A prose piece with the title 'A Castle of Cloud', autograph, 1912, which appeared in a shorter version as 'Cloud Castle' in Edward Thomas's posthumously published collection Cloud Castle and Other Papers' (London, 1922) (ff. 1-6); typescript of the same by Mrs Beryl Thomas (ff. 7-14).
Edward Thomas and Beryl Thomas.
Notebook, 1914-1915, containing autograph drafts and revisions of some twenty-five untitled poems by Edward Thomas (ff. 1v-27), all published in The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas, ed. by R. George Thomas (Oxford, 1978), where the manuscript is designated M1 (p. xxii).
Notebook, 1916, containing autograph drafts and revisions of twenty-seven untitled poems (ff. 7v-41), all published in The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas, ed. by R. George Thomas (Oxford, 1978), where the manuscript is designated M2 (p. xxiii) and assumed to have been 'used as a working notebook in camp - and in the train. Like M1 [NLW MS 22920A], it gives an admirable example of Thomas's working method as a poet and, according to his letters to Frost, it contains many of the poems he adjudged to be his best'. Also included are the final words of the essay, 'The Pilgrim' (f. 1) (see note below), an apparently unpublished prose dialogue between P., T. and Jehovah (ff. 1 verso-7) and trigonometrical sketches (ff. 29 verso-30 verso).
Diary of Edward Thomas, 13 September 1902-13 June 1904, recording brief details of articles and reviews sent out, payments received for published work, and letters sent and received, with short notes of other activities and a few longer passages of personal reflection.
Diary of Edward Thomas, 12 December 1900-20 October 1901, recording details of books read, letters and articles written, payments for published work, meetings with friends and other personal notes, together with passages of description and personal reflection.
Diary of Edward Thomas, 21 October 1901-12 September 1902, recording brief details of articles and reviews sent out, payments received for published work, and letters received and sent, with short notes of other activities.
Diary entries, on loose sheets, for [?22] November [1903] (f. 1), 22-30 November 1905 (f. 2 recto-verso), 24-29 June 1908 (f. 3 recto-verso), and 29 August-16 September [1911] (ff. 4-5 verso), a letter, 1903, to Edward Thomas granting him permission to fish, and a transcript by the poet of the folk-song 'O can ye sew cushions'.
Edward Thomas and others.
Edward Thomas letters to Helen Thomas
Eleven letters, October 1914, from Edward Thomas to his wife, Helen Thomas, in the form of a journal of his bicycle tour in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Glamorgan and Breconshire, together with an account of his visit to Robert Frost at Dymock, Gloucestershire.
Edward Thomas letters to Helen Thomas
Over one hundred letters, 1896-1900, from Edward Thomas to Helen Ashcroft Noble, whom he married on 20 June 1899. The letters contain mainly personal news and reflections, notably impressions of his life at Oxford and of visits to Wales; also included are a few draft poems, probably c. 1897 (ff. 297-301).
Edward Thomas letters to Helen Thomas
Over one hundred and twenty letters, 1901-1913, from Edward Thomas to his wife, Helen Thomas, containing mainly personal news and reflections, including accounts of his visits to Wales in 1910 and 1911, and to Paris in 1912.
Edward Thomas letters to Helen Thomas
Some sixty-five letters, 1916-1917, from Edward Thomas to his wife, Helen Thomas, giving accounts of his training as an army officer, his departure to France, and experiences at the front until his death.
First World War diary of the poet and essayist Edward Thomas, 1 January-8 April 1917, containing descriptions of army life in England and France, observations on the natural world, and brief accounts of letters sent and received. It also contains the only known draft of Thomas's last poem, 'The sorrow of true love' (f. 29), dated 13 January 1917. The covers and leaves of the diary are heavily creased, suggesting that it may have been in Thomas's pocket when he was killed by a shell on the first day of the Battle of Arras on 9 April 1917. For an edited version of the diary's text, see The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas, ed. by R. George Thomas (Oxford, 1978), pp. 460-481. Three items found loose inside the diary's covers, including a draft of Thomas's poem, 'The Lane' [1916], have been filed as NLW MS 24030iiA.
Largely disconnected papers of Edward Thomas, comprising journals, on loose sheets, for 29 August-18 September 1903 (ff. 3-5), 30 December-8 January 1904 (ff. 6-7), 14-20 February 1904 (f. 8), 11 April 1904 (f. 9), 28 September-11 November 1904 (ff. 10-15), 31 December 1909 (ff. 16-20), 18-25 April [1911] (f. 21) and a visit to Paris, [1912] (ff. 22-30); lists of essays sent to publishers, 1899 and 1914 (ff. 1, 35); notes on income, 1908-1916 (ff. 31-34); part draft of a book review, [1913] (ff. 38-40); photographs of Edward Thomas, 1895 (f. 41), and Gordon Bottomley (f. 42).
Typescript drafts, [1915x1917], of twenty-three poems by Edward Thomas with collation of texts by R. George Thomas (ff. i-vi). They include two copies of ['Words'], one marked 'unamended' (ff. 34-7), and of 'Lob', one marked 'unrevised' (ff. 38-45), and a copy of 'The Combe' (f. 2) signed 'Edward Eastaway'. The typescripts are working copies used by the poet for revision when selecting poems for inclusion in Poems published in 1917 under the pseudonym 'Edward Eastaway'. Nine of the poems were included in that volume.
Edward Thomas and others.
The original manuscript of Edward Thomas, The Heart of England (London, 1906), together with a letter from the author to Jesse Berridge, rector of Little Badow, Chelmsford, [?1913] (f. iii).
The letter was published in The Letters of Edward Thomas to Jesse Berridge, ed. by Anthony Berridge (London, 1983).