Literary annuals played a major role in the popular culture of nineteenth-century Britain and America, and The Keepsake was the most distinguished, successful, and enduring of them all. The 1829 edition was stellar, with contributions by William Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walter Scott, Letitia Landon, Felicia Hemans, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The whole of The Keepsake for 1829 is reproduced here in facsimile, so readers can experience it as it was first published, with the text adorned by the original illustrations. An in-depth introduction by Paula R. Feldman contextualizes the volume for modern readers.