Edward Thomas was a literary critic, biographer, and travel and nature writer for decades before he turned his hand to poetry at the age of thirty-six, at the suggestion of his close friend Robert Frost.World War I broke out shortly after this decision, and in 1915 Thomas enlisted. His first book of poetry, Six Poems, was published in 1916. In 1917, as his next collection, Poems, was being prepared for print, he was killed in action in France. What remained of his...

This book contains a collection of Edward Thomas's essays including How I Began, Chalk Pits, Tipperary, Swansea Village, and The Friend of the Blackbird. It was originally published posthumously in 1929 and is here being republished with a new introductory biography on the author. Edward Thomas was an accomplished writer and his work included essays, travelogues, topographical descriptions, reviews, critical studies and biographies. He was killed in action in the First World War in 1917.

The name is given to the south of England as distinguished from the Midlands, “North England”, and “West England” by the Severn. The poet is thinking particularly of Sussex and of the South Downs. In using the term I am thinking of all that country which is dominated by the Downs or by the English Channel, or by both; Cornwall and East Anglia have been admitted only for the sake of contrast. Roughly speaking, it is the country south of the Thames and Severn and east of Exmoor, and it inclu...

“By day the hot sun fermented us; and we were dizzied by the beating wind. At night we were stained by dew, and shamed into pettiness by the innumerable silences of the stars.” Seven Pillars of Wisdom was first published in 1926, an abridged version of the original 1922 manuscript. This mostly autobiographical and personal account of the author’s experiences during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire vividly portrays military campaigns, adventure in the desert, and contemporary poli...

A curiosity throughout Europe, proportionate to the ignorance of the Interior of Africa, exacts the publication of the proceedings and researches of every Exploratory Mission, from its Conductor, as a duty to the Public: “mandat fieri sibi talia.” The Public, in acknowledgment of the performance of the duty, reflecting that it constrains literary efforts which the Author otherwise might never have presumed to expose, should sympathise in his diffidence and anxiety, and receive and review t...

Chemistry, as an art, was practised thousands of years before the Christian era; as a science, it dates no further back than the middle of the seventeenth century. The monumental records of Egypt and the accounts left us by Herodotus and other writers show that the ancient Egyptians, among the earliest nations of whom we have any records, had a considerable knowledge of processes essentially chemical in their nature. Their priests were adepts in certain chemical arts, and chemical laborato...

Contained within this book is a collection of essays, field notes, and diary excerpts from numerous naturalists relating to British country life in Autumn and Winter. These fascinating and highly-readable articles will appeal to those with an interest in the British countryside and naturalism in general. Contents include: "Open-air Diary for October", "Open-air Diary for November", "Open-air Diary for December", "Open-air Diary for January", "Open-air Diary for February", "Open-air Diary f...

Contained within this book is a collection of essays, field notes, and diary excerpts from numerous naturalists relating to British country life in Spring and Summer. These fascinating and highly-readable articles will appeal to those with an interest in the British countryside and naturalism in general. Contents include: "Open-air Diary for April", "Open-air Diary for May", "Open-air Diary for June", "Open-air Diary for July", "Open-air Diary for August", "Open-air Diary for September", "...

"In Pursuit of Spring" by Edward Thomas is a captivating exploration of nature and the changing seasons. The narrative follows the author’s journey through the English countryside as he seeks the arrival of spring. Thomas's lyrical prose beautifully captures the essence of the landscape, evoking vivid imagery of blooming flowers and awakening wildlife. His reflections on the beauty of nature are intertwined with personal musings, making the book a profound meditation on life, renewal, and ...

Edward Thomas has been revered for over a century as one of England's greatest poets. His fiction, however, has been almost forgotten. This revelatory collection reveals ghost-haunted landscapes, brutal slivers of country life, richly-drawn pen portraits and even a touching ode to a fondly remembered dog. Powerful and compelling, these short stories possess the same sublime beauty as the author's nature writing and poetry. The book is, as writer Irfan Shah describes it in the Introduction,...

Since the publication of Walter de la Mare's first edition of his poems in 1920, Edward Thomas has gradually come to be seen as one of the great English poets of the 20th century. Though sometimes classified with Owen, Rosenberg, and Sassoon as a "war poet," he was rather a poet who died tragically in the war. His main subjects were the English countryside and people, solitude, and the anguish of solipsism. As de la Mare wrote eighty years ago, "When Edward Thomas was killed in Flanders, a...

The old man was small and straight, and to his thin figure the remains of a long black coat and grey trousers adhered with singular grace. You could not say that he was well dressed, but rather that he was in the penultimate stage of a transformation like Dryope’s or Daphne’s, which his pale face had not altogether escaped. His neglected body seemed to have grown this grey rind that flapped like birch bark. Had he been born in it the clothing could not have been more apt. The eye travelled...