Sir Edmund Gosse: Review of The works of Sir Thomas Browne

The manuscript of an unfinished review of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, ed., The works of Sir Thomas Browne, vol. I. This was the last piece written by Gosse before his death.

Sir Edmund William Gosse (1849-1928), poet and man of letters, was born at Hackney, Middlesex, on 21 September 1849, the only child of the zoologist Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888). He worked in the catalogue section of the British Museum, 1865-1875, before becoming translator at the commercial department of the Board of Trade in 1875. He was Clark Lecturer in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1885-1890, and librarian of the House of Lords, 1904-1914. Gosse developed a reputation as a critic by writing reviews, which included weekly articles for the Sunday Times on literary matters, 1918-1928. His published works include Seventeenth-century studies (1883), Father and son (1907) and Collected poems (1911). He was knighted in 1925, and died in London on 16 May 1928.

Open for consultation by holders of a Reader's Ticket valid for the Manuscripts Reading Room.

Received from the library of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, 1982.

Description compiled by Robert Steiner, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives. The biographical history was compiled with reference to the entry on Sir Edmund Gosse in J.R.H. Weaver, ed., Dictionary of national biography, 1922-1930 (Oxford University Press, 1937), pp. 353-355.

None.

The volume was given to Sir Geoffrey Keynes by Dr Philip Gosse, son of Sir Edmund Gosse.

Cambridge University Library holds other papers relating to Sir Edmund Gosse, including MSS.Add.2768/15, 6618, 7034 and 7035.

The review was printed in the Sunday Times, 27 May 1928. The collection is no. 1309 in Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Bibliotheca bibliographici (London, 1964), p. 135.