) are noted with reference.

The Percy Bysshe Shelley manuscript material is arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

The establishing purchases of the Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle were made in 1920 at the sale of the library of Harry Buxton Forman, the Shelley bibliographer. Only a few of the items acquired from the Forman sale were Shelley manuscripts, but regular acquisitions over the next four decades, mostly through auction, led to an accumulation of over 200 items in Shelley's hand by the time of Carl Pforzheimer's death in 1957. In the following years, under the auspices of the Pforzheimer Library, the Collection acquired a number of important Shelley manuscripts, including the Esdaile Notebook, a then-unpublished volume of Shelley's juvenile writings. Since the Collection's move to The New York Public Library in 1986, over a dozen more Shelley manuscripts have been accessioned.

Because the Pforzheimer Collection collects actively, its holdings in Percy Bysshe Shelley manuscript material may grow in the future as items become available for acquisition.

Processing information

Compiled by Clare Olivia Needham and Charles Cuykendall Carter.

Related Material

As he is the central figure of the repository, nearly all the materials in the Pforzheimer Collection relate in some way to Shelley, his contemporaries, or the culture in which he lived. In addition to manuscripts by Shelley and members of his circle, a vast sub-collection of Shelleyana includes both contemporary and later manuscripts relating to Shelley, such as his family's financial documents, and various works of biography, criticism and appreciation. Hundreds of relevant printed items are also available, including early editions of his works, contemporary reviews, and books on subjects that reflect Shelley's interests and writings. A growing number of Shelley-related prints and other visual materials are held, and paintings of Shelley's father and mother (by George Romney) and son William (by Amelia Curran) are on public display at The New York Public Library. In addition to a few other relics, what are said to be small fragments of Shelley's skull are available for viewing upon request.

Using the collection

Location

Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Third Floor, Room 319

Access to materials

Restricted access. Request an in-person research appointment.