1st Edition

Siegfried Sassoon The Making of a War Poet, A biography (1886-1918)

By Jean Moorcroft Wilson Copyright 2005

    This book encompasses the complete life and works of Siegfried Sassoon, from his patriotic youth that led him to the frontline, to the formation of his anti-war convictions, great literary friendships and flamboyant love affairs.

    Contents -- List of Plates Introduction -- 1. Heredities -- 2. Childhood in the Garden, 1886-1895 -- 3. Lutes and Nightingales, 1895-1900 -- 4. 'Harum-Scarum Schoolboy’, 1900-1904 -- 5. The Chancellor's Muddle, 1904-1907 -- 6. Sporting Squire and Gentleman Writer, 1907-1914 -- 7. Big London Where Poets Live, May-July 1914 -- 8. The Happy Warrior, August 1914-November 1915 -- 9. ‘Goodbye to Galahad’, November 1915-March 1916 -- 10. ‘At the Edge of the World’, March-July 1916 -- 11. ‘My Killed Friends are With Me’, August 1916-January 1917 -- 12. The Wounded Hero, February-April 1917 -- 13. ‘Love Drove Me to Rebel’, April-July 1917 -- 14. Strange Meeting, July-November 1917 -- 15. ‘Love Drives Me Back’, November 1917-May 1918 -- 16. The Good Soldier, May-July 1918 -- 17. ‘A Loathsome Ending’, July-November 1918 -- Afterword -- Family Trees -- Acknowledgements -- Endnotes -- A Select Bibliography Index.

    Biography

    Jean Moorcroft Wilson is a lecturer in English at London University. Her previous books include biographies of Isaac Rosenberg and Charles Hamilton Sorley, as well as William Watson and Virginia Woolf. She is married to Virginia Woolf's nephew, with whom she runs a publishing house.

    "Thoroughly absorbing." -- John Gross, The Sunday Telegraph
    "A story in which the roots are as interesting as the core . . . invaluable to historians of the period." -- Andrew Motion, The Times (London)
    "A necessary and engrossing piece of work." -- Neil Powell, Times Literary Supplement