[Andrew Frisardi]

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

By Matthew Hollis, published by Norton.

Looks well worth a read.

[Mark Blaeuer]

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.

[George Simmers]

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.

[Philip Morre]

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?)

[Gregory Dowling]

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.

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

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

[Andrew Frisardi]

A chapter is up now at Poetry Daily:

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