The Brownings’ Correspondence, Volume 1

Volume 1 opens with the first recorded letter received by EBB (from her father, Edward Moulton-Barrett, in September 1809) and ends with one from her to the elderly Latin scholar, Sir Uvedale Price. Communications to and from the young EBB growing up at Hope End in Herefordshire dominate this volume and the next, as all of her early writings were carefully preserved, unlike those of her future husband. Her principal correspondent during this period is her favorite brother, Edward (“Bro”), who writes her humorous letters from London describing his public school life at Charterhouse. The poetess begins corresponding with her cousin and future benefactor John Kenyon. EBB’s The Battle of Marathon is privately printed in 1820; An Essay on Mind is published anonymously in 1826.