Coleridge and the Romantic Newspaper

This book examines how Coleridge staged his private woes in the public space of the newspaper. It looks at his publications in the Morning Post, which first published one of his most famous poems, Dejection. An Ode. It reveals how he found a socially sanctioned public outlet for poetic disappointments and personal frustrations which he could not possibly articulate in any other way. Featuring fresh, contextual readings of established major poems; original readings of epigrams, sentimental ballads, and translations; analyses of political and human-interest stories, this book reveals the remarkable extent to which Coleridge used the public medium of the newspaper to divulge his complex and ambivalent private emotions about his marriage, his relationship with the Wordsworths and the Hutchinsons, and the effect of these dynamics on his own poetry and poetics.

“The book is a worthy contribution to the body of works about Coleridge’s persistent self-fashioning, and illuminates a previously neglected area of his Morning Post journalism and his relationship with Robinson.” (Philip Aherne, Modern Language Review, Vol. 114 (3), July, 2019)

“Heidi Thomson’s Coleridge and the Romantic Newspaper: The ‘Morning Post’ and the Road to ‘Dejection’ provides a well-researched look at the connection between Coleridge’s life and work between 1799 and 1802. ... This book will be valuable to Coleridge scholars for the new network of texts that it assembles.” (Christine Woody, The Coleridge Bulletin, Vol. 50, 2017)

“Coleridge and the Romantic Newspaper offers a fascinating account of Coleridge's inner life in a clearly written, well organized format. Thomson's arguments are thoroughly grounded in Coleridge scholarship, and at several moments she makes original contributions.” (William A. Ulmer, Review 19,  nbol-19.org, December 2016)

“Through an incisive contextual examination of Coleridge’s little studied contributions to the Morning Post newspaper between 1799 and 1802, Heidi Thomson provides a fresh and compelling account of the poet’s risky public venting of private woes. Exploring the myriad forms taken by Coleridge’s self-dramatizing, as well as the direct connection in his mind between domestic bliss and poetic genius, Thomson reveals the long-standing and complex origins of his important and moving Dejection: An Ode. Approaching its subject from an entirely original angle, using new materials, this book revisits Coleridge’s obsession with Wordsworth and his sister-in-law Sara Hutchinson while also shedding new light on his intimacy with fellow writer and confidante, Mary Robinson.” (Deirdre Coleman, University of Melbourne, Australia)

“This is an exceptional book. The hallmark of Thomson’s thought is an acute sensitivity to the literature; an uncanny awareness of the psychological subtleties behind it; an ability to elucidate those things in a clear, direct, and uncomplicated manner; and critical sophistication of a high order. I learnt a great deal from Coleridge and the Romantic Newspaper, as will anyone with an interest in Wordsworth, Coleridge, and their writing.” (Duncan Wu, Georgetown University, USA)

“A sympathetic and original study of the extraordinary way in which Coleridge acted out his private emotions on a public stage, encoding in print his most intimate thoughts and feelings.” (Adam Sisman, author of “The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge” and “John le Carre: The Biography”)

“For a few years around the turn of the nineteenth century Coleridge published a string of remarkable pieces in the Morning Post, including some striking poems that, though appearing in the public press, often dealt with his most intensely private feelings. Heidi Thomson has had the good idea of studying these writings as a group, and she has found fresh and illuminating things to say about them, both the familiar and the little-known. Every admirer of Coleridge will enjoy her account of a neglected episode in his writing life.” (Seamus Perry, Faculty of English, University of Oxford, UK)

Heidi Thomson is Associate Professor of English Literature at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and President of the Romantic Studies Association of Australasia. She is the editor of novels by Maria Edgeworth and the author of numerous chapters and articles about Thomas Gray, William Collins, Edgeworth, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats.