Selected Letters Of Siegfried Sassoon And Edmund Blunden 19191967 Vol 2

Of the 16 WWI poets memorialized in Westminster Abbey, two were destined to become lifelong friends. Although both served on the Western Front, it was not until 1919 that Siegfried Sassoon received his first letter from Edmund Blunden. This collection of Sassoon and Blunden’s correspondence contains more than 1,000 letters, cards and telegrams.

Of the 16 WWI poets memorialized in Westminster Abbey, two were destined to become lifelong friends. Although both served on the Western Front, it was not until 1919 that Siegfried Sassoon received his first letter from Edmund Blunden. This collection of Sassoon and Blunden’s correspondence contains more than 1,000 letters, cards and telegrams.

Of the 16 WWI poets memorialized in Westminster Abbey, two were destined to become lifelong friends. Although both served on the Western Front, it was not until 1919 that Siegfried Sassoon received his first letter from Edmund Blunden. This collection of Sassoon and Blunden’s correspondence contains more than 1,000 letters, cards and telegrams.

A farmer’s daughter, a convent girl, a lover of the Irish countryside, a poet, novelist and short story writer, a journalist, a friend of the English during war and peace, a fighter for justice, a Catholic, but able to see and decry the interference of religion in politics: this is in part Katharine Tynan Hinkson (1859–1931), usually known as Katharine Tynan, who lived in Ireland and England, and wrote through the turbulent times of Irish politics, suffrage, the Great War, and civil war in Ireland. Her background was rural Ireland, her father being a prosperous land-owning farmer. Educated locally and at a convent, she left aged fourteen and spent much time reading and enjoying the countryside, which became a foundation for her poetry and storytelling. She was aware of the politics of Ireland through her politically active father, and she joined the short-lived Ladies’ Land League in 1881 and was a fervent admirer of Charles Stewart Parnell. Her first major literary friendship was with her mentor, the Jesuit Father Matthew Russell, editor of the Irish Monthly, who published much of her work. He introduced Katharine to the Catholic literary couple Wilfrid and Alice Meynell in London in 1884, a visit which formed a deep love and admiration for Alice. The Meynells published much of her poetry in the Weekly Register and Merry England. Katharine made many visits to England and settled in England in 1893 after her marriage to Harry Hinkson, making it her home until returning to Ireland in 1912. After the Great War, she moved between England and Ireland, finally settling in London where she died. Katharine’s life spanned Anglo-Irish politics, the suffrage movement, the Easter Rising of 1916, the Great War (her two sons served in the British Army) and its aftermath. Her letters cover these events and the friendships and correspondence with many literary persons, including George William Russell (A.E.), G. K. Chesterton, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Clement King Shorter, the writer Frank James Mathew and the novelist May Sinclair. An early friend of W. B. Yeats, she was seen as part of the Irish literary revival, although in a minor role. Throughout her life she suffered from very poor eyesight. She published five autobiographies, which, together with the letters, provide us with valuable insight into her life and times.

In Britain we have lost touch with the Great War. Our overriding sense now is of a meaningless, futile bloodbath in the mud of Flanders -- of young men whose lives were cut off in their prime for no evident purpose. But by reducing the conflict to personal tragedies, however moving, we have lost the big picture: the history has been distilled into poetry. In TheLong Shadow, critically acclaimed author David Reynolds seeks to redress the balance by exploring the true impact of 1914-18 on the 20th century. Some of the Great War's legacies were negative and pernicious but others proved transformative in a positive sense. Exploring big themes such as democracy and empire, nationalism and capitalism and re-examining the differing impacts of the War on Britain, Ireland and the United States,TheLong Shadowthrows light on the whole of the last century and demonstrates that 1914-18 is a conflict that Britain, more than any other nation, is still struggling to comprehend. Stunningly broad in its historical perspective, The Long Shadowis a magisterial and seismic re-presentation of the Great War.

Winner of the 2014 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for the Best Work of History. "If you only read one book about the First World War in this anniversary year, read The Long Shadow. David Reynolds writes superbly and his analysis is compelling and original." -Anne Chisolm, Chair of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize Committee, and Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. One of the most violent conflicts in the history of civilization, World War I has been strangely forgotten in American culture. It has become a ghostly war fought in a haze of memory, often seen merely as a distant preamble to World War II. In The Long Shadow critically acclaimed historian David Reynolds seeks to broaden our vision by assessing the impact of the Great War across the twentieth century. He shows how events in that turbulent century—particularly World War II, the Cold War, and the collapse of Communism—shaped and reshaped attitudes to 1914–18. By exploring big themes such as democracy and empire, nationalism and capitalism, as well as art and poetry, The Long Shadow is stunningly broad in its historical perspective. Reynolds throws light on the vast expanse of the last century and explains why 1914–18 is a conflict that America is still struggling to comprehend. Forging connections between people, places, and ideas, The Long Shadow ventures across the traditional subcultures of historical scholarship to offer a rich and layered examination not only of politics, diplomacy, and security but also of economics, art, and literature. The result is a magisterial reinterpretation of the place of the Great War in modern history.