Selwyn Image's Tabletalk (1884-85): Preface and Annotated Text

Abstract

Even in an age of multitaskers—painters who were poets, poets who were painters, novelists who were politicians, politicians who were novelists—Selwyn Image (1849-1930) was remarkable: art historian, illustrator, typographer, designer of stained-glass windows, furniture maker, poet, and clergyman. He was a major contributor to the Arts and Crafts Movement in late Victorian England and an ardent spokesman for the benefits of art to society. Image co-founded the Century Guild of Artists and was the author of many articles and poems that appeared in the Century Guild Hobby Horse, a journal whose cover Image designed. He also maintained a diary-notebook for approximately a year, from 1884-85. In it, he recorded his thoughts on literature and art, as well as on religion and politics. This diary, which he titled Tabletalk, exists in manuscript form and has never been made public—until now.

View the original Tabletalk manuscript at https://digitalcollections.udel.edu/Documents/Detail/s.-i.-table-talk.-vol.-i-autograph-manuscript-signed-1884-1885./305982