New book on Junkets

[Cybele]

Then I remembered that my favorite American Transcendentalist lived with the Keats family in Louisville -- and he was ardently anti-slavery.

Who was that?

That was James Freeman Clarke -- the American Transcendentalist few have heard of. He was one of the charter "Transcendentalist Club" members at Harvard, along with the other better-known folks. He edited a small magazine called "The Western Messenger." It was within the pages of this magazine that some of John Keats's poetry first appeared on this side of the Atlantic.

[Credo Buffa]

If George had stayed around until after Tom's death it would have been even harder to leave John all alone: in fact John may well have gone to America with them.

Excellent point. With so many family tragedies under their belts, it would be hard for any of the Keats siblings to leave for any reason without some sense of abandonment. Plus, we have to remember that Fanny K was still there in the mix. Could either, much less both of them, go to America without considering that she would then be left with no family? No matter what, someone would be cut off somehow, be it by geography or the loss of hopes and aspirations.

[keatsclose]

The Plumly book sounds interesting. Thanks, everyone.

Trawling through Amazon I just came across this title, published in 2007 by Ashgate: Keats, Hermeticism and the Secret Societies by Jennifer N. Wunder.
Drawing on correspondence between Keats in his medical student days and a gentleman named Spurgin outlining the philosophy of Swedenborg, the book claims to find an influence of the
aforementioned ideas on JK's poetry. It's one of those Amazon 'look inside' titles, so you can check out the opening pages. I had a feeling someone somewhere would have written a book like this.

Whether it's any good is of course another matter.

[Raphael]

That was James Freeman Clarke -- the American Transcendentalist few have heard of. He was one of the charter "Transcendentalist Club" members at Harvard, along with the other better-known folks. He edited a small magazine called "The Western Messenger." It was within the pages of this magazine that some of John Keats's poetry first appeared on this side of the Atlantic.

Thanks for this interesting fact.

[Raphael]

The Plumly book sounds interesting. Thanks, everyone.

Trawling through Amazon I just came across this title, published in 2007 by Ashgate: Keats, Hermeticism and the Secret Societies by Jennifer N. Wunder.
Drawing on correspondence between Keats in his medical student days and a gentleman named Spurgin outlining the philosophy of Swedenborg, the book claims to find an influence of the
aforementioned ideas on JK's poetry. It's one of those Amazon 'look inside' titles, so you can check out the opening pages. I had a feeling someone somewhere would have written a book like this.

Whether it's any good is of course another matter.

I will have to check this out too!

[Cybele]

Trawling through Amazon I just came across this title, published in 2007 by Ashgate: Keats, Hermeticism and the Secret Societies by Jennifer N. Wunder.
Drawing on correspondence between Keats in his medical student days and a gentleman named Spurgin outlining the philosophy of Swedenborg, the book claims to find an influence of the
aforementioned ideas on JK's poetry.

I think a remember reading (about a gazillion years ago, 'tho'. ) about a Swedenborgian influence.

This could be a very interesting read -- or it could be an example of someone's dissertation having gone hopelessly esoteric.

Thanks for the heads-up!