The Collected Letters of A. W. N. Pugin: Volume V: 1851-1852(Collected Letters of A.W.N. Pugin)

The importance of A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52) in architecture and design in England and beyond is incontestable. The leading architect of the Gothic Revival, Pugin is one of the most significant figures of the mid-nineteenth century and one of the greatest designers. His correspondence furnishes more insight into the man and more information about his work than any other source. This volume, the last of five, contains letters from 1851 and the first months of 1852; after that, Pugin's health failed and he died in September. In the great event of the period, the international exhibition held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, the display of objects made to Pugin's design, which he planned and oversaw, was an outstanding success, bringing substantial commercial benefit to his colleagues and spreading Pugin's influence even more widely than before. The value of his judgment was recognized in his appointment to two committees in connection with the Great Exhibition. Frantic though the preparations for what came to be known as the Medieval Court were, Pugin made time to write for publication. He issued letters and pamphlets in explanation, defence, and support of the Catholic Church and its re-established hierarchy, and turned again to the conundrum that had long teased him, the relation between the faith and the form, not only architectural, in which it found expression. He completed the book on chancel screens conceived some years before. At home in The Grange at Ramsgate, he continued to design stained glass windows, for other architects as well as his own clients, and supervised the production of cartoons; he poured out designs in his usual fields of metalwork, ceramics, furniture, carving, and wallpaper, and branched out, not always happily, into new areas such as embroidery and the decoration of piano cases. The demand for drawings for Westminster, where the House of Commons was due to open early in 1852, was as incessant as ever. His last child, Edmund Peter, was born in 1851 only a few months before his first grandchild, Mildred. Both were baptized in the church of St Augustine which he was still building next to his house and where he himself was soon to be laid in the vault he provided for the purpose. The volume also includes some letters which have come to light too late for inclusion in their proper chronological places and some texts of doubtful authenticity.

Table of Contents:
List of Plates List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Editorial procedure Abbreviations Letters January to June 1851 July to December 1851 1852 Undatable letters Additional letters from Pugin Additional letters to Pugin Appendix: Typescripts Addenda and Corrigenda Photographic Credits Index

About the Author :
Margaret Belcher, Formerly Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Review :
`Now we have them all in print, illuminated by Margaret Belcher's meticulous and detailed editing, with copious footnotes and cross-references gleaned from every conceivable source. It has been an enormous task, and one for which she deserves the highest accolade. As works of reference, they are indispensable to anyone researching Pugin and the Gothic revival, but they are of value also to the general reader. Often witty, sometimes incisive, and written with passion by a creative genius who wrote exactly as he thought, they bring to life one of the most engaging characters of the Victorian era.' Michael Fisher, The Victorian `Review from previous edition superbly edited' Christopher Howse, The Daily Telegraph `For the last ten years admirers of Pugin's work have enjoyed the monumental endeavour of the publication of his correspondence, impeccably edited by Margaret Belcher. This constitutes one of the major achievements i nthe literature of the Gothic Revival. The present volume is not only the longest of the series so far published but also the most detailed in the range of Pugin's work and preoccupations.' Fr Anthony Symondson SJ, Ecclesiology Today `This is the first complete edition of those [Pugin's] letters ever published and, when finished, will reach five volumes ... The quality of the editing is very high indeed and one looks forward to the remaining volumes.' Contemporary Review `Margaret Belcher has embarked on a great work both of dedication and scholarship.' Rosemary Hill, TLS `The letters give us Pugin "without disguise" ... The quality of the editing is very high indeed and one looks forward to the remaining volumes' Contemporary Review `Margaret Belcher's bibliography of Pugin's work, published in 1987, was invaluable, and her editing of his Letters ... will place many more students and scholars further in her debt. Perhaps only those who have tried to read Pugin's extraordinary handwriting can truly appreciate the scale of her achievement. In the style of her subject, she has taken on alone an enterprise that might easily have occupied a whole team.' Rosemary Hill, TLS `The splendidly produced initial volume of the collection of Pugin's letters will rapidly become the port of first call for the study of his life and influence.' Recusant History `This is the first complete edition of those [Pugin's] letters ever published and, when finished, will reach five volumes ... The quality of the editing is very high indeed and one looks forward to the remaining volumes.' Contemporary Review `Margaret Belcher has embarked on a great work both of dedication and scholarship.' Rosemary Hill, Times Literary Supplement