Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

Scope and Content

Holograph manuscripts, 1880-1884. SL V 31 is John Lord Cobham . SL V 32 is The Voyage of Maeldune . SL V 33 is Early Spring and SL V 34 is an edition of Tennyson's Works .

Administrative / Biographical History

Alfred Tennyson was born on 6 August 1809 at Somersby, Lincolnshire. At the age of seven he was sent to live with his grandmother at Louth where he attended Louth Grammar School. He returned home in 1820 to be educated by his father. In 1827 he entered Trinity College Cambridge, where he won the Chancellor's Gold Medal in 1828 for his poem Timbuctoo . Tennyson published Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830 and Poems in 1832, which were given a mixed reception by several periodicals. In 1842 he published another volume of poems which established his popularity. Tennyson received a Civil List pension of £200 per year in 1845 and he was appointed Poet Laureate in 1850. In June 1855 Tennyson received the degree of DCL from Oxford University. Tennyson continued writing poetry until the last year of his life. He died on 5 October 1892 at the age of 83.

Access Information

Access to the items in the collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the controlled environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room Uncatalogued material may not be seen. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

Other Finding Aids

University of London Library, The Sterling library: a catalogue of the printed books and literary manuscripts collected by Sir Louis Sterling and presented by him to the University of London , Cambridge, (1954).

Archivist's Note

Separated Material

Lincolnshire Archives holds family correspondence and papers, and correspondence and poems, 1823-1834 (Ref: NRA(S) 0200); the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA, has correspondence, literary manuscripts and papers (Ref: NUC MS 84-1967-68 bMS Eng 952); Boston Public Library, USA, contains correspondence, literary manuscripts and papers; Trinity College Library, Cambridge University, holds literary manuscripts (Ref: O 15), a poetical notebook, and letters to Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, 1833-1870; Lincoln Central Library has correspondence, literary manuscripts and papers; Cambridge University Library contains literary manuscripts (Ref: Add MS 8856/177-78), and a [manuscript] copy of The Princess, 1847 (Ref: Add 6345-46); the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, holds a manuscript of Gareth and Lynette (Ref: MS Eng poet b3); the Huntington Library, California, has letters and literary manuscripts, 1835-1888; the Beinecke Library, Yale University, Connecticut, USA, contains papers; the Brotherton Library, Leeds University, holds letters, 1844-1888; Dorset Record Office, Dorchester, has letters to William Barnes; Balliol College Library, Oxford University, contains letters from Benjamin Jowett to Emily Sarah Tennyson; the British Library, London, has correspondence with William Ewart Gladstone, 1859-1891 (Ref: Add MSS 44391-470); the New York Public Library, USA, contains letters to Sir George Grove; Syracuse University Libraries, New York, hold correspondence with Sir John Simeon, 1st Bt; the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, has letters from Tennyson and Emily Sarah Tennyson to George Stovin Venables, 1853-1888 (Ref: Llysdinam Collection B2608-29); the William R Perkins Library, Duke University, North Carolina, USA, contains correspondence, 1831-1909; Portsmouth Museums and Records Service holds miscellaneous and family papers (Ref: 858A/1-5); the Lilly Library, Indiana University, has papers; letters to John Swinton (Ref: NRA(S)0200), and correspondence with Hallam Tennyson and Charles Tennyson D'eyncourt, 1871-1889 (Ref: 195) are held privately.

Conditions Governing Use

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.