First edition Good/no jacket Scarce title, with a forword by D. Lloyd George. The life of a young man, a poet, who died tragically in 1917, killed in action. So much young talent was wasted in this war. A nice book, very readable, the first part is a biography of Edward Thomas, the second part letters written to various people including some to his wife Helen Scarce work looking at the life and reproducing letters from this famous poet slain in the first world war. Edward Thomas is widely regarded as a major poet and his posthumous influence on English poetry has been considerable. His poetry was all written during the last few years of his life, before this remarkable flowering of genius was cut short by death in action at the Battle of Arras. The poems remain as much alive now as when they were written, quietly yet surely capturing the essence of the English countryside which Edward Thomas knew through all his senses. He is the least rhetorical of poets, modestly sharing his experiences with his readers and leading them into the reality behind the words until we too can almost hear 'all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire'