Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Papers and Autograph Collection of Cecil Y. Lang, Accession #13550, 13550-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These papers were given to the University of Virginia Library by Violette Guérin-Lésé (Mrs. Cecil) Lang, Charlottesville, Virginia, December 2005 and May 12, 2006.

Biographical/Historical Information

ecil Yelverton Lang (1920-2003) was an English scholar and editor, born at Walstonburg, North Carolina, on September 18, 1920. He earned his undergraduate (1941) and master's (1942) degrees from Duke University, then served four years as an officer in the air force in the Pacific during World War II before receiving his doctorate from Harvard University in 1949, specializing in 19th century British literature. Before coming to the University of Virginia to teach in 1967, where he remained until his retirement in 1991, Lang had been a professor at Yale University, Claremont (California) Graduate School, Syracuse University (1959-1965), and the University of Chicago (1965-1967).

His first major work was a six volume edition of the letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne (1959-1962), followed by a three volume edition of the letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson (1982-1990) and the letters of Matthew Arnold, in six volumes (1996-2002). He also published other shorter works, including New Writings by Swinburne and The Pre-Raphelites and Their Circle . Lang was also a well-known collector of Gandharan sculpture, the watercolorist-etchers James McBey and Martin Hardie, and Vanity Fair prints of Victorian and Edwardian public figures, which he donated to the University of Virginia Library.

Scope and Content

The papers and autograph collection of Cecil Y. Lang, ca. 1866-1982, ca. 95 items, consists of letters and various autographs of Victorian literary figures; personal and professional correspondence with Harold Bloom and George and Mary Elliott; an eulogy written by Cecil Lang for George Paul Elliott (1918-1980); and a paper by Lang, "The Posthumous Poetry of Matthew Arnold " delivered at Oxford.

Items in the collection that are autographs only with no content include: [Noah?] Brooks (n.d.), William Allen Butler (n.d.), David Gray (n.d.), and Martin F. Tupper ([1876] Oct 23 and n.d.). The correspondence is divided between autographs and letters of Victorian writers collected by Lang and personal correspondence with contemporaries and colleagues Harold Bloom (1930- ) and George Paul Elliott (1918-1980). Victorian-era items are described first followed by the correspondence of Bloom and Elliott.

Matthew Arnold has written to Mr. Bourne, informing him that he cannot attend Bourne's meeting as he attends no meetings (March 13, 1888) and to an unidentified man, "my dear old boy" congratulating him on his professorship, promising one day to go with him to visit Lough Dan, a lake near Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland, and sending greetings to his wife, Julia (undated, Saturday).

T.C. Burrows writes to "Dear Sir" requesting the February number of Scribner's Monthly (March 8, 1874). Charles Calvert (1828-1879) regrets being unable to come to Mrs. Long's gathering as he is in the midst of producing Henry the Eighth but invites her to send her card backstage if she comes to see the play [ca. 1878]. Arthur Hugh Clough to [Laura Ward?] Greenhill accepting her invitation for Tuesday evening (n.d.). Dinah Maria Mulock Craik to [Mr. Charles?] Welford, having recently been asked to write for Scribner's Magazine , suggests that they contact her cousin in her stead (August 21, n.y.).

Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) to "Dear Sir" apologizes for her silence due to the death of a near relative and makes arrangements to meet with him the following week (Wednesday, n.y.). Antoinette Mackinlay to "Dear Mr. Smith" apologizes for missing him last night and suggests another time to meet (June 1, n.y.).

There are two letters from John Nichol to [Algernon Charles] Swinburne, discussing his feud with Robert Buchanan who wrote a satirical poem signed "Caliban" in which he attacked Swinburne and other poets, and an article on "The Fleshly School of Poetry. " Buchanan was a client of the lawyer MacClymont who denied all knowledge of his attacks on Swinburne (June 21 and 24, 1876).

[William Michael] Rosetti to Mrs. Evans Bell, sends her a copy of the Whitman circular and thanks her for the Hornet with its parody of Swinburne, "We had a very hearty laugh over it. I think it amusing & neatly executed, & done apparently without any real spite [?], tho no doubt it is a great liberty to take with a man, & in law a libel. I fancy the author may be the so-called 'Guy Roslyn, ' a verse writer who has recently made a name for himself, & who is really a Hatton, brother of the editor of the Hornet (n.y. June 23).

Algernon Charles Swinburne to [William?] Rosetti (January 6, 1885) writes concerning the character of Marino Faliero, the fifty-fifth Doge of Venice, as portrayed in his own play, "hot-headed & heroic, rather-at-bottom-unselfish in the main than selfish, & capable of grand & passionate if vague & vehement aspirations & anticipations for his country- not without a dash of ambition to be himself, even at his great age, her deliverer & leader- & of course not without the half noble and half morbid medieval sense of personal honour, which feels or fancies that a foul & brutal insult must be wiped out at every cost, of body or soul, at the expense of all who have directly or indirectly taken part in the infliction or the condonation of it." Swinburne also refers to Lord Byron's dramatization of Faliero's uprising in 1820 as "Byron's ineffable abortion. . . I really know nothing so execrable in literature as Byron's plays."

Jane H. Swinburne writes to her grandson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, mentioning his Poems and Ballads which she received for her birthday (July 19, 1866). Thomas Woolner writes to "My dear Miss Kingsley" informing her that he has "finished the bust in marble and shall be delighted to show it when you can call" (n.d.).

Harold Bloom (1930- ) writes personal letters about his work and life to his friend Cecil Lang, full of departmental and university news at Yale, comments about the University of Chicago where Lang was teaching at the time, and his ambitions for the future (1964-1966, 1968). In particular, he describes his current literary work, finished and in progress (September 18, [1965]).

The letters of George P. Elliott (1918-1980) and his wife, Mary Emma Jeffress Elliott, are full of personal news and references to the English Department of Syracuse University. Particularly they write congratulating Lang on his new position at the University of Virginia (March 5, 1967); Lang's wonderful print collection (September 14, 1968); his book The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Circle (October 1, 1968); their impressions of the Blue Ridge Parkway driving from Charlottesville to do a reading at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, and back to George Mason College, with additional details about the readings done at both places by Elliott (November 12, 1968); and the ceremony and award to Elliott from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (May 26, 1969).

Other topics in the Elliott correspondence include the marriage of his daughter (January 3 and 20, 1970); his travels funded by a Guggenheim Fellowship (awarded 1970) and mention of his book Conversions (November 9, 1971); his enjoyment of a photograph of Lang's Gandharan "angel" sculpture (February 5, 1972); discussion of current fiction and authors, particularly a humorous story about the ex-wife of a former colleague, Alix Kates Shulman, who wrote a popular novel Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Quee n (July 6, 1972); the Jo-Ann Davis sexism case against the Syracuse University English Department (July 6, 1972; January 29 and May 19, 1973; July 25, 1974); a strike by library workers at Syracuse University (January 25, 1974); the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and Elliott's essay, "Snarls of Beauty " (July 25, 1974; February 2, 1977); John Taggart (November 12 and 24, 1974); difficulty with publishing Elliott's recent work (January 18, 1978); plans for retirement (October 7, 1979); and references to his death by his wife (January 2 and 26, 1982).

Arrangement

Correspondents and autographs are arranged alphabetically, with the Harold Bloom correspondence, George Elliott correspondence, and the eulogy and paper by Lang grouped at the end.

Separated Material

The following correspondents were transferred to the autographs file: Matthew Arnold, [William Michael] Rosetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Jane H. Swinburne.

Adjunct Descriptive Data