In this compelling book, Matthew Hollis analyses how Edward Thomas, for years a frustrated literary critic and prose writer on rural themes, became all at once, at the age of 36, a poet of genius. It was his close friendship with the American poet Robert Frost which, in 1914, precipitated this long-delayed fulfilment.
Married while at Oxford University, Thomas, to support his wife Helen and the three children whom they rapidly produced, burdened himself with writing ill-paid book reviews — sometimes as many as 15 a week. Of his own numerous books some were potboilers, others more distinguished, and all rather heavy in the hand, including the life of his hero, Richard Jefferies, the great 19th-century nature and country writer.
Thomas’s acute judgment, especially over new poetry, was soon recognised, but this did not make him rich. As their resources fluctuated, the Thomas family moved from one picturesque rented rural slum to another, at one time inhabiting a freezing Arts & Crafts house built by a friend. Helen, whom he often blamed for trapping him in this existence, would have benefited from a hairdresser, but had, according to her own account, a beautiful strong body.
On his periodic visits to Fleet Street, Thomas made a memorable impression. According to a contemporary journalist:
He walked with a sort of lope, half springy and half lackadaisical … from youth to prime a face austerely beautiful, vivid in the intensity of its tan, candour of its blue eyes, and bleach of Saxon hair…an introspective Pan whose arm pressed to its side not the syrinx but, odd anomaly, a couple of review books,
Poverty and frustration played havoc with Thomas’s nerves. Consumed with self-hatred, he brooded on death and the tragedy of life, once even contemplating suicide with a rusty firearm; and though he loved her, he lacerated Helen with his eloquent tongue, frequently storming out of the house, regardless of the weather, on one of his gigantic rambles, through which he hoped to achieve calm, but often returning home as tormented as before.
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