The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman: Volume VII: Editing the British Critic January 1839 - December 1840: (Newman Letters & Diaries)

John Henry Newman (1801-90) was at the height of his position in the Church of England in 1839, when he first began to feel doubts concerning the claims of the Anglican Church. His editorship of the "British Critic" took up a great deal of time but he was greatly encouraged by its increasing sales. Uncomfortable with his position as Vicar of St Mary's, Oxford, Newman was considering giving up the living at the end of 1840. This volume covers a significant period in Newman's life, with a background of social ferment and political tension: the Corn Laws, Chartism, an inexperienced monarch, weak government and foreign problems. Contemporary writers such as Carlyle attracted Newman's attention, and university reform was a live issue.

Review :
The letters and diaries are edited according to the method and the thoroughness we have become accustomed to in this series,..We are... grateful to the editors for the great deal of labour this project must demand from them and we hope they will be able to bring it to completion in the not too distant future. This volume comes after a gap of eleven years since the last volume to appear in this monumental edition, begun in 1961 under the masterly editorship of the founder of modern Newman studies, the late Charles Stephen Dessain ... Volume viii covers some of the most momentous months in Newman's life ... a meticulously edited volume, often involving very complex and demanding annotation, and fully worthy of the founding editor of this distinguished series. The editing of this volume carries forward the same exacting standards we have come to expect of this important project, and congratulations are once again in order. The Letters and Diaries provide an important resource for Newman studies in general. This volume already offers intimations of Newman's eventual journey to Rome. Such clues can be detected especially in his letters and language surrounding the Tracts. Features such as the appendices and index offer any Newman scholar a well-organized wealth of information ... a major asset to the whole Christian community, particularly since it encompasses the life of a man poised on the threshold of being declared a Doctor of the Church. Tracey's volume is now the definitive window ... Tracey presents everything extant, including the diary entries. Gerard Tracey has provided excellent footnotes as well as the germane portions of letters sent Newman that occasioned his responses. I await eagerly Gerard Tracey's next volume. If it is like this one, it won't disappoint. we are now given all Newman's extant letters for these years in full, with seventy complete letters and further parts of letters to Newman, and a vast amount of information in both the footnots and index about Newman's correspondents and the persons and incidents mentioned by them. And there is often the marvelous phrase or sentence ... The editor, Gerard Tracey, is to be warmly congratulated on a magnificent achievement, and for a scholarship both accurate and informative.