Some Desperate Glory

After his highly successful history of Prussia, the authorized biographer of Siegfried Sassoon examines the First World War through the lives of the poets who fought at the front. One hundred years on from its outbreak, acclaimed historian and biographer Max Egremont examines the First World War through the lives and words of some of its greatest poets. Some Desperate Glory tells the stories of eleven soldiers. Wilfred Owen with his flaring genius; the intense, compassionate Siegfried Sassoon; the composer Ivor Gurney; Robert Graves, who would later spurn his war poems; the nature-loving Edward Thomas; the glamorous Fabian Socialist Rupert Brooke; the shell-shocked Robert Nichols; the aristocratic Julian Grenfell; Charles Sorley, whose early verse promised so much; the artist Isaac Rosenberg from London's East End; and Edmund Blunden, one of only five to survive active service. Including a chronological anthology of around one hundred poems, in which the atmosphere and landscape of battle are evoked perhaps more vividly than anywhere else, this unique book unites the poetry and the history of the war - so often treated separately - to show readers the individual soldier's experience and a panoramic view of the war's toll on an entire nation. 'This is not simply another anthology of the "best" poetry of the Great War . . . but an attempt to tell the story of the war through its poets and explore their development through the impact of the conflict on their writing' Spectator 'An absorbing account of the war as experienced by eleven poets' Sean O'Brien, TLS 'Egremont's fine and evocative book is a reminder of what we have lost, besides the lives of our warrior poets' Standpoint While the First World War devastated Europe, it inspired profound poetry – words in which the atmosphere and landscape of battle are evoked perhaps more vividly than anywhere else. The poets – many of whom were killed – show not only the war’s tragedy but the hopes and disappointments of a generation of men. In Some Desperate Glory, historian and biographer Max Egremont gives us a transfiguring look at the life and work of this assemblage of poets. Wilfred Owen with his flaring genius; the intense, compassionate Siegfried Sassoon; the composer Ivor Gurney; Robert Graves who would later spurn his war poems; the nature-loving Edward Thomas; the glamorous Fabian Socialist Rupert Brooke; and the shell-shocked Robert Nichols all fought in the war, and their poetry is a bold act of creativity in the face of unprecedented destruction. Some Desperate Glory includes a chronological anthology of their poems, with linking commentary, telling the story of the war through their art. This unique volume unites the poetry and the history of the war, so often treated separately, granting readers the pride, strife, and sorrow of the individual soldier’s experience coupled with a panoramic view of the war’s toll on an entire nation.