Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1914 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
1 f. ; 205 x 165 mm.
In cloth folding case and matching quarter green levant morocco slip-case with gold fillets; 'Autograph Poem', 'W. H. Davies', '1914' (in gold on spine of slip-case).
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
William Henry Davies (1871-1940), poet and writer, was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, the son of Francis Boase Davies and Mary Ann Evans. Following his father's death and his mother's remarriage he and his siblings were adopted by their grandparents. After leaving school he became a picture-frame maker's apprentice. In June 1893 he sailed to America, arriving in New York virtually penniless. He spent the next few years tramping across America, begging and undertaking casual labour, with occasional voyages to Britain working on cattle-ships. He then decided to go to the Klondike but while en route, he lost his right leg after falling under a train in Renfrew, Ontario, on 20 March 1899. After convalescing he returned to Britain. He lived in common lodging houses in London and survived by peddling wares and living off the weekly allowance of ten shillings left to him by his grandmother. He began writing poetry at this time but it was not until 1905 that he succeeded in getting his work published; he managed to save enough money to pay for the printing of two hundred copies of The Soul's Destroyer ([London], [1905]). Several further volumes of poetry and collections appeared between 1905 and 1939. His most famous prose work, Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (London, 1908), was followed by four novels, including The True Traveller (London, 1912) and The Adventures of Johnny Walker, Tramp (London, 1926). Other prose works include Beggars (London, 1909), Nature (London, 1914), My Birds (London, 1933) and My Garden (London, 1933). In 1905 he was befriended by the poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917) and his wife Helen, who in 1907 rented a cottage for him in Sevenoaks, Kent. He returned to London in 1914. Davies married Helen Payne (d. 1979) on 5 February 1923, having met her at a bus stop in London. They lived in East Grinstead, Sussex, before moving back to Sevenoaks, then Oxted, Surrey, and finally to Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, where Davies died on 26 September 1940.
Archival history
Bookplate of Mary Atkins inside folding case; the manuscript was at one time owned by a Canadian collector.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Ivo Marc de Galan; Toronto; Purchase; December 2006; 004457272.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A holograph copy of the poem 'Leisure' by W. H. Davies, signed and dated 8 May 1914.
The poem was first published in William H. Davies, Songs of Joy and Others (London, 1911) and thereafter appeared in various collections and anthologies, including William H. Davies, Collected Poems (London, 1916), The Essential W. H. Davies (London, 1951) and The Complete Poems of W. H. Davies (London, 1963). This fair copy was possibly written whilst the poet was in Gloucestershire visiting friends among the Dymock poets (see Selected letters of Robert Frost, ed. by Lawrance Thompson (London, 1965), pp. 122-124).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding ownership of W. H. Davies copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed February 2011).
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23960B.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
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Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
June 2011.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Rhys Morgan Jones;