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The major strength of the Speck Collection is its documentation of Goethe's literary reception in England and America in the nineteenth century. The literary manuscript component of the Collection, listed in detail in this finding aid, includes correspondence, documents, playscripts, and other writings. Among the better-known items to be mentioned in this connection are the full draft of Bayard Taylor's translation of Faust (folder 716), translations by George Borrow (folders 225-227), and John Greenleaf Whittier's manuscript for his translation of the poem "Erlkoenig" (folder 249). Translations, criticism, and correspondence about theater productions and the publication of Goethe's works, especially in Great Britain, include letters and manuscripts by such figures as Sarah Austin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Margaret Fuller, Richard Graves, Anna Jameson, Charles Kean, and Edward George Bulwer-Lytton.