Thomas Allsop Papers

Résumé du livre

Allsop's correspondents include: Annie Besant, Charles Bradlaugh, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Jacob Holyoake, Charles Lamb, Joseph Mazzinni, Robert Owen, and others. The one Samuel Taylor Coleridge letter (January 8, 1819) was written originally for a young woman and later given to Thomas Allsop. The letter is Coleridge's advice on love and marriage. The manuscript copy differs in several respects from the version printed in Coleridge's Collected Letters (Volume IV, no. 1169). Also included is a copy of Coleridge's will. The letters of Annie Besant (7 letters) and Charles Bradlaugh (5 letters), co-editor and editor of the National Reformer, include references to the difficulties they encountered in their efforts to publish in 1877, Charles Knowlton's Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet advocating birth control. The George Jacob Holyoake letters (14 letters written between June 7, 1858 and October 14, 1876) deal with the charges brought against Allsop that he purchased the shells in the assassination attempt on Napoleon III. Other topics discussed are the work of Robert Owen, Holyoake's own activities and news of Holyoake's and Allsop's mutual friends. Also included are two letters to Allsop from the Italian patriot Joseph Mazzini. In the letter of July 10, 1860, Mazzini justifies his actions and describes his difficulties within the movement to unify Italy. Among the topics discussed in the six letters from Robert Owen written between November 11, 1833 and September 7, 1858 is his work on behalf of the working classes.