This volume investigates the personal and intellectual development of Samuel Taylor Coleridge during the years 1820 to 1825 through his private correspondence. Editor Earl Leslie Griggs compiles these primary source documents to provide a comprehensive view of the poet's later life, focusing on his philosophical inquiries, health struggles, and professional relationships. The collection serves as a critical resource for understanding the transition of Coleridge's thought during this specific period of the nineteenth century.

Scholars and literary historians regard this edition as the definitive collection for studying Coleridge's later years. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the meticulous nature of the editorial apparatus.