Herbert Read Writes of Reading Writers Aright; Praise for Siegfried’s Lines;...
We’ll begin today with a letter from Herbert Read to Evelyn Roff. We don’t know Read well, and he’s different from many of our young officers–he reads Nietzsche! he hails from Yorkshire!–but, then...
View ArticleCharles Scott Moncrief is Decorated; Henry Williamson is Sacked; Vera...
We have three brief updates today–one good, one bad, and one in transit–before a very unusual letter from Olaf Stapledon. First, Charles Scott Moncrieff, still abed with a badly mangled leg, has good...
View ArticleOlaf Stapledon in 1999; Francis Ledwidge in a Fairy Ring; Siegfried Sassoon...
I’m always excited when we can play on the century-back conceit and take additional literary-centennial glances, either looking back a century back again, often with Hardy, or a century forward, as one...
View ArticleVera Brittain and Siegfried Sassoon Under Bombardment, in London; Olaf...
Today, a century back, Siegfried Sassoon–keeping his options well open–went to Cambridge for the day to interview for a job in a cadet battalion.[1] He may have left without a degree, but Cambridge is...
View ArticleThomas Hardy Will Not Go For a War Writer; Olaf Stapledon Will Not Judge
First, today, a quick note to readers: for much of the next three weeks I will be on vacation–on holiday, that is–with my family (in England and Wales!) I’ve worked ahead and set the posts to be...
View ArticleOlaf Stapledon Has a Friend Who Won’t be Spared; Edward Brittain’s Unhappy...
We don’t often hear from Agnes Miller, who stands at the other end of the experiential gulf–not to mention two oceans–from Olaf Stapledon. But she seems to be a worthy young woman, and he a fortunate...
View ArticleWilfred Owen Arrives at Craiglockhart; Olaf Stapledon Contemplates Heroism
Wilfred Owen has arrived in Scotland, where he will be treated for the after-effects of shell shock. Feeling a bit guilty that he has had no chance at home leave, he writes a long letter to his mother...
View ArticleDuff Cooper Adores Amidst the Intolerable; Robert Graves Learns of Siegfried...
Just two brief updates, today, a century back. First, Duff Cooper, miserable cadet but happy man is back in camp. So far, at least, the happiness which came to him in a sort of romantic-religious...
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Either Siegfried Sassoon’s MC Goes, or Robert Graves Arrives: A Showdown for...
Siegfried Sassoon‘s lightly fictionalized (or not-really-novelized) memoirs are smoothly written. The narrative performs what the author seeks to present as his somewhat changeable and peripatetic...
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The Gothic Vortices of Herbert Read; Frederic Manning Drinks Himself into...
We have a few shorter updates today, a century back. First, Herbert Read is on leave, and seeing the sights–and it is against the rules, here, to omit certain pilgrimages: The Army is becoming quite a...
View ArticleNo Blighty for Vivian de Sola Pinto–but Blighters; Olaf Stapledon Measures...
Vivian de Sola Pinto has had a long slow war of it so far–but a persistent one. After Gallipoli and Egypt he was at last sent to France, where he was wounded by a German grenade in July. From there...
View ArticleWilfred Owen on the Next War; Hugh Quigley Confronts the Landscape; Kate...
Today, a century back, presents us with a broad range of experience in four snippets. Wilfred Owen is still writing copiously: this time it is a long, poetry-enclosing letter to his mother, which...
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Isaac Rosenberg in London; Eddie Marsh Sees the Sights; Agnes Miller Cries in...
After two days in transit, Isaac Rosenberg reached London today, a century back, on his first leave since his service in the B.E.F. began. Before he even reached home he was among friends, and in high...
View ArticleE.A. Mackintosh to Sylvia, Diana Manners to Duff, Olaf Stapledon to Agnes
We have a strange trio, today: three pieces each addressed to objects of affection, but otherwise most unlike each other in both form and content. We don’t hear from E.A. Mackintosh all that often, and...
View ArticleIvor Gurney in a Nutshell; Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon Eat, Drink, and...
A day, today, of striking contrasts. First, Marion Scott seems to have asked Ivor Gurney for some biographical details, presumably for some task related to the publication of his Severn and Somme,...
View ArticleOlaf Stapledon Goes to Mass; Rowland Feilding Praises Courage Under Fire
There is a special pathos in following the conversation of Olaf Stapeldon and Agnes Miller, separated as it is by half the world, the long weeks it takes letters to traverse the distance, and the...
View ArticleHerbert Read Has a Perfect Moment; Charles Montague Approves a Failure to...
Just three brief notes today, a century back, in the few days’ breathing space between Passchendaele and Cambrai. First, Herbert Read, writing to Evelyn Roff, gives us a glimpse of what letters mean to...
View ArticleHerbert Read on the Pleasures of Rest; George Coppard, E. A. Mackintosh, and...
Herbert Read has seen a good deal of the nasty late stages of Passchendaele–although, to our loss, he has written little about the experience. Now, however, his battalion is marching south, and he is...
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George Coppard’s Machine Guns to Cambrai; Rowland Feilding’s Rangers at...
Today, a century back, was the first day of the battle of Cambrai. There shouldn’t have been any real hope for a breakthrough, especially so near to the beginning of winter. But the ground in front of...
View ArticleIsaac Rosenberg on Walt Whitman; Olaf Stapledon Talks Pacifism and Wishes for...
We get a rare look into the mind of Isaac Rosenberg today, a century back, as a letter survives that he wrote from hospital–where he is still recovering from the flu–to his old friend Joseph Leftwich....
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