Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Lot 259
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 600
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 470357
Lot 259 | Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Estimate value
£ 600 – 900
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Typescript letter and sonnet. 7 March 1917

HARDY, Thomas (1840-1928). Typed letter signed ('Thomas Hardy') to Frederick J. Higginbottom, Max Gate, 7 March 1917, enclosing a typescript of his sonnet, 'For National Service'.



Together two pages, 253 x 203mm (staple holes, minor rodent damage to left margin of letter).



'I am more at home nowadays with verse and feel somewhat awkward with prose'. Hardy sends his sonnet, 'For National Service' for use by the Ministry of National Service, commenting that a poem would be 'more effectual for the purpose than an article in prose, especially as I am more at home nowadays with verse and feel somewhat awkward with prose, not having printed any for so many years'. The Petrarchan sonnet, 'For National Service' addresses a call to service in the octave, whilst the sestet is a lament that age prevents Hardy himself from taking part in the national effort.



The recipient of letter, Frederick Higginbottom (1859-1943) was at this date director of press intelligence for the Ministry of National Service. This first text of 'For National Service' differs from the version published in Moments of Vision later in 1917 most notably with the replacement of the line 'It will enray your names to dates unscanned' with the more stirring 'That scareless, scathless, England still may stand'.

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