Poets' love letters go online for Valentine's Day
Photos
Image from one of the love letters exchanged by poets Robert Browning and his future wife, Elizabeth Barrett. The collection is now available online.
WELLESLEY, Mass. —
“I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett ...”
So begins the first love letter to 19th century poet Elizabeth Barrett from her future husband, fellow poet Robert Browning.
Their 573 love letters, which capture their courtship, their blossoming love and their forbidden marriage, have long fascinated scholars and poetry fans. Though transcriptions of their correspondence have been published in the past, the handwritten letters could only be seen at Wellesley College, where the collection has been kept since 1930.
But starting Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, their famous love letters will become available online where readers can see them — just as they were written — with creased paper, fading ink, quill pen cross outs, and even the envelopes the two poets used.
The digitization project is a collaboration between Wellesley and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which houses the world’s largest collection of books, letters and other items related to the Brownings.
Wellesley administrators hope the project will expose students, romantics, poetry fans and others to their love story.
CM, I do love you, plainly, surely, more than ever, more than any day in my life before.
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