The Letters of John Keats. Edited by Maurice Buxton Forman.
Fourth Edition with Revisions and Additional Letters. (O.U.P. 30s.) THE Buxton Forman edition of Keats's letters has long been established as the authorised version. Five years have passed since the last edition appeared, and the welcalne fourth edition fills a gap which has long been too evident in the booksellers' shelves. There remain a number of letters (including one to Fanny Brawn; and another to Dilke from the " Maria Crowther ") which are mentioned by Keats himself but have not yet come to light ; and, as Mr. Forman remarks in the preface, there are several of Keats's friends whose correspondence with him is still to be discovered. But, if the editor has been unable to find such Keatsiana or to conjure forth unknown letters in the poet's hand, he has collated many known letters with the originals, set the former addenda in their choronological order, and added biographical details about two more of the poet 'I friends. He has included two new letters from George Keats to John, and published the one extant "Alpena " letter, part of the unforgivable hoax which was played on Tom Keats. The book proper ends with the only known letter of Mrs. Brawne—the harassed missive written to Severn while Keats was dying. J. R.
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