Henry Crabb Robinson, known in his day as a London barrister and journalist--the first foreign correspondent for the London Times--is now known primarily as, in Marilyn Gaull's words, "the unofficial diarist of his generation." He was the only writer intimate with the major literary figures of both England and the Continent (especially Germany), and his diary remains a valuable resource for students of European Romanticism. It can even be argued that Robinson was an important catalyst in the interreaction of German and British Romanticism--perhaps more important even than Samuel Taylor Coleridge or Thomas Carlyle, since Robinson was acquainted socially with the writers and thinkers he wrote about.

Henry Crabb Robinson was born on 13 May 1775 in the town of Bury St. Edmunds, the youngest of three sons of Henry Robinson, a tanner, and Jemima Crabb Robinson. Two other children died in infancy. The Robinsons were Dissenters, and Jemima...