Letter from Alice Meynell

A letter from Alice Meynell, 2a Granville Place, Portman Square, Westminster, to [Mr/Ms Langbridge] affirming that Francis Thompson was born in 1859 and died in 1907. She also states that Thompson was ‘by no means an unhappy man’. She affirms that ‘people love to think of a poet as a melancholy and persecuted person which is so stupid’.

Details

Level of description: Item
Date: 4 Oct. [c.1910]
Reference: 30
Extent and medium: 3 pp; manuscript
Scope and content: A letter from Alice Meynell, 2a Granville Place, Portman Square, Westminster, to [Mr/Ms Langbridge] affirming that Francis Thompson was born in 1859 and died in 1907. She also states that Thompson was ‘by no means an unhappy man’. She affirms that ‘people love to think of a poet as a melancholy and persecuted person which is so stupid’.
General note: For biographical information on the British poet, writer and suffragist Alice Meynell (1847-1922) see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Meynell
General note: In 1888 Wilfrid and Alice Meynell read Francis Thompson’s poetry and took the opium-addicted and homeless writer into their home. The letter is not dated but was it was clearly written after Francis Thompson’s death in 1907. For biographical information on Francis Thompson and references to his relationship with the Meynells see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Thompson
Repository: Irish Capuchin Archives
Context: Irish Capuchin Archives > Papers of 'The Capuchin Annual' and the Irish Capuchin Publications Office > Papers of Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. > Autograph Letters and Historical Ephemera

Annotations

Rights

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Extracted Mentions

People, places, and terms identified via handwriting recognition and named entity recognition.

People

Francis(1)

Sample passages

Francis Hampson

Full Transcript (OCR, 1 pages)

Machine-generated OCR transcript. Handwritten material may contain recognition errors.

Page 1

23, GRANVILLE PLACE, PORTMAN SQUARE, W. October 4th Dear Mr. Cangbridge Francis Hampson was born in 1859 and died in 1900. If just his after fish & food. If you are adding any biographical sketch, please do not see that he hint a life of poorly and make pincers. He had three years of misery, no more. From the day - in 1898- that Wilfrid found him in the streets he had no poorly or privation of any kind, and he was known means an malfull man. People love to think of a poet as a malane body and possessed person, which is so stupid. With all kind regards and announcements Dear Mr. Cangbridge, by miserity yours Chief Haynell