John Keats and the Perils of Posterity

This book begins with an account of the disease that killed Keats and contributed to the enduring myth that he was a doomed genius. Newspaper reports of Keats's death and early 'tribute' poems marking his demise form the substance of successive chapters, as do early attempts at researching and writing a biography of him. Keats's would-be biographers included his publisher John Taylor whose biographical endeavours preceded Keats's death, his mentor Leigh Hunt who devoted a chapter to 'Mr. Keats' in his brilliant 1828 book Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries, and his friend and collaborator Charles Brown whose draft life narrative remains a vital source of information. Poised to emigrate to New Zealand, Brown passed his script and source materials to Richard Monckton Milnes enjoining him to complete the work (Brown conceded that Milnes had an advantage in having not known Keats).

This book explores Milnes's efforts and success in publishing his Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of John Keats in 1848 --the first full-scale biography of the poet. Milnes's book has proved a formative and enduring influence for all of Keats's biographers, and the scale and resourcefulness of Milnes's labours are explored in detail. The closing chapters trace the influence of Milnes's book in the later nineteenth century, as new editions and fresh biographies appeared and Keats's reputation grew. The volume devotes many pages to the life experiences of the two women who had been closest to Keats: his sister Fanny and his fiance Fanny Brawne. It also reflects on the means by which the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, and Keats House in Hampstead, were secured as memorial sites.