Eric Mackay letters and manuscripts

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0099-F0875

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of nineteen autograph letters from British poet Eric Mackay to American editor of The Independent, John Eliot Bowen, and three undated autograph manuscripts of Mackay's prose and poetry. There is also one letter from Mackay to the unnamed editor of the Century Magazine.

The correspondence concerns Mackay's efforts to place poems (often referring to enclosures, most of which are not included in the collection) with Bowen and The Independent and more generally, possible opportunities for American publication of and publicity for his books of poetry. One letter mentions Mackay's assessment of his half-sister Mary Mackay's (pseudonym Marie Corelli) novels Vendetta (1886) and A Romance of Two Worlds (1886). He also mentions the possibility of his poem "Choral Ode to Liberty" being read at the Great Inauguration Ceremony held for the Statue of Liberty held in 1886. Additionally, the collection includes manuscripts with minor revisions of a short prose piece, "Anteros," five poems assembled under the heading "Five Sonnets," and a poem entitled "A Song of Servitude."

Dates

Creation: 1885-1889, undated

Creator

Mackay, Eric, 1851-1898 (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

Eric Mackay (1851-1898)

British poet Eric Mackay (1851-1898) was the son of journalist and poet Charles Mackay (1812-1889) and the half-brother of novelist Mary Mackay (1855-1924), who published under the pseudonym Marie Corelli. He published several books of poetry in both England and in America, including Love Letters of a Violinist (1886), A Lover's Litanies (1888), and Song of the Sea (1895), as well as a volume of his father's poetry, Gossamer and Snowdrift: The Posthumous Poems of Charles Mackay (1890).

Mackay also produced an unauthorized play based on Corelli's novel The Sorrows of Satan, which was a commercial failure. In the final year of his life, Mackay allegedly claimed that he was the true author of Corelli's successful novels. After his death, Corelli circulated a pamphlet refuting his claim of authorship of her work.

"Mackay, Mary." British Short-Fiction Writers, 1880-1914: The Romantic Tradition. Ed. William F. Naufftus.Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 156. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995. (reproduced in Literature Resource Center). http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC (accessed September 14, 2010). Mullin, Katherine. "Mackay, Mary."Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2009. www.oxforddnb.com (accessed September 14, 2010).

Extent

23 item

Additional Description

Abstract

British poet Eric Mackay (1851-1898) was the son of journalist and poet Charles Mackay (1812-1889) and the half-brother of novelist Mary Mackay (1855-1924), who published under the pseudonym Marie Corelli. The collection consists of nineteen autograph letters from Eric Mackay to American editor of The Independent, John Eliot Bowen, and three undated autograph manuscripts of Mackay's prose and poetry. There is also one letter from Mackay to the unnamed editor of the Century Magazine.