Harry Buxton Forman manuscript material

1877-1913 D

Harry Buxton Forman, English bibliographer and forger. He wrote a great deal of critical and bibliographic literary scholarship throughout his life, most notably on Shelley and Keats, all the while maintaining a career in the Post Office. In 1886 Forman met fellow bibliographer T. J. Wise through the Shelley Society, and the two began secretly printing counterfeit publications of works of famous authors, subsequently validating the authenticity of the books through their own bibliographic works. Their scheme remained largely undetected until nearly two decades after Forman's death, with the publication of John Carter and Graham Pollard's Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets. The Harry Buxton Forman manuscript material in the Pforzheimer collection consists of writings and correspondence. The writings include: the holograph text of his Memoir of Shelley, as published in the 1892 Aldine edition of Shelley's works ; papers relating to his "The Building of the Idylls," an essay on Tennyson ; and over a dozen essays and works of criticism on Shelley or Shelley-related publications. The correspondence is dated from between 1877 and 1913, and mostly discusses Shelley scholarship. Correspondents include: Paola Clairmont, niece of Claire Clairmont ; Mary Cowden Clarke, literary scholar and writer ; E. J. Trelawny, writer and adventurer ; and Thomas James Wise, book collector and forger.