Sister Helen: The Dusseldorf Artists Album, author's corrected proof
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Production Description
Document Title: Sister Helen
Author: H. H. H.
Printer: G. D. Baedeker
City of publication: London
Date of publication: 1854
Edition: 1
Pagination: 9-11
Authorization: DGR
Provenance
Current Location: Library of the South African National Gallery
Physical Description
Point: 6
Lines per Page: 42
Columns: 2
Margin bottom: 2.1 cm
Margin right: 1.9 cm
Margin left: 1.7 cm
Dimensions of Document: 25x20cm
Other Physical Features: Each of the three pages of this proof copy is cut in half horizontally at the mid-point of the page.
Bibliography
- Doughty,
A Victorian Romantic, 142-143.
- Sharp,
DGR. A Record and a Study, 20.
- Troxell,
Rossetti's Sister Helen.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
page images | transcript
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This is DGR's author's proof of the text of the ballad printed in the 1854 issue of The Dusseldorf Artists' Album . While DGR's pencil note at the head of the first page is no longer legible, the corrections to the text are still clear. WMR's transcription of the pencil note, made sometime in the period after DGR's death when he was editing his brother's works, is preserved with the proof in the South African National Gallery's library.
William Sharp saw this corrected proof and quoted from DGR's pencil note (at the top of the first page) that the author initials “were taken from the lead-pencil [where they signified a very hard graphite] because people used to say my style was hard” (Sharp page 20). CR wrote in a letter to WMR that “At the Howitts one evening Allingham suggested ‘Hear, hear, hear’ for H. H. H.” ( Christina Rossetti. Family Letters).