A W. H. Davies Reader

W.H. Davies (1871–1940) was popularly though reductively known as the ‘tramp-poet’ due to his remarkable journey from vagrancy, in Britain and the United States, to considerable literary success. ‘Discovered’ in part by Edward Thomas, who admired his poetry, Davies became a prolific memoirist and occasional writer of fiction, criticism and drama. He is now known almost exclusively for a handful of poems and for his memoir The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp; his other writing has long been out of print. This book collects generous selections from Davies’s prose memoir, poetry, and critical prose, alongside comprehensive notes. It brings back into print the work of a remarkable, controversial and unduly neglected author.

W.H. Davies was born in Newport, Wales in 1871. The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp appeared in 1908. He died in Gloucestershire in 1940. Rory Waterman was born in Belfast and grew up mostly in rural Lincolnshire. He was a Hawthornden Fellow in 2012. His poems have appeared in the TLS, New Poetries V, Poetry Review, The Best British Poetry 2012, Stand, Agenda, PN Review and various other publications, and he co-edits New Walk arts magazine. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Nottingham Trent University. Tonight the Summer's Over, his first collection, is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.