Siegfried Sassoon The First Complete Biography Of One Of Our Greatest War Poets

'A FINE ENGROSSING, SYMPATHETIC STUDY OF SASSOON' - THE TIMESWith two collections of his verse written during the First World War, Siegfried Sassoon established himself as among the greatest of the war poets. Beyond that, the accounts he left of his service with the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the Western Front, beginning with Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man in 1928, rank perhaps as highly as his poetry, and have done much to shape our modern perception of that war. His is, and remains, one of the most significant voices of his generation - and arguably the most eloquent.As an infantry officer, Sassoon's courage won him the Military Cross (and a recommendation for the VC) for rescuing men under fire, while his boldness in action earned him the nickname 'Mad Jack'; he was also wounded several times, once seriously. As the war dragged on, however, he came to see it as a cynical exercise, leading him to write an anti-war letter to The Times, and to tear the ribbon of his MC from his tunic and throw it into the River Mersey. Alarmed, the authorities sent him to a hospital for shell-shocked officers in Scotland, where he came under the care of the leading psychoanalyst Dr W. H. R. Rivers, and met and befriended a young officer of the Manchester Regiment named Wilfred Owen. Although Sassoon returned to active service, his hatred for the war remained, and by the time of the Armistice in 1918 he had declared himself a pacifist.John Stuart Roberts's widely praised biography is a gripping account of a complex man who was at once a product of the establishment and one of its most passionate critics; a war hero and a pacifist who, although a towering literary figure, refused to align himself with any particular movement.Written with a clarity and directness that would have pleased the poet himself, this is a biography that looks beyond the common perception of Sassoon as only a war poet to reveal the man in full. It is a book that any admirer of Siegfried Sassoon, or anyone who wishes to know more about this enigmatic yet brilliant figure, will cherish.'A MAGNIFICENT BOOK... IT'S FIRST RATE IN EVERY DIRECTION AND I CAN'T IMAGINE A BETTER BIOGRAPHY' - RUPERT HART-DAVIS'FULLY RESEARCHED, INTELLIGENT, DETAILED AND READABLE ...LOOKS SEARCHINGLY AT ALL ASPECTS OF THIS HIGHLY COMPLEX, MULTI-TALENTED AND DEEPLY MIXED-UP MAN' - LITERARY REVIEW 'AN IMMENSELY READABLE BIOGRAPHY WHICH IS MADE EVEN MORE MOVING BY HAVING A TRULY TRAGIC SUBJECT' - TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'ONE OF OUR GREATEST WAR POETS... STUART ROBERTS GIVES A THOUGHTFUL, CONVINCING ACCOUNT' - SUNDAY TIMES'A BENCHMARK BIOGRAPHY - SPLENDID AND SENSITIVE' - COUNTRY LIFE'A MASTERLY ACCOUNT OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON'S LIFE' - THE TABLET

An essentially private person, Siegfried Sassoon's work nevertheless constitutes a chorus of self-revelation. John Stuart Roberts has written the first full length biography of this complex man.

This book encompasses the complete life and works of Siegfried Sassoon, from his patriotic youth that led him to the frontline, to the formation of his anti-war convictions, great literary friendships and flamboyant love affairs.

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."

The World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon is one of the twentieth century's greatest icons and Jean Moorcroft Wilson is the leading authority on him. In Siegfried Sassoon: The Journey from the Trenches, the second volume of her best-selling, authorized biography, Wilson completes her definitive analysis of his life and works, exploring Sassoon's experiences after the Great War. For many people, Sassoon exists primarily as a First World War poet and bold fighter, who earned the nickname 'Mad Jack' in the trenches and risked Court Martial, possibly the firing squad, with his public protest against the War. Much less is known about his life after the Armistice. Wilson uncovers a series of love affairs with such larger-than-life characters as Queen Victoria's great-grandson, Prince Phillip of Hess, the flamboyant Ivor Novello and the exotic and bejeweled Hon. Stephen Tennant. This period also sees Sassoon establishing close friendships with some of the greatest literary figures of the age, Hardy, Beerbohm, E. M. Forster and T. E.Lawrence among them. Sassoon himself said that most people thought he had died in 1919. But Wilson shows that his poetry is, if anything, more powerful in the second half of his life. Based on a decade of meticulous research and interviews with many who knew Sassoon well, much of the material is published here for the first time. Siegfried Sassoon: The Journey from the Trenches completes a fascinating story that is beautifully told.

The life of Siegfried Sassoon has been recorded and interpreted in literature and film for over half a century. He is one of the great figures of the First World War, and Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer are still widely read, as are his poems, which did much to shape our present ideas about the Great War. Sassoon was a genuine hero, a brave young officer who also became the war's most famous opponent, risking imprisonment and even a death sentence by throwing his Military Cross into the Mersey. He was friend to Robert Graves, mentor to Wilfred Owen and much admired by Churchill. But Sassoon was more than the embodiment of a romantic ideal; he was in many senses the perfect product of a vanished age. And many questions about his character, unique experience and motivations have remained unanswered until now. Siegfried Sassoon’s life has been recorded and interpreted in literature and film for over half a century. But this poet, First World War hero, friend to Robert Graves and mentor to Wilfred Owen, was more than the embodiment of a romantic ideal. Passionately involved with the aristocratic aesthete Stephen Tennant, married abruptly to the beautiful Hester Gatty, estranged, isolated, and a late Catholic convert, his private story has never before been told in such depth. Egremont discovers a man born in a vanished age, unhappy with his homosexuality and the modernist revolution that appeared to threaten the survival of his work, and engaged in an enduring personal battle between idealism and the world in which he moved. Shortlisted for the 2005 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Autobiography

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon" by Siegfried Sassoon. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The definitive biography of one of the twentieth century's finest poets, Siegfried Sassoon - The Making of a War Poet is based on 7 years of detailed research by Jean Moorcroft Wilson. Published to great critical acclaim, this first volume covers Sassoon's life up until the end of the First World War. Wilson has unearthed many private and unpublished letters and papers, which have enabled her to embark on the journey towards self-knowledge that Sassoon himself felt that he could never take.