The Golden Treasury: Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0230314295 ISBN 13: 9780230314290

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Synopsis

Francis Turner Palgrave's The Golden Treasury is the most popular anthology of English poetry ever published. To mark the 150th anniversary of its original publication, this facsimile reproduction of the 1861 edition features a new Foreword from Carol Ann Duffy which celebrates its place in the hearts of poetry lovers worldwide.

About this title

Review:

'The theme of National Poetry Day...is fresh voices, but there's an opportunity to celebrate some old ones, too. Palgrave, Macmillan's newly renamed academic list, is reissuing a facsimile edition of the book from which the list takes its name, Palgrave's Golden Treasury. First published in 1861 at the suggestion of Tennyson, then Poet Laureate, the anthology had sold 650,000 copies by 1939. The reissue has a foreword by the present Laureate, Andrew Motion.' - The Literator, The Independent
 
'I'm not sure that any book has ever truly changed my life in the sense of dramatically altering its course, but I can think of one that determined it, and that's Palgrave's Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language. It was my mother's book and she read to me from it, as I imagine, in the dark. It was from Palgrave that I learned that literature had a sound, that language mattered more than story, that rhythm haunted the imagination, and that love and grief and loneliness interested me more than any other subject.' - Howard Jacobson, The Guardian

From the Publisher:

Blurb and Contents
This is a reproduction of the original Palgrave’s Golden Treasury, issued on National Poetry Day 2000 to celebrate the launch of Palgrave – Macmillan’s global academic publishing.

‘When it was first published in 1861, [Palgrave’s Golden Treasury] was immediately praised for distilling the British Lyric tradition and almost a centruy later... it kept its place – a book created during a comparatively stable and centered poetic age, which contributed massively to what has been widely accepted, and sometimes interestingly challenged, as ‘the canon’. From the foreword by Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion

The aim of Palgrave's Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language was to teach 'those indifferent to the Poets to love them, and those who love them to love them more'.

By the Second World War, 650,000 copies had been printed and after almost a century it was still selling around 10,000 copies a year, in regularly updated editions. No other anthology has enjoyed a longer life or wider influence.

The original edition was dedicated to the then poet laureate, Tennyson, who led Palgrave to begin the work. In the same vein, this commemorative edition has a foreword by Andrew Motion, which discusses the making, reception and effect of the anthology.

This facsimile reproduction of the 1861 edition makes Palgrave's original selection available again for the first time. It remains a rich and timeless collection of lyric poetry not only for those interested in the period but for any serious poetry reader.

About The Author FRANCES TURNER PALGRAVE was born in 1834 and educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1885-1895. A practicing poet and friend of the poet laureate, Alfred Tennyson, he died in 1897.

CONTENTS: Frontispiece - Foreword; A. Motion, Poet Laureate - Dedication - Preface - Book I - Book II - Book III - Book IV - Notes - Index of Writers - Index of First Lines

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0230314295
• ISBN 13: 9780230314290
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Palgrave F.