ROBINSON, HENRY CRABB

born May 13, 1775, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Eng. died Feb. 5, 1867, London English man of letters whose voluminous diaries provide valuable information on life in the early Romantic period and give lively portraits of a host of its literary personalities. Living in London from 1796, Robinson practiced law as a barrister on the Norfolk circuit (181328). He also served as foreign correspondent for The Times of London (180709) and became involved in the antislavery campaign and in the founding of the University of London. Thus, he was well placed to record affairs in his age; his good sense and nature and shrewd judgment made him popular. He befriended William Blake, pre-Romantic visionary poet, painter, and designer, of whose last years Robinson's diaries give the only firsthand account. He also knew Charles Lamb, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, of whose lectures he made notes. In Germany (180005) he met the leading poets and thinkers of his day, including J.W. von Goethe, Friedrich von Schiller, and J.G. von Herder; on his return to England, he was influential in making German literature and philosophy more widely known. A famous conversationalist, he was noted for his Sunday morning breakfast parties attended by men of affairs and letters. His diaries were first published in 1869. Collections of his correspondence with the Wordsworth circle (1927), about Germany (1929), and about books and writers (1938) were edited by E.J. Morley.