• Reference code  IE/UCD/SC/L29–L71
• Title Gerard Manley Hopkins Letters
• Dates  1863–1888
• Level of description Fonds
• Extent 43 items

Creator Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Biographical History

• Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in Essex.
• He studied classics at Balliol College, Oxford.
• While there Hopkins converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, having been influenced by John Henry Newman.
• After graduating he became a Jesuit priest and held various teaching posts in Britain.
• In 1884 he became professor of Greek literature at University College Dublin.
• His disapproval of Irish political unrest and the strain of teaching made his time in Dublin a very dark period in his life.
• This is reflected in his later poetry, which is some of his most melancholy and also most critically acclaimed work.
• Hopkins died in Dublin in 1889 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. 
• It was not until after his death that his poetry received critical attention and that he was recognised as a leading Victorian poet.

Source of Acquisition Donated by Vernon Brooks, 1989.

Personal letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins to Alexander William Mobray Baillie, a college friend and barrister who lived in London.

Subject matter of letters includes:

• Work
• Poetry
• Literature
• Travel
• References to mutual friends and acquaintances
• Egyptian and Greek etymology
• Politics
• Catholicism
• Law
• Hobbies
• Gifts
• Social occasions
• Letters with drawings by Hopkins.

• Access The materials in this collection are available by appointment only to research students, teaching staff and scholars.
  Research students should have a letter of recommendation from their supervisor.
• Reproduction Photocopying or digital photographing of this material is not permitted.
• Language English.
• Finding Aid n/a.

Publication Note

All letters have been digitised and can be found in the UCD Digital Library collection "UCD Letters".

All letters are published in Abbott, C.C. (Ed.) (1956) Further Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins, including his correspondence with Coventry Patmore, 2nd ed. London: OUP, pp. 199-294.

• UCD Letters including Gerard Manley Hopkins Letters at UCD Digital Library.
• Find information on Gerard Manley Hopkins in the Dictionary of Irish Biography (UCD only).
• Find information on Gerard Manley Hopkins in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (UCD only).