Table of Contents

Restrictions on access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Source

Purchase, 1984 with subsequent additions.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], T. Sturge Moore collection, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Biographical Note

Thomas Sturge Moore (1870-1944) was an English poet, author, art critic, and wood engraver. Born in Hastings on 4 March 1870, he was the eldest son of Dr. Daniel Moore and his second wife, Henrietta Moore. Because of poor health, Sturge Moore ended his schooling at Dulwich college at an early age and received additional education at home. He later engaged in the formal study of art, and was for a time associated with the Vale Press. In 1903, he married Marie Appia, his own "first half-cousin" and the daughter of the Reverend Georges Appia, a Lutheran clergyman. Sturge and Marie Moore were the parents of a son (b. 1905) and a daughter (b. 1907).

Moore published poems in The Dial as early as 1892, and his first book of poetry, The Vinedresser and Other Poems was published in 1899. Later poetic works included Against Artemis (1901), Absalom (1903), Marianne (1911), The Powers of the Air (1920), Judas (1924), and The Unknown Known (1939). Moore also wrote several books of prose including The Centaur and the Bacchant from the French by Maurice de Guerin (1899), Art as Life (190), and Arm for Aphrodite (1929). Moore was not only an author and a poet, but he was also a designer of bookplates and bookbindings. He designed bookplates for William Butler Yeats and his wife George Yeats, and bindings for some of Yeats's published poetry.

Moore was a member of the Academic Committee of the Royal Society of Literature. He was acquainted with leading authors of the day including Laurence Binyon (who introduced Moore and Yeats), A.E. Housman, Aldous Huxley, and George William Russell ("A.E."). Although he did not achieve great fame as an author or poet, Sturge Moore's poetry was critically acclaimed, and he was a frequent lecturer on the subject of poetry. Moore and his wife traveled often, but their permanent home was in London. T. Sturge Moore died on 18 July 1944.

Sources consulted in preparing this note have included Who was Who, 1941-1950 (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1952) and W.B Yeats and T. Sturge Moore: Their Correspondence, 1901-1937, edited by Ursula Bridge London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1953). The latter work contains lists and reproductions of some of Moore's work for Yeats. Related information may also be found in Allan Wade's A Bibliography on the Writings of W.B. Yeats (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1951).

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of forty-one pieces of correspondence from T. Sturge Moore to Charles Wilson, a friend and a teacher from Willington, County Durham, England. There are thirty-five pieces of correspondence dated between 25 January 8 and 30 April 1934, and there are six undated items which appear to fall into this same time period. The collection also contains a few other items including three autographed postcard photographs of Moore to which reference is made in Moore's letter of 17 September 1929, one photograph of a portrait of T. Sturge Moore, [1890?], and four pen and ink drawings of parts of the binding for Yeats's Reveries. The letters focus primarily upon the personal and professional relationship between Moore and Wilson. Many of the letters concern Moore's visits to Wilson and Moore's lectures to Wilson's students. Also found in these letters are critiques of Wilson's poetry by Moore, and Moore's discussions of his own poetry and books. In some of the letters, Moore also writes about the works and activities of other contemporary authors and poets including Laurence Binyon, Sir George Rostrevor Hamilton, John Lawrence Hodgson, A.E. Housman, Aldous Huxley, George William Russell ("A.E.") and William Butler Yeats. Moore comments on the political, economic, social, and educational climate of the day. He discusses at length Aldous Huxley's views of class division and education, and he expresses his feelings of inadequacy because of his lack of education. Moore offers his views on the economic situations of his family, the country, and the world in the midst of the Depression. He comments on the political situation and specifically on Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan. He also writes of Trevelyan's son who was a friend of the Moores, and discusses the younger Trevelyan's commitment to the social theories of human biologist Frederick Matthias Alexander.

Arrangement Note

The correspondence is arranged chronologically with undated items at the end.

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Selected Search Terms

Personal Names

Wilson, Charles, 1891-1967.

Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939.

Topical Terms

Authors, English--20th century.

Education, Higher--England.

English literature--20th century.

English poetry--20th century.

Geographic Names

England--Social conditions--20th century.

Great Britain--Economic conditions--20th century.

Great Britain--Politics and government--20th century.

Form/Genre Terms

Bookplates.

Photographs.

Occupation

Poet.