'Vicarious lives, the alter egos of unwritten or belatedly written poems, trap doors into hitherto unseen aspects of a personality, feints and personae - poets' letters can be and have been all these and more. This collection isn't just the last word so far on a topic (two topics, at least) ... but an example for literary critics in general: Anne Fadiman's defense of Hartley Coleridge, Paul Muldoon on Bishop and (or Bishop vs.) Lowell, Michael Hurley on humour in Hopkins, Ellis himself on frustration and temporality in Bishop and Keats - here is a model for writers. And for readers. And for letter-writers, scholarly and otherwise, everywhere.' Stephen Burt, Harvard University 'Letters blur the boundaries between ordinary experience and literary art, improvisation and convention, individual expression and collaboration. Somehow they matter especially for poets and poetry. With speculative force, nuanced interpretation, and lively narrative too, the various essays in this book, the only one of its kind, begin to answer the question (important to poetry and letters both) of why.' Langdon Hammer, Yale University The first book to look at poets' letters as an art form Fifteen enlightening chapters by leading international biographers, critics and poets examine letter writing among poets in the last 200 years. Poets discussed include Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley in the nineteenth century and Eliot, Yeats, Bishop and Larkin in the twentieth. Divided into three sections - Contexts and Issues, Romantic and Victorian Letter Writing and Twentieth-Century Letter Writing - the volume demonstrates that real letters still have an allure that virtual post struggles to replicate. Key Features - A comprehensive collection of essays on the art and genre of letter writing among Romantic, Victorian and twentieth-century poets - Contributors are leading international biographers, critics and poets, including Hermione Lee, Paul Muldoon, Daniel Karlin, Hugh Haughton, Anne Fadiman, Edna Longley and Angela Leighton - An absorbing history of literary friendship, literary love and literary rivalry - A sensitive study of the often close relationship between letter writing and poetry Jonathan Ellis is Senior Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Sheffield.