Edward Thomas: From Adlestrop to Arras: A Biography

by Jean Moorcroft Wilson

Along with Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas is by any reckoning a major first world war poet. A war poet is not one who chooses to commemorate or celebrate a war, but one who reacts against having a war thrust upon him. His great friend Robert Frost wrote 'His poetry is so very brave, so unconsciously brave.' Apart from a most illuminating understanding of his poetry, Dr Wilson shows how Thomas' life alone makes for absorbing reading: his early marriage, his dependence on laudanum, his friendships with Conrad, Edward Garnett, Rupert Brooke and Hilaire Belloc among others. The novelist Eleanor Farjeon entered into a curious menage a trois with him and his wife. He died in France in 1917, on the first day of the Battle of Arras. This is the stuff of which myths are made and posterity has been quick to oblige. But this has tended to obscure his true worth as a writer, as Dr Wilson argues. Edward Thomas's poems were not published until some months after his death, but they have never since been out of print. Described by Ted Hughes as 'the father of us all', Thomas's distinctively modern sensibility is probably the one most in tune with our twenty-first century outlook.He occupies a crucial place in the development of twentieth century poetry. This is the extraordinary life of a poetic genius.

Genres: Biography

496 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2015

About the author

Jean Moorcroft Wilson is a lecturer in English at Birkbeck, University of London.

Reviews

[Michael Dodsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have already banged on about Edward Thomas at length in another review so I wll be brief.

This is the first full biography of Thomas for some thirty years and so well overdue. It contains much new material, especially on his strained relationship with his long-suffering wife, Helen. In many respects Thomas was an archetype for the tortured artist; among the many reasons for this were, a feeling of inadequacy, an innate melancholia and a restless desire to find his niche in the literary world. The book brings out this constant unease well, and, in particular, how Thomas sought consolation in the company of the prominent literati of his time: de la Mare, Conrad, Brooke, W H Davies, Belloc et al. It should be remembered that while Thomas was, of course, a great writer of prose and poetry in his own right, he was also one the most celebrated reviewers of his generation. Through this medium his knowledge of contemporary writers, and poets in particular, was unrivalled. Perhaps this constant exposure to poetry ultimately led him to write his own, encouraged by yet another of his literary friends, Robert Frost.

Jean Moorcroft Wilson also reveals interesting new information about his death at the Battle of Arras - which I will not go into here, for obvious reasons.

Well written, always engrossing and the perfect book for anyone wanting to find out more about this giant of English letters.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very detailed, if perhaps not too detailed, biography of the First World War poet Edward Thomas. Thomas's poetic output was small, he had in fact spent most of his time writing reviews and editing books in order to support his family. Moorcroft details his rather fraught and unhappy marriage and his many escapes from it, the final one being his enlisting . He wrote a number of commissioned works and probably the biography he did of Richard Jefferies being his best. Jefferies was a kindred spirit who loved the natural world and being in the natural world as much as Thomas did. There is a line of nature poets, the most prominent possible being John Clare, and Thomas's poetry is in this vein. He wrote war poetry whilst he was still under training, but not once he got to the front. Of this poetry my favourite work has to be "Rain", a poem that shows the poet's sombre isolation and his relationship with death. As Moorcroft Wilson indicates it is a very disquieting poem, but yet one that is sublime. Thomas's pensive absorption by death in his many of his poems is a recognition that his own death awaits him. His premature death on the front, like many other soldiers who were new to the front, curtailed a poetic career that would, though different to Sassoon, Owen and Rosenberg's output, would have been equally as important. Thomas, like Aldington and Graves, has become a marginalised figure, but one whose poems are well worth reading and should be given more prominence.

[Steph De Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should preface this review by noting that I rarely read, or enjoy, biographies or memoirs. Nevertheless, having read and fallen in love with Thomas' poetry a few years ago, I was curious to learn more about the sensitive, nature-loving poet behind "Adlestrop" and "The Cherry Trees". Consequently, when I found this book in my local Oxfam shop, I picked it up, and I'm now so glad I did. Reader, I loved this book. Thomas makes for a complex, enigmatic, and deeply tragic protagonist, and I found him, by turns, brilliant, naïve, relatable, and frustrating, but always utterly compelling. This biography is well-written and -researched, and there's a nice selection of photographs that bring relevant people and places to life. I'm now hungry for more Thomas content, so I've already re-read several of his poems and bought a copy of Nick Dear's "The Dark Earth and the Light Sky", a play about Thomas that I'm sorry not to have seen live when it opened in London some years ago. Fangirl status confirmed.

[Simon Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Respectful and restrained biography of the great poet.
Moorcroft Wilson struggles to fit Thomas into the “war poet” category, and those coming to this work will wonder on the need, valuing instead the discomforting details of a man deeply unhappy with his lot in life.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and love Edward Thomas' poetry, but he is so hard to like. He was so tormented and complicated and such a rageaholic that I ended up feeling so bad for his loved ones. Still, the book is a worthy read and sensitively written.