The Keepsake

The Keepsake was an English literary annual which ran from 1828 to 1857, published each Christmas (beginning with Christmas 1827) for perusal during the year of the title.[1] It was compiled by Charles Heath, edited by Frederic Mansel Reynolds (later by the Countess of Blessington), and published by Hurst, Chance and Company (1828–31), Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown (1832-47), and David Bogue (1848–57). Foreign editions were sometimes published in Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, Leipzig and New York.

The most important from the point of view of literary history was the second, The Keepsake for 1829 (1828). Heath pursued Mary Shelley, Thomas Moore, Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Felicia Hemans, and Robert Southey, offering enormous fees. He obtained contributions from all, but the experience was discomforting for both sides, and future volumes avoided writers with high reputations.

The annual provided a valuable outlet for female writers throughout its existence. Critics who disparaged literary annuals in general would concede the quality of the illustrations.

The Keepsake for 1828

The first annual was edited by William Harrison Ainsworth. It was published by subscription. The names of the contributors were not listed, but they included Felicia Hemans, Percy Shelley, and Ainsworth himself.[2]

The Keepsake for 1829

The contributors were listed as Sir Walter Scott, Sir James Mackintosh, Thomas Moore, Lord Normanby, Lord Morpeth, Lord Porchester, Lord Holland, Lord F. L. Gower, Lord Nugent, W. Wordsworth, R. Southey, S. T. Coleridge, William Roscoe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Henry Luttrell, Theodore Hook, J. G. Lockhart, T. Crofton Croker, R. Bernal, MP, Thomas Haynes Bayly, W. Jerdan, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon, M. L., Barry St. Leger, James Boaden, W. H. Harrison, F. Mansel Reynolds, L. E. L. (Letitia Elizabeth Landon), and the authors of Frankenstein, The Roué, and The O'Hara Tales.

It includes both "A Scene at Abbotsford" and three short stories by Sir Walter Scott, now known as The Keepsake Stories:

Mary Shelley's contributions were "The Sisters of Albano" and "Ferdinando Eboli". Wordsworth's were "The Country Girl", "The Triad", "The Wishing-Gate", and sonnets. Coleridge contributed "The Garden of Boccacio" and some epigrams. Felicia Hemans contributed "The Broken Chain".

References

The Seashore. Cornwall engraving by William Miller after R. P. Bonington, published in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI
  1. ↑ Frederick W. Faxon (1912), Literary annuals and gift books, Boston: Boston Book Co., OCLC 1436167
  2. ↑ Paula R. Feldman's introduction to a re-edition of The Keepsake for 1829. Broadview Press, 2006.

Paula R. Feldman, "Introduction" to The Keepsake for 1829. Broadview Press facsimile edition, 2006, pp. 7–25.

Further reading

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