Description
Book SynopsisThough Davies is a well-known and unique literary figure of the early twentieth century, most famous now for The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp and poems such as ‘Leisure’, which came 14th in the BBC’s search to find ‘The Nation’s Favourite Poems’, no other volume of essays, or other critical monograph, concentrates on his work. This book not only provides a reassessment of Davies, putting him in his literary and cultural context, but also sheds light on the many more central literary figures he encountered and befriended. The central aim of the book is to reconsider his major works and his place in the literary and cultural milieu of his period.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The Soul's Destroyer (1905): a reassessment; 2. The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp and its enduring popularity/travel memoir; 3. Supertramps and Beggars: Davies and Begging in America in the 1890s and 1900s; 4. The novels and drama of W. H. Davies; 5. Davies, print media, journalism and criticism; 6. Davies and Georgian Poetry; 7.‘Stop and stare’: Davies and ‘nature poetry’; 8. Davies: a Welsh writer?; 9. Davies, society and gender; 10. Davies and Literary London; 11. Super-Tramp and Little Tramp: Davies, Chaplin and the landscapes of modernity; 12. Davies and Edward Thomas: literary and personal influences; 13. ‘Poisoned earth and sky’: Representations of War in Davies' poetry and memoir; Index.
