As a psychiatric term ‘depression’ dates back only as far as the mid-nineteenth century
As a psychiatric term ‘depression’ dates back only as far as the mid-nineteenth century. Before then a wide range of terms were used: ‘melancholy’ carried enormous weight, and was one of the two confirmed forms of eighteenth-century insanity. This four-volume set is the first large-scale study of depression across an extensive period.
Introduction, Select Bibliography, Anthony Wood, The Life of Anthony à
Wood (163769), Alice Thornton, A Booke of Remembrances (16601), Edmund
Berry Godfrey, Letters to Valentine Greatracks (166671), Elizabeth Freke,
Some Few Remembrances of my Misffortuns (16711713), Anon., An Abstract of
the Remarkable Passages in the Life of a Private Gentleman (1715), George
Drummond, Diary (1736), Thomas Blacklock, An Hymn to Fortitude (1754),
Andrew Erskine, Ode I. To Indolence (1762), Letters between the Honourable
Andrew Erskine and James Boswell Esquire (1763), Sylas Neville, Journals and
Letters (176773), Charlotte Forman, Letters to John Wilkes (17689),
Georgiana Cavendish, Letter to Mary Graham (1778), John Logan, Letters to
Alexander Carlyle (1781), James Boswell, Letter to Edmund Burke (1782),
Robert Burns, Robert Burns Commonplace Book (17835), John Gambold, The Rev.
J.G. To E.V. Esq (1740), On Lowness of Spirits (1789), A Piece Written at
a Time when under Apprehension of Losing his Senses (1789), Joseph Wright,
Letters to John Leigh Philips (178996), Hannah Robertson, The Life of Mrs.
Robertson (1791), Editorial Notes
Leigh Wetherall Dickson, Allan Ingram, David Walker, Anita O'Connell, Michelle Faubert