COURTESY OF LowCountryBookstore: Fifty years ago Hopkins was unknown. Today he is in every anthology. The publication of the poetry of Hopkins in 1918, almost thirty years after his death, was one of the major literary events of our time. Though by the dates of his birth and death (1844-89) he falls within the Victorian period. Hopkins has been acclaimed by our own generation as even more modern than the moderns. There seems to be no end to the ever-growing stream of articles and books about him. "Hopkins was one of the most remarkable technical inventors who ever wrote," F. R. Leavis remarks and "He is likely to prove, for our time and the future, the only influential poet of the Victorian age." W. H. Gardner concludes a two-volume study of Hopkins with the claim, "After an intensive study of Hopkins, most other English poetry seems outwardly facile and in varying degrees inadequate." A Hopkins Reader selects and reprints the most important materials from these volumes as well as from the Poems-every completed mature poem is included - and presents them in easily accessible form. Letters are printed in their entirety. In all other cases the units are as complete as possible. Because Hopkins seldom confined himself to a single problem in any one letter, the headings under which they are arranged - Observation of Nature: Inscape, Poetic Theory, Practical Criticism. The Other Arts and Religion - are necessarily indicative rather than definitive. (From Introduction.)