The Crabb Robinson Project
The man:
Though best known for his interactions with most of the leading literary figures of
his day, Robinson was an important writer and thinker in his own right, especially in
the dissemination of German thought in England. Between 1800 and 1805, he spent
three years as a student at the University of Jena, writing pioneering articles on Kant,
Schelling, and the rapidly developing field of aesthetics for publication in London.
Though he had briefly experimented with Godwinian scepticism in the 1790s, after
his return from Germany in 1805 he identified himself as a ‘ rational dissenter’ ,
worshipping among the Unitarians. After a brief stint covering the Peninsular war
as a correspondent for the London Times (1808-9), Robinson spent fifteen years as
a solicitor (1813-28), living mostly in the vicinity of Russell Square. In retirement,
he took an active role in the University of London, Unitarian affairs, and the literary,
artistic, and political life of London until his death in 1867.
The archive:
The Robinson archive, one of the most important collections belonging to Dr Williams’ s Library, contains thirty-three volumes of his Diary (1811-67), twenty-nine volumes of Travel Diaries (1801-66), four volumes of Reminiscences (1775-1843), numerous pocket diaries, and more than thirty volumes of correspondence and other papers. The Diaries and Reminiscences total more than four million words. Within these materials are important accounts of literary figures Robinson met and, in many cases, corresponded with during the course of his long life, including William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Godwin, Mary Hays, William Hazlitt, Charles and Mary Lamb, Harriet Martineau, Robert Southey, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, and major German writers such as Goethe, Schiller, the Schlegel brothers, and Tieck.
Publication history and existing scholarship:
Only a small portion of Robinson’s literary remains have been published. Scholars
still rely on Thomas Sadler’s Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence (3 vols,
1869) and Edith Morley's Henry Crabb Robinson on Books and their Writers (3
vols, 1938), both highly selective and, in Sadler’s case, not altogether accurate.
Other works on Robinson include John Milton Baker’s Henry Crabb Robinson of
Bury, Jena, The Times, and Russell Square (1937), Hertha Marquardt's Henry Crabb
Robinson und seine deutschen Freunde (2 vols, 1964, 1967), Eugene Stelzig’s Henry
Crabb Robinson in Germany: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Life Writing (2010),
and James Vigus’ s Henry Crabb Robinson: Essays on Kant, Schelling, and German
Aesthetics (2010).
The edition:
A multi-volume scholarly edition of Robinson’s Diary (integrated for the first time
with his Travel Diaries) and Reminiscences is needed (i) to allow him to emerge as an
author in his own right, spanning the Romantic and Victorian periods; (ii) to bring to
light his neglected contribution to the Unitarian movement and the history of English
nonconformity; (iii) to provide a resource for researchers in various fields, including
comparative literature, travel writing, life writing, and religious history. A working
text of the Diary and Reminiscences will be created by Timothy Whelan, General
Editor, and James Vigus, Assistant Editor, by January 2013, when the Project
officially begins. Annotations to the texts will be provided by a team of special
editors representing an array of subject areas (see below). The Crabb Robinson
Project will consist of an introductory volume of essays on Robinson, followed by the
Reminiscences (2-3 volumes, to be completed by 2017-18), the Diary (approximately
20 volumes, to be completed between 2017 and 2027), and an online Index. The whole edition will be published by Oxford University Press.
Editorial Team:
Primary project editors: Timothy Whelan, General Editor (Georgia Southern University); James Vigus Assistant Editor (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich).
Special subject area editors: Politics: Mark Philp (Oriel College, Oxford); Law: Michael Lobban (Queen Mary, University of London); the Victorians: Joanne Shattock (University of Leicester); Autobiography: Eugene Stelzig (SUNY College at Geneseo, New York); the Romantics: Stephen Burley (Queen Mary, University of London); Theatre: David O’ Shaughnessy (University of Warwick); Spain: Karen Racine (University of Guelph, Canada); Travel: Karen Junod (University of Fribourg, Switzerland); Books and writers: Philipp Hunnekuhl (Queen Mary, University of London); Germany: James Vigus; Religion and dissenting culture: Timothy Whelan.
Advisory board: Rosemary Ashton (University College London); Dinah Birch (University of Liverpool); Isabel Rivers (Queen Mary, University of London); David Wykes (Dr Williams’ s Library).
