Buchanan, Robert Williams, 1841-1901

Robert Williams Buchanan, British poet, playwright and novelist. He was highly prolific and counted G. H. Lewes, George Eliot, Robert Browning, and Charles Dickens among his friends.

From the description of Robert Williams Buchanan manuscript material : 1 item, 1884 (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 77501712

From the guide to the Robert Williams Buchanan manuscript material : 1 item, 1884, (The New York Public Library. Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle.)

Buchanan was a poet, journalist, novelist, playwright, and editor. He was born in Staffordshire to Scottish parents and was educated at the University of Glasgow. He left for London in 1860 with his friend, David Gray, to seek fame as a writer, and lived later in his life in London, Sussex, Ireland, and Oban (Scotland). He married and adopted the sister of his wife, Harriet Jay, who later wrote his biography. He was outspoken, and wrote the Fleshly School of Poetry (1871) criticizing the poetry of some of his contemporaries (Rossetti and Swinburne). Many important writers broke with him over this as Rossetti attempted suicide following its publication. Desperate for cash, he wrote many works that were later criticized as beneath his abilities. Buchanan dramatized many of his novels and produced many plays, but many were critically panned and by 1894 his theatrical speculations had left him bankrupt.

From the description of Robert Buchanan letter and poem, between 1860-1901. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 60194676

Robert Williams Buchanan was a Scottish poet, playwright, critic, journalist, and novelist. A regular contributor to numerous periodicals, his reputation is inextricably tied up with his war of words with the neo-Raphaelites, culminating in the so-called Fleshly Scandal, in which Buchanan's written criticism led to the attempted suicide of poet Dante Rossetti. Notorious and constantly in need of money, Buchanan abandoned his poetic gifts and spent the rest of his life churning out inferior novels and stage adaptations, often anonymously.

From the description of Robert Williams Buchanan letter to E.C. Stedman, ca. 1870. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 52999938