Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore

Throughout his professional life, the poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852) was variously celebrated and vilified for both his verse and his politics. Born in Dublin, he remained an ardent Irish patriot until his death. This eight-volume collection of Moore’s memoirs, diaries and letters, edited by his friend Lord John Russell (1792-1878) and first published between 1853 and 1856, provides rare insights into a man whose genius was applauded by the Morning Chronicle as ‘embracing almost all sides of imaginative literature, of criticism and philosophy’. Opening with a portrait of Lord John Russell and a view of Moore’s residence in Paris, Volume 5 contains the poet’s diary for the period 1825-8. During these years, Moore embarked on a new career as biographer of the playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and published the political satire Odes upon Cash, Corn, Catholics, and Other Matters (1828).