Archives West Finding Aid

This collection consists of documents pertaining to the American publication of literary work by British poet Rupert Brooke (1887-1915). Brooke was well-known for his writing as well as those with whom he kept company. Among his friends and associates were members of England's literary elite known as the Bloomsbury group, whose members included Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. Brooke was also instrumental in developing the idea of publishing a collection of poems under the title Georgian Poetry. He contributed to the collection and content of the first anthology, published in 1912, and his work is also found in the second anthology, published in 1915. It is Brooke's collection of five sentimental and patriotic sonnets written during World War I for which he is most famous, a fame which was compounded by his untimely death at age 28. The entry in the Dictionary of Literary Biography chronicling his life and career maintains at the time of his death in 1915, Rupert Brooke was considered to be England's foremost young poet.