Volume 55, Number 20 · December 18, 2008
Visiting Elizabeth Barrett Browning
By Robert F. Ober Jr.
To the Editors:
Readers might be interested to know that Florence's English cemetery, where Elizabeth Barrett Browning is buried, gladly welcomes visitors. While the cemetery could benefit from an infusion of funds (many tombs, some of which date from shortly after its opening in 1828, have weathered poorly), an Anglican nun, Julia Bolton Holloway, unselfishly cares for its grounds and continues to collect, in its gatehouse, books relating to the notables—including Americans—buried there. (Ms. Holloway is an EBB scholar, having edited, with her late father, the 1995 Penguin Classics edition of the poet's works.) The cemetery is somewhat off the touristic track (non-Catholics could not be buried within Florence's now-vanished walls), but is still a mere quarter-hour ride from the Duomo, at Piazzale Donatello, 38. More information can be found at www.florin.ms or directly from Ms. Holloway: holloway.julia@tiscali.it.
Robert F. Ober Jr.
Sharon, Connecticut