This volume contains more than 300 letters by John Stuart Mill that have been discovered since the publication of Earlier Letters in 1962 and Later Letters in 1972. The collection covers a vast rangle of topics, and includes three groups of letters of special interest: a series of notes to Henry Cole, friend and ally of Mill, dealing among other things with the disposition of the London and Westminster Review; the full versions of letters to Theodor Gomperz, Mill”s leading German disciple and translator, which had been thought destroyed; and, most exceptionally, recently found internal correspondence in the Examiner”s Office of the East India Company, which sheds new light on Mill”s career.
The introduction to the volume, by Marion Filipiuk, places the letters in context, gives detail about the three special groups, and outlines the history of the collection. The letters are presented in full scholarly form, with notes giving information about the texts and their provenance, and also historical and bibliographic information.
An appendix provides the first published check-list of letters to Mill, with their locations. Other appendices give variant readings from the Gomperz leters, a finding list of form letters signed by Mill in the India Office Library and Records, an index of correspondents represented in this volume, an index of persons and works cited in the letters, and an analytical index.