LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING

by Mrs. Sutherland Orr


Second Edition




Preface


Such letters of Mr. Browning's as appear, whole or in part, in the
present volume have been in most cases given to me by the persons to
whom they were addressed, or copied by Miss Browning from the originals
under her care; but I owe to the daughter of the Rev. W. J. Fox--Mrs.
Bridell Fox--those written to her father and to Miss Flower; the two
interesting extracts from her father's correspondence with herself and
Mr. Browning's note to Mr. Robertson.

For my general material I have been largely indebted to Miss Browning.
Her memory was the only existing record of her brother's boyhood and
youth. It has been to me an unfailing as well as always accessible
authority for that subsequent period of his life which I could only know
in disconnected facts or his own fragmentary reminiscences. It is less
true, indeed, to say that she has greatly helped me in writing this
short biography than that without her help it could never have been
undertaken.