Richard Aldington’s Life is Ruined; Olaf Stapledon’s Future Gets a Decorative...
As the end draws near, we have three veterans in three very different situations today, a century back. One stands at the beginning of the end, another at the cusp of the beginning, and the third in...
View ArticleWilfred Owen on the Sambre-Oise Canal; Richard Aldington Goes Forward and...
There’s only a week to go, now. But this will be a long day–a bloody day. From a purely military point of view, it’s one more step forward for the Allies. From the political point of view another...
View ArticleRichard Aldington’s Prayers and Fantasies; Rowland Feilding in the Chateau;...
Several poems could take pride of place today, but neither Vera Brittain‘s wan “Requiem” (written this month) nor the really awful–and loathsome–poem by Gilbert Frankau (carried by The Daily Mail[1] of...
View ArticleAlfred Hale, Hero of Diffidence; Edward Heron-Allen Stymies a Propaganda...
Today, a century back, Alfred Hale continues to brilliantly anticipate the slapstick Cinema of the Schlemiel[1] while also pioneering new frontiers of well-bred British self-effacement. Today, having...
View ArticleRobert Graves Writes of Loss to Siegfried Sassoon; Wilfred Owen Writes of...
Robbie Ross connected so many people that his death–strangely, perhaps, given that he was not a young man or a soldier–seems to be the center of collective sorrow in the war’s last Autumn. But like...
View ArticleDuff Cooper’s Indifferent Courage; A New Experience for Salter Clark; Ancient...
Today, a century back, Diana Manners’ superstitions about the perils of even mentioning danger are overcome by her desire to pass on a clever line. Arlington Street September 28 Ivo, who I dined with...
View ArticleRowland Feilding Writes a Lively Piece Instead of Writing Livelier; Salter...
Rowland Feilding, now in rest billets, reports to his wife on his current doings. This is one of his longest letters not describing combat; and what does it describe? Describing combat. …I have spent...
View ArticleOlaf Stapledon Between Fantasy and Reality; Diana Manners Between Fortune and...
Olaf Stapledon, hard at work now for many weeks as the French offensive churns forward, still can’t decide what he wants his beloved Agnes Miller to do. She is in Australia, and her father insists that...
View ArticleMany Partings; Diana Reads Duff, Hand and Glove; Rowland Feilding in a Silent...
Today, a century back, was a day after for several of our poets. After their joyous reunion, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen have parted ways, Sassoon to cool his heels in the hospital for a few...
View ArticleDuff Cooper in No Man’s Land, and Olaf Stapledon Too; Kate Luard Balances...
As the offensive churns on, two men who are near the front lines write to their fianceés. Duff Cooper‘s Grenadier Guards are still holding a quiet point in the line–they are not to be part of the great...
View ArticleRichard Aldington, Faun at War; Robert Graves Thanks Siegfried Sassoon for...
Richard Aldington, still underemployed on a Divisional course, has been writing voluminously to H.D.–I’ve skipped quite a few. Today’s letter, however, contains not just intellectual (re-)courtship and...
View ArticleSiegfried Sassoon in the Trenches Once Again: Olaf Stapledon in the Slimiest,...
Well, folks, Siegfried Sassoon is back. He is in trenches in France for the first time in a year–very close, in fact, to his last behind-the-lines billet of April 1917, just before his wounding in the...
View ArticleThe War Has Got Too Big for Cynthia Asquith; Richard Aldington Scents the Gas
Just two short bits today–but each very much to the point! First is Richard Aldington–who has lately been repentantly/desperately uxorious–wrote to HD again today. It’s only a short note, and he avoids...
View ArticleColeman Clark and Sidney Rogerson on the First Day of the (Third) Battle of...
First, today, a century back, Charles Scott Moncrieff sent a letter to Wilfred Owen that we probably want to read as a covering action for a forced retreat, an attempt to distract as he falls back from...
View ArticleKate Luard, as the Gas Shells Fall Again
Another single-barreled post for today, a century back, and thus an excellent time to recognize one of this project’s central writers. I first knew Kate Luard only as the anonymous “Nursing Sister,” a...
View ArticleFalling Back on Phantom Trenches: the Retreat Begins; Herbert Read, Rowland...
Herbert Read‘s day began about as badly as it could have. After the capture of two German infantrymen who wandered into their position from behind, Read and his colonel were told that a reserve...
View ArticleThe German Offensive Begins: Herbert Read, Charles Benstead, A.P. Gristwood,...
We were aroused by the grumbling thunder of guns. For a few minutes those who were first awake lay half-conscious of the sounds and wondering idly what it might mean: then came remembrance and with it...
View ArticleIsaac Rosenberg, John Ronald Tolkien, and Rowland Feilding: Two Will Be in...
John Ronald Tolkien will be missing the Spring Offensive, and probably its follow-up assaults as well. He’s had another bout of fever, possibly influenza, and consequently his Medical Board of today, a...
View ArticleSiegfried Sassoon Sulks; Edward Brittain in the Mountains; Herbert Read Takes...
Three short updates, today, from Egypt, Italy, and France. Siegfried Sassoon, on his last day in camp at Kantara, does not seem particularly thrilled with things. March 9 On District Court Martial in...
View ArticleDr. Dunn on Passchendaele: Unburyable Corpses and Magical Light; George...
Today, a century back, George Coppard, shot through the leg during the battle of Cambrai, arrived at Birkenhead Borough Hospital: It was not a fancy place, but after the turmoil of war it seemed as...
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