Siegfried Sassoon - The First Complete Biography of One of Our Greatest War Poets

John Stuart Roberts

• Publisher: Metro Publishing
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781857826401
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Siegfried Sassoon is mostly remembered for the devastating poetry he wrote during World War One as a result of leading his troops "over the top" to certain death. This episode in his life--when he was sent to military hospital suffering from shell-shock and his heroic return to the Front--is covered extensively in his own writing, and has overshadowed his later literary output. But his more mature poetry is resuscitated in this sensitive, exhaustively researched biography. As well as recounting the friendships "Siggy" famously had with fellow poets Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, Roberts delves into the more private arena of Sassoon's covert homosexuality and his ill-fated marriage. We learn about Sassoon the passionate golfer and bloodthirsty fox-hunter, all of which adds greater depth to this complex man. Roberts also digs deep into his subject's psyche to reveal a fixation with father figures which started during the War when he was under analysis (and arose from the early death of his father); and uncovers new sources of information concerning Sassoon's conversion to Catholicism. This fresh material means that the earlier life is somewhat neglected, but, then, as Sassoon himself said "My real biography is my poetry."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• 1: IN THE BEGINNING 1886-95
• 2: TEACHERS 1895–1907
• 3: POET AND SPORTSMAN 1907–14
• 4: WAR 1914–16
• 5: GARSINGTON 1916–17
• 6: THE STATEMENT 1917
• 7: CRAIGLOCKHART 1917–18
• 8: AFTERMATH 1918–20
• 9: TUFTON STREET 1920–1
• 10: FRIENDSHIPS 1921–2
• 11: TRAVELS 1923–4
• 12: SHERSTON 1925–7
• 13: STEPHEN 1927–8
• 14: QUARRELS 1929–32
• 15: HESTER 1933–7
• 16: MARRIED LIFE 1937–9
• 17: HEYTESBURY 1939–47
• 18: SEEKING 1948–56
• 19: ULTIMATE SPRING 1957–67
• AFTERWORD
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY: WORKS OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON
• Copyright