Bibliography: A Crown of Authors
A Crown of Authors, Annotated
A “crown” of Sonnets was a set of 14 sonnets (the same number of sonnets as lines in a sonnet) that was a popular form in the 19th century. In the fantasy gathering, these 14 19th-century authors make something of their own crown. A combination of photos and paintings, the original images of these authors, available via the links below, have be modified in various ways.
1: Dante Gabriael Rossetti (1828-1882), from “Rossetti and Theodore Watts-Dunton at 16 Cheyne Walk” (1882) posthumous painting by Henry Treffry Dunn, National Portrait Gallery, London. This painting provides the background to this imagined, and impossible, gathering.
2: Walt Whitman (1819-1892), variation of the Frontispiece for the 1855 Leaves of Grass; Walt Whitman by Samuel Hollyer, (1854) engraving of a daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison (original lost).
3: Frederick Douglass (1817?-1895), “Illustrated interviews with eminent public men on leading topics of the day [Frederick Douglass]” photograph and newspaper illustration, 1879. NYPL.
4: Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), posthumous imaginary portrait by Evert Duyckinick, 1873, based on a drawing by George Richmond, 1850.
5: Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) Portrait by John Everett Millais, 1881, Lady Lever Art Gallery.
6: John Keats (1795-1821), “Keats Listening To The Nightingale On Hampstead Heath” Posthumous painting by Joseph Severn, c.1845. Keats House, London.
7: William Wordsworth (1770-1851), Outdoor portrait by Henry William Pickersgill, 1833, National Portrait Gallery, London; on loan to the Wordsworth Trust.
8: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), albumen print, “Oscar Wilde : the Apostle of Beauty,” 1882, by Napoléon Sarony, Library of Congress.
9: Jane Austen (1775-1817), watercolor portrait by James Andrews, c. 1869, based on sketch by Cassandra Austen, c. 1810, now at National Portrait Gallery, London.
10: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, c. 1847, Amherst College Archives & Special Collections.
11: George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880), portrait at age 30, c. 1850-1886, by François d’Albert-Durade, National Portrait Gallery, London.
12: Elizabeth Barret Browning (1806-1861), “Courtship” a fanciful, ephemeral print.
13: Robert Browning (1812-1889), same as immediately above.
14: Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree,1797-1883), photograph, c. 1864, American Historical Images, New York.
The images listed below appear as paintings on the walls in “A Crown of Authors” and are labeled by letters in “A Crown of Authors, Annotated.” The images have all be re-imaged for this fantastical work:
a: Christina Rossetti Goblin Market, 1862: Illustration, “Buy from us with a Golden Curl” Warwick Goble, 1920.
b: Walter Scott, Ivanhoe: Rebecca and the Wounded Ivanhoe, Eugène Delacroix, 1823
c: Life Mask of John Keats, Benjamin Hayden, 1816.
d: Arthur Henry Hallam, from The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1899.
e: Robert Burns at the Plough (Turning Up a Mouse), Gourlay Steell, 1839.
f: Dorothy Wordsworth, 1771-1855.
g: Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol: Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball, etching by John Leech, 1843.
h: Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities: Sydney Carton, hand-colored vignette engraving by Frederick Barnard, c. 1895.
i: Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist. “Mr Bumble walked on with long strides… Little Oliver firmly grasping his gold laced cuff trotted beside him,” watercolor by Charles Edmund Brock.
j: Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop: Kit’s Writing Lesson (1852). Robert Braithwaite Martineau.
k: Illustration of Keats’s “La Belle Dame sans Merci”. Arthur Hughes.
l: Ambrotype of Fanny Brawne, c. 1850.
