Edward Thomas biography
 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...Tabs%3Darticle

By Matthew Hollis, published by Norton.

Looks well worth a read.

Thanks, Andrew. I hadn't noticed this, but the book is now on my "to buy" list. I've loved Thomas's poetry for years. (As for the Augustans he put in the shadow, I'll say a good word for W.H. Davies: I enjoyed his prose about "tramping".)

Is this the first book-length bio of Edward Thomas? If so, that's amazing. It's been nearly a century since Arras.

The book is well worth reading - but it's only a partial biography, focusing on the last four years..
Jean Moorcroft Wilson, biographer of Sassoon and Rosenberg, is writing a full one, which should be published soon. She will deal with the more difficult material - those years before he wrote poetry, when he worked as a literary drudge, published prose that never quite matched his capabilities, and treated his womenfolk rather badly. It'll be interesting to see what Wilson makes of him.

George R. Thomas (who also edited the Collected Poems) wrote a decent biography in 1985: 'Edward Thomas, a Portrait', though if I remember rightly it's more of a 'literary life' than a 'life'. Eleanor Farjeon's memoir 'Edward Thomas, the last four years' is also well worth reading. Both easy to find second hand - though beware 'Print on Demand's of the first title, which cost many times more than the readily available original. (Why does anybody buy these things?) (or print them?)

The subject came up a while back, when the Guardian published an excerpt from the book. Here is the relevant thread. I still haven't read Hollis's book but look forward to doing so.

I've read it, and it's a must read. If I should try to summarise the psychological impression I've been left with, then I would say it's a portrait of a tortured soul, yet done with magnificent poise. Thomas was a respected and feared critic who didn't start writing poetry until the evening of his short life. And what a wretched life it was - terribly underpaid as a writer, he had to take on mountains of hackwork, and his marriage was hell - and yet he transformed this misery into beauty thanks to his poetical daemon and his vision for humanity.

Duncan

A chapter is up now at Poetry Daily:

http://poems.com/special_features/pr...lis_thomas.php