Elizabeth Barrett Browning writing desk, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Gift of Peter N. Heydon, Class of 1962. (Photo by Don C. Skemer).
The Princeton University Library is currently exhibiting a newly received gift items associated with Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning at Firestone Library. The exhibit will continue through June 6.
The first of these gifts is the slant-topped mahogany writing desk of Elizabeth, on which she is known to have written her epic poem Aurora Leigh.
Among the gifts are also Robert Browning’s Northern Italian walnut table and the Brownings’ silver-plated “traveling” tea kettle, made by Henry Wilkinson & Co., in Sheffield, England.
Other Browning holdings in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections include dozens of manuscripts and autograph letters, held in the Manuscripts Division, and an author’s proof for the second edition of Aurora Leigh, incorporating handwritten emendations in Robert Browning’s hand as well as a manuscript note by Elizabeth Barrett Browning on the verso of title page. These proofs served as setting copy for the first American edition of Aurora Leigh.
For more information, contact Don C. Skemer, Curator of Manuscripts, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at dcskemer@princeton.edu.
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