A Diary: 1824-1889

by William Allingham, Helen Paterson Allingham, Dollie Radford

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Genres: Biography

403 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1985

About the author

William Allingham was an Irish poet, diarist and editor. He wrote several volumes of lyric verse, and his poem 'The Faeries' was much anthologised; but he is better known for his posthumously published Diary, in which he records his lively encounters with Tennyson, Carlyle and other writers and artists.


Librarian Note: For the English physician go to William Allingham.

Reviews

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allingham, Helen (editor); Radford, D. (editor). I read this in the original Macmillan, 1907 ed. [These notes were made in 1991:]. To the varied ranks of James Boswell and Pamela Des Barres (Confessions of a Groupie), add William Allingham, celebrity-hunter extraordinaire. His chief prizes were life-long, close friendships with Tennyson and Carlyle, an early, if somewhat fading friendship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti (he stayed on better terms with Morris and Burne-Jones), and at least passing acquaintance with many other notables, including Emerson, Swinburne and Darwin. He also knew Browning well. If Allingham had intended to publish from his diary, he doesn't seem to have got around to smoothing or selecting. The entries reproduced here are true journal entries, full of abbreviations, personal trivia and obscure allusions. To the beginnings of an autobiography (does everybody in the world have the beginnings of an autobiography, I wonder?) his editors have added bridging passages explaining the course of his life, and a selection from the journals, mostly from the times he spent in London. Allingham spent much of his time as a customs officer far from London (but close to Tennyson). His London days seem to have been the highlights, especially when he was a bachelor - which was most of his life. Although he was doubtless consciously recording for posterity, the fact that everything is still in diary form means that there's relatively little post facto comment, which is nice. On the other hand, the principles of selection seem to have been to print things about the celebrities, which means we get relatively little sense of Allingham's own day-to-day personality. Quite possibly it's not there anyway. But it's disconcerting, to say the least, to find him all of a sudden married on p. 233 without the slightest mention of the woman coming before (note that she's one of the editors!) Anyway, I rather enjoyed this exercise in literary gossip.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

A caveat first...if you are unfamiliar with the authors, poets, and artists of mid-Victorian England--this diary is not for you.

A very interesting diary full of the casual name dropping that comes from intimate friendships. Tennyson and Carlyle figure prominently, but along the way we are treated to insights into the lives and thoughts of Emerson, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Browning, Darwin, Millais, Ruskin, Morris, and so many others.

The writing is sketchy and Mr. Allingham has a habit of shortening the name of the person he is referring to to the first letter of their name, which can be confusing occasionally. However, this does not take away from the pleasure of reading the gems that are recorded there.

A definite enjoyable experience for lovers of the mid-Victorian aesthetic.