This bibliography is not comprehensive.  One particular area of study is almost completely ignored - namely, the field of literary criticism.  Keats has been the subject of numerous critical studies and most volumes can be found at any university library.  The biographies and other studies that are listed are still in-print and may be purchased at most larger bookstores.

Also, I have not listed Amy Lowell and Aileen Ward's wonderful biographies because they are out-of-print.  If you can find copies, they are certainly worth reading.  I read Lowell's with a great deal of envy.  Her collection of Keats memorabilia (now at Harvard's Houghton Library) was remarkable and used throughout the biography.

My personal Keats library is a haphazard collection of works, none of which are more important than Keats's own poetry and letters.  The Modern Library and Harvard University Press publish the best editions of his complete works.  Robert Gittings has edited a selection of Keats's letters; HUP's recently revised edition is also excellent.

*The most recent (July 2004) addition to the Keats library is Penelope Hughes-Hallett's The Immortal Dinner.

W. Jackson Bate, John Keats
Published in 1963, this remains the definitive biography of Keats.

Robert Gittings, John Keats
This biography by the poet Robert Gittings was published five years after Bate's work.  It is notable for its treatment of Keats's relationship with Fanny Brawne.

John Evangelist Walsh, Darkling I Listen: The Last Days and Death of John Keats
This book was published in late 1999 and focuses only on Keats's life after his illness was first diagnosed, and includes - among many interesting features - a medical interpretation of Keats's symptoms, a detailed account of Severn's life after nursing Keats, and a discussion of Fanny Brawne's life after Keats, including the history of their famous love letters.

Andrew Motion, Keats
Published in 1999, this is the most recent biography of Keats.  There are several errors, particularly in the final section concerning Keats's months in Rome.  And, oddly for a poet, Motion's discussion of Keats's poetry is neither perceptive or interesting.  He does a nice job of sketching out London in the early 19th century, as well as Keats's wide circle of friends.  The book is nicely illustrated as well.

Robert Gittings, John Keats: The Living Year
I only recently (2003) purchased a used copy of this work.  It explores the year 1819, referred to by various biographers/critics as Keats's 'living year' or 'fertile year'.  A quick but thought-provoking read, and a nice example of actual literary scholarship.

Robert Gittings, The Odes of Keats and Their Earliest Known Manuscripts in Facsimile
Gittings yet again, and this time with a wonderful volume which collects the original manuscript images of Keats's odes, the stories behind each, some critical analysis, etc  This slim book contains some errors (at least my edition does) but it's possible scholarship simply shifted a bit in the intervening years.  This is the perfect Keats-related work to flip through, mull over, enjoy - being able to view the original manuscripts is fantastic and Gittings includes exact transcriptions which show what Keats kept and cut out.

Walter A. Wells, MD, A Doctor's Life of John Keats
This interesting biography analyzes Keats's life from a medical perspective.  I enjoyed it very much.  The last section - an analysis of 'the mystery of genius' - wanders far and wide in an attempt to explain Keats's achievement.  Wells completely disagrees with the theory that Keats suffered from syphilis, and I found his reasoning persuasive.  It turns out that 'a little mercury' was widely used for common respiratory illnesses.

Walter Jackson Bate, ed., Keats: A Collection of Critical Essays
This is my favorite collection of Keatsian criticism.  It was originally published in 1964 so it lacks the pretentious 'style' of contemporary criticism.  It is divided into two sections - general discussions and discussions of particular poems.  Eliot, Bate, Fogle, and Bush discuss Keats, his place in literary history, his use of imagery, his conception of negative capability, etc  Stillinger, Bloom, Perkins, Wasserman, Bate, and James discuss various poems, primarily the great odes of 1819.  There is a brief chronology of important dates in Keats's life, notes on the authors, and a selected bibliography.  An essential and enjoyable purchase, I think - good criticism can help you find another path into a poem.

MH Abrams, editor, English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism
This classic work contains critical essays by Leavis, Lewis, Frye, Stillinger, Bloom, and others.  It discusses all the major Romantic poets.  I'd buy the Bate collection first, though.

Helen Vendler, The Odes of John Keats
I disagree with quite a few of Vendler's ideas and interpretations of Keats's famous 1819 odes but this is still an interesting purchase.

Helen Vendler, Coming of Age as a Poet: Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath
Vendler's latest book examines the first work in which the four poets found their unique personal 'style'.  For Keats, it is 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'.

Harold Bloom, The Visionary Company
This book is a discussion of all the Romantic poets and includes a nice section on Keats.  Bloom is regarded as kooky by some but he's always passionate about literature.

The Selected Letters of John Keats, edited by Robert Gittings
Gittings provides a wonderful introduction to this collection of Keats's letters.  Two of the greatest epistolary talents in English history were 2d generation Romantic poets - Byron and Keats.  Keats's letters provide invaluable insight into the facts of his life, of course, but also include his feelings about all sorts of things - poetry, love, literary criticism, life in London, etc.
These letters were recognized as extraordinary in his lifetime.  If you've never read Keats's letters, this volume is the perfect introduction.

TS Eliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
This collection of Eliot's Oxford lectures contains an interesting discussion of Keats but it's quite brief.

A documentary about Keats entitled 'Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date' was made in 1985.  It was nominated for an Academy Award, but is currently unavailable on vhs or dvd.

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