Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Peter Vandyke oil on canvas, 1795 NPG 192 © National Portrait Gallery, London

Museum of Somerset, Taunton, from 12 March to 25 June

In the spring of 2022 the Museum of Somerset will continue its popular programme of spotlight loans featuring national treasures with local connections. From 12 March to 25 June the British Library is lending the unique manuscript of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s extraordinary poem ‘Kubla Khan’ together with the first edition of ‘Lyrical Ballads’ by William Wordsworth and Coleridge. The loan is part of the British Library’s ‘Treasures on Tour’ programme, which is generously supported by the Helen Hamlyn Trust.

The exhibition celebrates the display of the manuscript in the county where the poem was written in a lonely farmhouse at Culbone in 1797.Coleridge said he imagined the poem in “a sort of Reverie brought on by two grains of Opium”. But before he had finished writing it down he was interrupted by the Person from Porlock, and left ‘Kubla Khan’ as the most famous of all unfinished poems. Its evocation of Xanadu and of ‘caverns measureless to man’ has been an inspiration for artists, writers and musicians ever since.

Manuscript of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan': Add MS 50847 © British Library Board   

The exhibition will tell the story of the time Coleridge spent living in and near the Quantock Hills, from 1797 to 1799, his relationship with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, and the legacy of his writing. It will be accompanied by a programme of talks and guided walks that further explore the Somerset landscapes Coleridge loved and that helped to inspire poems including ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. A new workshop is also being developed that will engage schools with the exhibition through creative writing and drama.

Tom Mayberry, Chief Executive of the South West Heritage Trust, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the British Library to display this wonderful and enigmatic poem in Somerset,200 yearsafter it was written. The Somerset landscape lies near the heart of Coleridge’s poetic achievement and it was in West Somerset that most of his best-known poetry was written. This is a real homecoming.”

Alexandra Ault, Lead Curator of Manuscripts 1601-1850 at the British Library, said: “The Somerset landscape was one of Coleridge’s great inspirations and we are thrilled to loan the 'Kubla Khan' manuscript and 1798 edition of ‘Lyrical Ballads’ from the Library's collections to this exhibition. We hope visitors to the Museum of Somerset enjoy seeing the manuscript on display within the area where Coleridge enjoyed such intense creativity.”

Spotlight loans have been an important part of the museum’s programme in recent years. Loans have included the Alfred Jewel from the Ashmolean Museum, the Becket Casket from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the portrait of Henry VII from the National Portrait Gallery.

The exhibition ‘In Xanadu: Coleridge and the West Country’opens at the Museum of Somerset, Taunton, from 12 March to 25 June. On 19 May a talk about Coleridge and his West Country connections will on given by Tom Mayberry, ChiefExecutive of the South West Heritage Trust and author of ‘Coleridge and Wordsworth in the West Country’. Short gallery tours will also be running monthly, from March to June, where visitors can find out more about the objects and artworks on display.

Visit museumofsomerset.org.uk to find out more.

Radio 4 Extra are broadcasting the above mentioned play written by Martyn Wade that was first broadcast in 1984.

Tom Wilkinson plays STC & the play is set at Greta Hall, Keswick on 16th September 1803.

It will be available for the next three weeks on BBC Sounds.

The Jerwood Centre at The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 13–14 May 2022

Goda Bulybenko:    De Quincey’s Confessions: discovery of the modern self through the reshaping of a classical pattern of autobiography.    Independent
Andrew Chang:    Constructing into a Regular Narrative: Opium Stories and Imperial Perspectives in Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1822) and The Moonstone (1868).    University of Chicago
Benjamin Colbert:    “The Glory of Motion”: De Quincey and Acceleration.    University of Wolverhampton
Claire Connolly:    Rough Irish Locomotion.    University College Cork
Daniel Cook:    Arrayed for Mutual Slaughter: Warfare and Moral Action in De Quincey’s Autobiographical Writings.    Saginaw Valley University
Neşe Devenot:   Marcus Clarke and the Legacy of De Quincey's Self-Experimental Drug Writing.    University of Cincinnati
Nick Dodd:    De Quincey’s co-ontological sleep: Elektra’s kindness as a way beyond ‘dog sleep’ and nightmare.    Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute
Hannah Donovan:    Embodied Dreaming in Confessions of an English Opium Eater.    Queen Mary University of London
Humberto Garcia:    The Unsightly Spectacle of “Poor Houseless Wanderers”: De Quincey’s Confessions the Malaysian Sailor and Vagrancy.    University of California, Merced
Jocelyn Godiveau:    The Brotherhood of the Cursed: Thomas de Quincey seen by Charles Baudelaire.    Université Catholique de l’Ouest – Angers
Felicity James:    Fountains and Night Fears: Lamb, De Quincey, and childhood in the London Magazine.    University of Leicester
Zahra Kandeh Kar:    Where Did Wordsworth Bury His Parents in The Prelude?    Haute Alsace University
Peter Kitson:    De Quincey’s Confessions, Addiction, and the Opium Wars with China.    University of East Anglia
Margaret Lehmann:    De Quincey: Dreams as a Palimpsest.   University of Chicago
Roisin McCloskey:    La Douleur Exquise: De Quincey’s Addiction Narrative in light of the themes of Guilt and the Gothic Self.    Independent
Tim Milnes:    Awful Parenthesis: De Quincey, Horror, and Transcendental Idealism.    University of Edinburgh
Jane Moore:    The Musical Prose of Thomas De Quincey.    Cardiff University
Robert Morrison:    Keynote: title tbd.    Bath Spa University / British Academy
Adam Neikirk:    “New Eyes / New I’d”: Escapism, Subjectivity and the Literary Personae of Lamb, Coleridge, and De Quincey.    University of Essex
Markus Poetzsch:    Negotiating ‘Felicitous Space’: De Quincey at His Sister’s Bedside.    Wilfrid Laurier University
Daniel S. Roberts:    “The spotless beauty, and the ideal proportions of some Greek statue”: Hartleyan influence in De Quincey’s aesthetic theory.    Queen’s University Belfast
Margaret Russett:    Keynote: Sympathy, Syncope, Suspension: De Quincey’s Virtual Reality.    University of Southern California
Eloise Scott:    Through the mighty labyrinths of London’: Retracing the Thread of De Quincey’s Labyrinthine Narratives.    Northumbria University
Jenny Sullivan:    “Innumerable Faces”: The Facial Sublime and Ethical Responsibility in De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater.    Queen's University
Jean-Christophe Valtat:    The Profane Illuminations of Thomas De Quincey.    Université Paul Valery-Montpellier III, RIRRA

The Friends of Coleridge—a registered charity that aims to foster interest in the life and works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and to support Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey, Somerset, through co-operation with the National Trust—is pleased to announce a search for a Social Media Coordinator. The individual (or individuals) will strengthen the Friends’ social media presence, connect existing and prospective members to the work of the Friends, and support the larger mission and activities of the society.
 
The Friends of Coleridge Social Media Coordinator shall have the following responsibilities:
* Manage accounts across the major social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
* Post new items related to the work and mission of the Friends of Coleridge in a professional,
accessible, and scholarly manner
* Foster connections and a sense of belonging among existing members
* Generate wider interest that may be measured in new membership applications
* Re-post, as appropriate, social media “news”/non-partisan content from other outlets  
* Share content related to articles, reviews, etc. from The Coleridge Bulletin  
* Communicate key aspects of the Friends of Coleridge Newsletter to the public
* Cooperate with the website administrator to bring new resources to public awareness
* Respond to those who inquire about the work of the Friends through social media
* Report and collaborate with the Friends of Coleridge steering committee, as needed
 
The individual will receive an honorarium of £500 for their service. Interested parties should send an
academic cv and statement of interest (or email of inquiry) to jeffrey.barbeau@wheaton.edu by
December 15, 2021.