Amy Wilcockson
Supported by Friends of Glasgow University Library
Amy is currently in the final stages of her AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Nottingham, where she also teaches in Culture, Media, and Visual Studies. Her thesis is the first scholarly edition of the selected letters of the Glaswegian Romantic poet, Thomas Campbell (1777-1844). Her work on Campbell and beyond has been published in Romanticism, Studies in Scottish Literature, History Today, and The Times Literary Supplement.
Over the course of her University of Glasgow Visiting Research Fellowship, Amy will be exploring the vast archival holdings relating to Campbell. The University of Glasgow’s archives are integral to her ongoing research, as they hold 128 autograph letter manuscripts by Campbell, plus 36 books from Campbell’s personal library. The letters’ survival demonstrates the importance of sociability to Campbell’s professional and personal life. Letters studied thus far illuminate Campbell’s role as an important member of many social circles, which spanned not just the literary (the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Maria Edgeworth), but also the political (the Holland House set, Sir Robert Peel) and artistic (Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Augustus Wall Callcott), and which bridged literary periods and geographical boundaries. Campbell’s letters also provide unique insights into the publication practices and ongoing debates which took place during the Romantic period, many of which are understudied, or which Campbell’s involvement in places fresh emphasis upon. The archives also hold letters written to Campbell by prominent figures of the Romantic period (including Henry Brougham, the Hollands, and Thomas Moore) that, like his own correspondence, have never been previously studied. This research will therefore feed into Amy’s ongoing projects focusing on Campbell, including a number of journal articles and future postdoctoral work.
I am absolutely thrilled to have been awarded this Visiting Research Fellowship and am very grateful for the support of the Friends of Glasgow University Library. I’m very excited to visit the University of Glasgow, as it has close links with Thomas Campbell. He not only attended the university but was also its Lord Rector from 1826-29. The research I will complete during the duration of this Fellowship is integral to my future research plans, which include creating a comprehensive scholarly edition of Campbell’s letters. I’m looking forward to reading and researching Campbell in Glasgow, and also getting to know the city where he was born and spent so much time a bit better!
