Sir Richard Francis Burton Papers

This collection contains personal, official, business, and social correspondence and manuscripts of British explorer and writer Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) and his wife, Lady Isabel Burton (1831-1896), chiefly covering the period of Burton's consulship in Trieste and Lady Burton's life after her husband's death. The collection contains very little early material for Richard and Isabel Burton, but it does include almost all of Burton's work on Camoens, in various drafts over a number of years. There is also a large group of letters between Isabel Burton and Leonard C. Smithers, and other publishers, editors, and lawyers which detail the, sometimes torturous, publication process in late nineteenth-century England. The collection was assembled by Edwards H. Metcalf over more than thirty years.

The papers consist of the following series:

1. Manuscripts (Boxes 1-21). The manuscripts include a selection of Burton's literary works, mainly from his later writing career. Included in this series are: travel journals, essays, a few poems, and his translation of Ariosto…Roland the Rageful, his Camoens notes and translations, and his translation of Ladislaus Magyar. This series also includes manuscripts by other authors, most notably by Isabel Burton, Edward Rehatsek, Leonard C. Smithers, and Henry Yule.

2. Correspondence (Boxes 22-46). This series includes Burton's personal letters, business letters related to gold mining enterprises, and letters related to his writing; also included are a small number of Isabel Burton's personal letters and a large number of letters with various publishers, booksellers, and lawyers concerning the publication of Burton's works. This series also includes letters from notable people in the fields of exploration and publishing: Verney Lovett Cameron, Charles George Gordon, William Forsell Kirby, and Leonard C. Smithers.

3. Other Scholars Material (Boxes 47-50). This series includes mostly research material and correspondence dealing with Apuleius‟ "Golden Ass," the publication of erotic literature, and various translation projects by Alfred Richard Allinson, Charles A. Groves, John Payne, Theodore Watts-Dunton, and Thomas Wright.

4. Extra Oversize Material (Box 51). Included in this series is a portrait proof engraving of Richard Burton by Frederic Leighton; also, 21 hand-drawn maps of Midian, many with Arabic captions and autograph notes by Burton.

5. Other Scholars Material (Boxes 52-55). This series includes research and manuscript material for Fawn Brodie, including her Burton biography, The Devil Drives.

6. Ephemera (Boxes 56-59). Box 56 contains invoices, printed material, photographs, and transcriptions (1873-1896); box 57 contains book reviews, Mary S. Lovell material, photocopies, and printed material (1964-2000); box 58 contains photocopies; and box 59 contains prints and ephemera.