I’m currently reading The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge by Adam Sisman.
Sisman tells the story of the close friendship and creative partnership between English Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I bought the book when it was first published in 2006, but I finally feel like now is the right time to read it. It’s a great read so far – it recounts the two poets’ personal histories in post-French Revolution Europe and how they came to meet each other and eventually collaborate on Lyrical Ballads (1798), a canonical collection of poetry generally considered the impetus for the English Romantic movement in literature.
From the Introduction:
“The names of Wordsworth and Coleridge have been linked ever since. They have passed into legend as a pair, like Boswell and Johnson, or Lennon and McCartney . The myth making began while they were still living, and has continued uninterrupted. The image of these two young geniuses, the progenitors of English Romanticism, roaming the Quantock Hills in an ecstasy of shared understanding and creative fulfillment, is irresistibly romantic. Their subsequent estrangement, quarrel, and superficial reconciliation complete a story as poignant as any love affair.”
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