Ford Madox Hueffer’s Last Prayer to Viola Hunt; Robert Graves and Nancy...
Ford Madox Hueffer‘s not-quite-marriage to Viola Hunt is on the rocks, but that does not preclude grand Late Romantic gestures. Today is his birthday–his forty-forth–and Hunt sent him “a box of...
View ArticleMax Plowman and the Inspirational Power of Collective Action; Edward Brittain...
Here’s a surprising and pleasing juxtaposition. After the haze of misogyny (or, at least, contemptuous anti-feminism) which hung over yesterday‘s meeting between Graves and Sassoon, we have our other...
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Christmas 1917: Melancholy Milestone, Vicarious Joy, and Less Unhappy Than I...
It’s a complicated Christmas, 1917. Several of our writers–including Cynthia Asquith, with whom we’ll start, and Vera Brittain, whose long, sad day will come last–will dwell on the same themes of...
View ArticleVera and Edward Brittain Share a Melancholy Leave; Rowland Feilding Spots a...
Vera Brittain has had a rough couple of weeks. Or, really, a rough week followed by a week of that bewildering mixture of joy and prospective fear, love and looming loss, that characterizes a leave...
View ArticleEdward Heron-Allen Analyzes a Word of Command; Wilfred Owen Has Made an...
We can sketch Siegfried Sassoon‘s leave in London only in appointment-book fashion. Yesterday it was friends and music; today, family. Sassoon spent the day at an aunt’s house, his mother having come...
View ArticleSiegfried Sassoon Sulks; Edward Brittain in the Mountains; Herbert Read Takes...
Three short updates, today, from Egypt, Italy, and France. Siegfried Sassoon, on his last day in camp at Kantara, does not seem particularly thrilled with things. March 9 On District Court Martial in...
View ArticleA.P. Herbert’s Windmill, Siegfried Sassoon On the March, and Shadows, and an...
Siegfried Sassoon and the 15th Royal Welch Fusiliers are bound away, away from the promised land. And all roads lead, eventually, to France. April 10 Up at 3.30: started at 5.30. Reached camping-ground...
View ArticleDuff Cooper’s Last Day in London; Siegfried Sassoon Collared by Old Etonians;...
Today’s theme would seem to be meetings and gatherings and farewells. War has a way of making all path-crossing, all time spent with those other than your immediate comrades, freighted with emotion....
View ArticleEdward Brittain in Slippers and Socks; Siegfried Sassoon Notes Himself Noting...
First, today, a brief update on the far-flung Brittain clan. Edward, still in Italy, writes to Vera, not yet rescued from/abandoning her post in France. I receive alternately doleful and breathlessly...
View ArticleEdward Brittain Advises Vera on Her New Direction; Cynthia Asquith on the...
Four days ago, Edward Brittain began a letter to his sister Vera. Italy, 30 May 1918 If the war goes on much longer nobody will go back to Oxford in spite of the concessions; I often think I am too old...
View ArticleVera Brittain Contemplates the W.A.A.C.s; Siegfried Sassoon Dreams of Being...
Yesterday, a century back, Edward Brittain wrote to his sister Vera advising her on her possible future either at Oxford or once again as a V.A.D… but the mail between England and Italy is not as...
View ArticleDuff Cooper a Duffer; Vera Brittain Sends the Muse to Her Brother, Along With...
Have I mentioned that Duff Cooper has a gambling problem? Well, he does… but this is rural France, not London. Cooper made it through his first tour in the trenches with flying colors: not only were...
View ArticleSiegfried Sassoon: A Joy Ride and the Roll of Honor; Edward Brittain and the...
Siegfried Sassoon continues to write in his diary nearly every evening, setting himself the task, it would seem, of making something–anything–of his experiences every day. And today, a century back,...
View ArticleSiegfried Sassoon Blesses Their Hearts; Edward Brittain’s Secret is Out
Siegfried Sassoon writes doggedly on, determined to bring us all the way back to the front with him. June 14 I have seen a lot of soldiers at the war, but I have never seen a more well-behaved crowd...
View ArticleThe Killing of Edward Brittain; Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon Write...
In July of 1916 the British had attacked on the Somme before they were fully ready, in part to relieve pressure on their French allies. In June of 1918, the Austrians were once more goaded out of...
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The Last, Worst Telegram for Vera Brittain; Ivor Gurney in a Very Bad Place
We left Vera Brittain on June 16th, trying to absorb the news that her brother’s unit must have received the full weight of the new offensive on the Asiago Plateau. She continues the story, now,...
View ArticleVera Brittain on That Which Remaineth; Robert Graves Would Bleed the Poor...
The British army may have buckled and barely held on the German Spring Offensive, but the postal service is still going like gangbusters: only three days after he was wounded–and, two, at most, after...
View ArticleVera Brittain Rebukes a V.C.; Wilfred Owen Arrives in Boulogne, not Dejected...
Yesterday, a century back, Wilfred Owen wrote a card and a letter to his mother. He also wrote to Siegfried Sassoon–but since he wrote again today, I’ve left them both until now. Sat., 31 August 1918...
View ArticleThe Great Calm
At 5 A.M., the representatives of Germany signed the Armistice that had been under negotiation for four days. At 11:00, it took effect, and the war ended, almost exactly a week after Wilfred Owen was...
View ArticleVera Brittain After Six Weeks, and Three Years
So I’m having a bit of trouble framing some closing thoughts on the writing of the Great War–and more trouble, without the pressure of a dated deadline, to actually write and post them. There must be a...
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