BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Baird, John D., and Charles Ryskamp, eds. The Poems of William Cowper, Volume III, 1785-1900. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995, 413 p.

A collection of Cowper's poems, with commentary and an explanation of sources.

King, James, and Charles Ryskamp, eds. William Cowper: Selected Letters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, 236 p.

A compilation of Cowper's letters, with a chronology and a list of letters.

BIOGRAPHIES

Cecil, David. The Stricken Deer, or The Life of Cowper. London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1929, 303 p.

Biography treating Cowper's life and work within the context of eighteenth-century literature.

Hartley, Lodwick. William Cowper: The Continuing Revaluation. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960, 159 p.

A biographical essay on Cowper and a bibliography of criticism from 1895 to 1960.

Newey, Vincent. “William Cowper,” in Handbook to English Romanticism, edited by Jean Raimond and J. R. Watson, pp. 83-91. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

A concise biography and explanation of Cowper's better-known works.

CRITICISM

Heller, Deborah. “Cowper's Task and the Writing of a Poet's Salvation.” In SEL: Studies in English Literature 35, No. 3 (Summer 1995): 575-98.

Claims that producing The Task served as a means of achieving mental salvation for Cowper.

Hutchings, W. B. “William Cowper and 1789.” In Yearbook of English Studies 19 (1989): 71-93.

Analysis of how the events of 1789 affected Cowper's writing.

Newey, Vincent. “William Cowper and the Condition of England.” In Literature and Nationalism, edited by Vincent Newey and Ann Thompson, pp. 120–139. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1991.

A discussion of Cowper's interpretive side.

Prestman, Martin. Cowper's Task: Structure and Influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, 217 p.

A book-by-book analysis of The Task, with a comparison to Wordsworth's Prelude.

Additional coverage of Cowper's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 104 and 109; DISCovering Authors, 3.0; and DISCovering Authors Modules: Poets.