Fonds GB 0210 MSWHDAV - W. H. Davies manuscripts

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.

William Henry Davies, poet and writer, was born in Newport, Monmouthshire. His father died when Davies was three, and, following his mother's remarriage, the children were adopted by their grandparents. Davies was educated at schools in Newport and afterwards apprenticed to a picture-frame-maker. At the age of twenty-two he obtained a passage for New York, arriving in the United States with only a few dollars in his pockets. He thereafter began the career which he described in his Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1908) - tramping thousands of miles across America, most often begging but also undertaking casual work and riding illicitly on freight trains. En route to the gold-diggings at the Klondike, Davies fell under a moving train, severing his right foot; his right leg was subsequently amputated below the knee. Davies eventually returned to Wales, then moved to London, where he lived in common lodging-houses, pedalling wares and preaching on street corners. He finally found a publisher for his poems and, between 1905 and 1939, published several slim volumes of poetry; it was during this period also that Davies befriended the poet Edward Thomas and his wife Helen. Davies produced four novels, including The True Traveller (1912) and The Adventures of Johnny Walker, Tramp (1926); other prose works included Beggars (1909), Nature (1914) and My Birds and my Garden (1933). He also edited several poetic anthologies and was joint editor of a monthly magazine called Form. Davies met his wife Helen at a bus stop in a poor part of London; they married in 1923 but had no children. Their relationship is celebrated in Love Poems (1935) and the posthumously published Young Emma (1980). Davies died at Nailsworth in Gloucestershire. The publication of W. H. Davies: Selected Poems in 1985 revived interest in the poet.