Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1901-1985 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
144 ff.
Guarded and filed.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Edward Thomas (1878-1917), poet and writer, was born Philip Edward Thomas in Lambeth to Welsh-born parents on 3 March 1878. He was educated at St Paul's School, London and Lincoln College, Oxford. Having left St Paul's, Thomas studied for the civil service examination, a move which expressed parental ambition rather than his own as he had reacted against the wordly views of his father, who worked for the Board of Trade and was prominent in Liberal politics. He was encouraged in his early literary ambitions by the critic James Ashcroft Noble and Thomas's first book, The Woodland Life, inspired by his love of the natural world, appeared as early as 1897. Thomas married Noble's daughter Helen (1877-1967) in 1899 and, having graduated from Lincoln College in 1900, made a precarious living as a literary reviewer for the Daily Chronicle whilst also writing essays, anthologies, guidebooks and folk-tales. He also published further books, including The Heart of England (1906), as well as biographical writings, most notably those on Richard Jefferies (1909), Maurice Maeterlinck (1911), Algernon Charles Swinburne (1912) and Walter Pater (1913). This period also produced his autobiographical works The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans (1913), The Icknield Way (1913) and In Pursuit of Spring (1914). Possibly from an overwhelming feeling that his creativity was shackled and frustrated, Thomas at this time suffered recurrent physical and psychological breakdowns which once took him to the brink of suicide. It was not until 1914 that he wrote his first 'real' poem, entitled 'Up in the Wind'. The wartime collapse of the literary market at last afforded Thomas more time to write poetry; over a space of two years, he was to write over one hundred and forty poems. In 1915 Thomas joined the Artists' Rifles; he was commissioned second lieutenant in 1916 and volunteered for service overseas. In April 1917 he was killed during the first hour of the battle of Arras in northern France and buried the following day on the outskirts of the town; he therefore did not live to see the publication of his Poems (1917) (under his pseudonym Edward Eastaway), nor the subsequent Last Poems (1918) and Collected Poems (1920). His wife Helen wrote of their time together in As It Was (1926) and World Without End (1931). Thomas numbered amongst his poetical and literary influences Robert Frost, Thomas Hardy, W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare, and W. H. Davies.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
John Wilson; Cheltenham; Purchase (with NLW ex 1858); May 1997; B1997/25.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Seventy-six letters, 1901-1917, from the poet Edward Thomas to his friend, the Rev. Jesse Berridge, containing personal and family news and references to the progress of his work (ff. 1-102; see The Letters of Edward Thomas to Jesse Berridge, ed. by Anthony Berridge (London, 1983); for letter no. 63 in the series see NLW MS 10617B).
Also included are transcripts of two letters from the poet to Mrs Edna Berridge, 1912 (ff. 103-104); one letter, [1940s], to Jesse Berridge from Helen Thomas, the poet's widow (f. 123), and two letters, 1957-1961, and a card, [?1950s], from Eleanor Farjeon (ff. 125, 127-128 verso), together with related papers, notably Berridge's draft of his short memoir of Edward Thomas, 1947 (ff. 106-111; see Letters, pp. 84-90), a typescript address, 1985, by R. George Thomas (ff. 131-134) and press cuttings, 1907-1978 (ff. 135-144), including articles by Helen Thomas, 1962-1963 (ff. 139-142). The collection also contains sketches by Edward Thomas, 1902 (f. 24 recto-verso), and references to W. H. Davies, 1905 (f. 52 recto-verso), Gordon Bottomley, 1907 (ff. 56, 58), Robert Frost, 1957 (f. 127), and to the First World War, 1915-1917 (ff. 92-102), together with a copy of a letter, 1947, to Rowland L. Watson, secretary of the Edward Thomas Memorial Committee (f. 105).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged as follows at NLW: Edward Thomas letters; other letters; related papers; press cuttings.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to abide by the conditions noted on the 'Modern papers - data protection' form issued with their Readers' Tickets.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding the ownership of Edward Thomas copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed May 2009).
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23695E.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
CAIRS System Control Number
GEAC system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Berridge, Jesse, 1874-1966 -- Correspondence. (Subject)
- Davies, W. H. (William Henry), 1871-1940 (Subject)
- Bottomley, Gordon, 1874-1948. (Subject)
- Frost, Robert, 1874-1963. (Subject)
- Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Caricatures and cartoons. (Subject)
- Thomas, Helen, 1877-1967 (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
May 2009.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description revised by Rhys Morgan Jones.