Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), soldier, poet, and witness to a century of war, is an icon of the twentieth century; Jean Moorcroft Wilson is the leading authority on him. In this two-volume biography, she offers her definitive analysis of his life and works. The first critically acclaimed volume, covering Sassoon's life up until the end of the Great War, offers rich material on his poetry, his patriotism, and his anti-war stance. In volume two, Moorcroft Wilson reveals the truth of Sassoon's life after the armistice, when most people thought he was dead; the story includes a series of love affairs with such larger-than-life characters as Queen Victoria's great-grandson, Prince Phillip of Hesse, the flamboyant Ivor Novello, and the exotic and bejeweled Stephen Tennant. But this was also the period of Sassoon's close friendships with the greatest literary figures of the age, including Hardy, Beerbohm, E.M. Forster, and T.E. Lawrence.
Written with the cooperation of Siegfried Sassoon's family and friends, and with access to a mass of private and unpublished material, poems, diaries, letters, and photographs, this meticulously researched biography will be the standard work on Sassoon's life and legacy.

Jean Moorcroft Wilson is a lecturer in English at London University. Her previous books include biographies ofIsaac Rosenberg and Charles Hamilton Sorley, as well asWilliam Watson and Virginia Woolf. She is married to Virginia Woolf's nephew, with whom she runs a publishing house.

List of Plates, Preface, Introduction, 1. 'Pilgrimages to Poets, Post-Armistice Parties and Other Diversions' (November-December 1918), 2. 'A Simpleton's Progress' (January~March 1919), 3. 'Making the Book Page Memorable' (April-June 1919),4. 'Rootless Re-Beginnings' (June-December 1919), 5. 'Midnight on Broadway' (January-March 1920), 6. Chicago and Beyond (March-August 1920), 7. Tufton Street Blues (August 1920-November 1925), 8. Satirical Poems and Other Literary Matters, 9. Ways of Escape, 10. 'Love is the Test' (1921-1925), 11. 'My Glorious Angel' (1925-1927), 12. Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man: 'The Testament of My Youth', 13. 'The Old Earl and Little Lord Fauntleroy' (1927-1928), 14. 'The Heart's Paradise' (November 1928-January 1931), 15. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Goodbye to Graves, 16. The Turn of the Screw (February 1931-May 1933), 17. 'O, Hester, You Must Redeem My Life' (June-December 1933), 18. Paradise Regained and Lost (1934-1938), 19. The Old Century and the New War, 20. War Within and Without (September 1939~0ctober 1942), 21. 'The Weald of Youth, a Remernbered Word', 22. 'A Middle Life in Armageddon' (October 1942-May 1945), 23. The Wilderness Years (1945-1950), 24. An Asking (1950-1956), 25. Doms and Dames (1957-1960), 26. 'It Has Been a Long Journey' (1961-1967), Endnotes, Appendix: Identification of Pseudonyms from the Sherston Trilogy, Acknowledgements, Select Bibliography, Index