Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Poems, published by F.S. Ellis to acclaim and derision in April 1870, had one of the most complex histories of any literary work published in Victorian Britain. Originally announced as Dante at Verona and other poems in 1861, the book’s long gestation period included the exhumation of a manuscript from the grave of Rossetti’s wife, Elizabeth Siddal in the midst of a period of revision, composing new poems, and correcting proofs that extended over ten months. Rossetti himself created the elaborate cover design and endpapers and he worked diligently to ensure a favorable reception from friends and reviewers, drawing on a wide circle of acquaintances. This “case study,” curated by Rebecca Olsen, graduate assistant in the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection (2017-2018 and Summer 2019) and PhD candidate in the Department of English, is associated with the exhibition, “From Thought to Print: The Creative Process of Publishing,”  on view in the Special Collections Gallery from September 9 through December 13, 2019.