Hallam Tennyson Letters and Postcards

Collection

Identifier: MS 0136

Staff Only

Finding aid note: Stored on-site at the Woodson Research Center.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of personal correspondence of Hallam Tennyson, who was the eldest son and biographer of the poet Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892). Correspondents include Mrs. Allingham, Sir George Grove, J. M. Ludlow, A. West. The collection contains letters that deal with Nelson letters, Captain Mahon, and Tennyson's memoir of his father. He writes to Ludlow regarding his Tennyson: a Memoir. Another letter refers to Hester Ritchie, W.M.Thackeray's grand-daughter. Several newspaper clippings published during Tennyson's life give additional biographical information from the period.

Dates

Creation: 1886 - 1926

Creator

Tennyson, Hallam Tennyson, Baron (Person)

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

Stored onsite at the Woodson Research Center.

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish material from the Tennyson, Hallam, Letters and Postcards, must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.

Biographical Notes

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson (11 August 1852-2 December 1928), second Governor-General of Australia, was born at Chapel House, Twickenham, in Surrey, England. He was the elder son of Alfred Tennyson, the most popular and prominent poet of late Victorian England.

Hallam was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge, but his career aspirations ended when his parents' age and ill-health obliged him to leave Cambridge to become their personal secretary. The idea of going into politics was also abandoned.

It was partly for Hallam's benefit that Alfred Tennyson accepted a peerage in 1884, the year Hallam married Audrey Boyle (after being disappointed in his love for Mary Gladstone, daughter of William Ewart Gladstone). On his father's death in 1892, he inherited the title Baron Tennyson, and also the role of official biographer. His Tennyson: a Memoir was published in 1897.

Excerpted from from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallam_Tennyson, 2005