Call Number: 1844-03-23 John Kenyon to EBB, Location: Armstrong Browning Library - The Browning Letters

This letter from John Kenyon to Elizabeth Barrett Browning shows her close relationship with her cousin, who was also a poet and introduced EBB to many other famous writers. Kenyon’s remarks on A Drama of Exile show his support of her literary endeavors. He is believed to have encouraged EBB to publish A Drama when she had almost abandoned it. In the context of this letter, EBB has already sent A Drama to her American and London publishers and Kenyon offers his advice on her preface: “[L]et me suggest about your preface—that the part of your preface which is to relate to heading Miltonic ground &c—and which you will do as well as you can, that is, better than any one else could do it, may well be the same in the English and American Editions.” His enthusiasm for her work is seen here and later in the letter when he writes, “’Drama of Exile’ sounds like serious work– It is vague enough to excite curiosity—it is particular enough to apply to the subject in hand.” Such enthusiasm prefigures her subsequent favorable reviews in the same year for the 1844 Poems that contained A Drama.

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