Henry Crabb Robinson
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1867), diarist, was born in Bury St. Edmunds, England.
He was articled to an attorney in Colchester. Between 1800 and 1805 he studied at various places in Germany, and became acquainted with nearly all the great men of letters there, including Goethe, Schiller, Johann Gottfried Herder and Christoph Martin Wieland. Thereafter he became war correspondent to the Times in the Peninsular War. On his return to London he studied for the Bar, to which he was called in 1813, and became leader of the Eastern Circuit. Fifteen years later he retired, and by virtue of his great conversational powers and other qualities, became a leader in society. He died unmarried, aged 91, and his Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence was published in 1869.
Robinson's Diary contains important reminiscences of many of the central figures of the English romantic movement including Coleridge, Charles Lamb, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and others. Although the diaries contain no particularly significant revelations they are important documents regarding the daily lives of London writers, artists, political figures and socialites. In his essay on Blake, Swinburne says, "Of all the records of these his latter years, the most valuable, perhaps, are those furnished by Mr. Crabb Robinson, whose cautious and vivid transcription of Blake's actual speech is worth more than much vague remark, or than any commentary now possible to give."
In 1829 Robinson was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (F.S.A.), and contributed a paper to Archæologia entitled "The Etymology of the Mass".
He was buried in a vault in Highgate Cemetery alongside his friend Edwin Wilkins Field. His diaries were bequeathed to Dr Williams's Library, because Robinson had been a member of the Essex Street Chapel, the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in England.
In 1935 Edith Morley wrote a biography of Henry Crabb Robinson which was published by J.M. Dent & Sons.
A bust of Crabb Robinson was made, and a portrait by Edward Armitage.
