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Creator
Trelawny, Edward John, 1792-1881
Call number
Pforz MS
Physical description
129 items
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Edward John Trelawny 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.

Edward John Trelawny, English writer and adventurer. His friendships with and writings about the Romantic poets Byron and Shelley brought him considerable fame following their deaths, and well into the Victorian era. This guide lists and describes the manuscript materials held by the Pforzheimer Collection that were created by Edward John Trelawny, including original holograph writings and letters.

Scope and arrangement

The Edward John Trelawny manuscript material in the Pforzheimer Collection consists of writings and correspondence. The writings include a holograph account of the death and cremation of Percy Bysshe Shelley; and a holograph inventory of Lord Byron's papers, made shortly after his death. Correspondents include Claire Clairmont, of the Shelley circle; Leigh Hunt, poet, journalist and critic; Adelaide Kemble, singer and author; Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist; and over twenty others.

Items treated in Shelley and his Circle or included in H. B. Forman's Letters of Edward John Trelawny (1910) are noted with reference.

The Edward John Trelawny manuscript material is arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

The first E. J. Trelawny manuscripts added to the Collection were acquired by Carl H. Pforzheimer in September of 1922 from rare book and manuscript dealers: an 1832 letter to Mary Shelley, which she had enclosed in a letter to the publisher Charles Ollier; and a 7 February 1822 letter to Captain Roberts, on specifications for Byron's boat. A 1927 auction provided the opportunity for Pforzheimer to purchase a cache of thirteen Trelawny letters to the artist Seymour Kirkup. By Pforzheimer's death in 1957, he had accessioned over seventy Trelawny manuscripts. Under the auspices of the Pforzheimer Library, the Collection acquired a number of Trelawny manuscripts, including a number of letters to the singer Adelaide Kemble, and Trelawny's life insurance policy. Since the Collection's 1986 move to the New York Public Library, five Trelawny manuscripts have been acquired.

Processing information

Compiled by Charles Cuykendall Carter.

Separated material

In addition to manuscripts by E. J. Trelawny, the Pforzheimer Collection holds a number of letters addressed to him, and a small collection of "Trelawniana": manuscripts about him or in some way relating to him. Also held are first and later editions of Trelawny's Adventures of a Younger Son and Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron (as well as the re-written version, Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author). A few portraits of Trelawny are held, including an original chalk sketch (circa 1830's) by Seymour Kirkup; a lithograph by J. A. Vinter after the same sketch; and an engraving of "Trelawny as an Octogenarian," after the 1874 painting, "The North West Passage," by Sir John Everett Millais.

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.