Keats Shelly House

In 1907, the house in which John Keats died was finally bought outright for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. This is the story of how that came about.

In 1903 the rooms in which Keats and Severn had lived were occupied by a pair of American women, both writers, Mrs James Walcott Haslehurst and her mother who spent much time permitting the curious to see where Keats had spent his last days. The house was in a dreadful condition and the women wanted to buy it so that it could be preserved as a shrine but did not have enough money. In February 1903, Robert Underwood Johnson, an American poet, walked down the Spanish Steps to look at the house in which Keats had died, noticed its bedraggled appearance, entered and made enquiries. He called together a dozen of the American literati resident in Rome, one prominent Englishman, and their spouses. The Englishman, Rennell Rodd, who later saved the graves in the cemetery in Testaccio, was a poet as well as a brilliant diplomat. He took the Chair of the meeting. The Americans present were Robert Underwood Johnson and his wife, Norman Hapgood, Agnes Repplier, James Herbert Morse and his wife, Martha Gilbert Dickinson, and H. Nelson Gay. Johnson proposed that committees in the United States, England and Italy should raise money for the project. Rennell Rodd led the drive in the United Kingdom, Johnson in the United States and Nelson Gay in Italy. They worked hard, with support from President Roosevelt and King Edward VII, and after three years their efforts were rewarded.

An option to buy the house was acquired and taken up on the 30th of December 1906 by a cash payment of $14,000 and a mortgage of $8,000. The formal dedication by the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III, took place on 3 April 1909 was attended by descendants of the poets; Lloyd Griscom, the American Ambassador; Sir Rennell Rodd and Rudyard Kipling for the United Kingdom; Adolpho de Bosis, a young Italian Shellyan, and Nelson Gay.

It now contains one of the finest libraries of Romantic literature in the world as well as a unique collection of manuscripts, paintings and memorabilia. In addition to being a Museum and Library the House plays an important part in the cultural life of Rome organising lectures, poetry recitals and gala events.

Among those who later occupied rooms in the House was the Swedish writer and doctor Axel Munthe who lived here at the end of the nineteenth century. An edition of his famous work The Story of San Michele together with a note on his life and friendship with the great italian actress Eleonora Duse are part of the museum collection.

The house in war-time
In December 1941, on the breakdown of relations between Germany and its allies and America, the Keats House entered its "underground period", assuming an anonymous obscurity even in its outward appearance. The external plaques were removed and the House became another anonymous feature of the architecture of the scalinata.

Though the celebrated library of 10,000 volumes remained in place, two small boxes were sent to the Abbey of Montecassino on December 14 1942. Their contents included the famous last drawing of Keats by Severn, two first editions of Keats - Endymion and Lamia, Keats's own drawing of the Sosibios Vase, locks of Keats's and Shelley's hair, and letters of Shelley, Byron, Leigh Hunt, Trelawny, Mary Shelley and the Brownings. The boxes were sealed but were left unlabelled and it was this omission which ultimately saved them from German inspection.

Following the allied landings and Anglo-American advance Cassino became the centre of the German defence. On October 14 1943 evacuation of the Abbey was ordered and a few days later the Goering division removed the archives. The archivist, with great courage, moved the treasures of the Keats-Shelley House to his own cell and crated them with his own possessions. On October 30th the archivist's belongings travelled by lorry for Rome and one month later the Curator of the House collected the boxes and returned them to their home in Piazza di Spagna.

Following the arrival of the Allies in Rome in June 1944, the House was at once reopened and the boxes of manuscripts unsealed in the presence of the British and American Ambassadors. The House was crowded with soldiers who came to reflect and to recover themselves. The father of one of these soldiers wrote later that his son had found there serenity and strength amid a sorrow like that of Ruth:

"when sick for home
She stood in tears amid the alien corn"

"Ode to a Nightingale" John Keats