John Masefield’s Great War: Collected Works Read online

  8 JM, letter to Mr Marsh (?of Yale – not Edward Marsh), 7 Jul 1916 (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)

  9 JM, letter to H.W. Nevinson (HWN), 11 Aug 1914 (Bodleian)

  10 CBS, p.119

  11 JM, letter to FL, 7 Sep 1916 (LtoFL, p.18)

  12 Rupert Brooke, letter to Russell Loines, [Dec 1914], (ed. Geoffrey Keynes, The Letters of Rupert Brooke, London: Faber and Faber, 1968, p.644)

  13 Constance Masefield (CM), Diaries, [TS copy within Constance Babington Smith Archives (The John Masefield Society Archives) (CBSA)]

  14 Ibid.

  15 Ibid.

  16 JM, letter to CM, 1 Mar 1915 (ed. Peter Vansittart, John Masefield’s Letters from the Front 1915 – 1917, London: Constable, 1984 (LftF), p.48)

  17 See note 13

  18 JM, letter to CM, 4 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.53)

  19 Ibid.

  20 Ibid.

  21 JM, postcard to CM, 22 Mar 1915 (HRC, University of Texas)

  22 JM, letter to CM, 4 Mar 1915 (see LftF, p.53)

  23 Joy Fawcett (Archivist, The British Red Cross Society), letter to Constance Babington Smith, 4 May 1977 (CBSA)

  24 The Times, 15 Sep 1919, p.13

  25 JM, letter to CM, 17 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.69)

  26 JM, letter to CM, 5 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.54)

  27 JM, letter to CM, 12 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.64)

  28 JM, letter to CM, 6 Apr 1915 (LftF, p.90)

  29 JM, letter to CM, 5 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.54) Vansittart transcribes the text as ‘doing some day in day out’.

  30 JM, letter to CM, 10 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.63)

  31 JM, letter to CM, 23 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.73)

  32 JM, letter to CM, 17 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.69)

  33 JM, letter to CM, 28 Mar 1915 (LftF, p.79)

  34 JM, letter to C.P. Scott (CPS), 12 Apr 1915 (John Rylands University Library of Manchester)

  35 JM, letter to Violet Bonham-Carter, 27 Apr 1915 (Berg Collection, New York Public Library)

  36 CM, letter to Edward Marsh (EHM), 27 Apr 1915 (Berg Collection, New York Public Library)

  37 The volume formed part of Masefield’s library at his death (see Blackwell’s Catalogue No. 896 Catalogue of Presentation and Association Copies . . . (1970) Item 434; Blackwell’s Catalogue No. A1040 Autograph Letters . . . (1975) Item 328; and Blackwell’s Catalogue No. A1092 Private Press Books (1977) Item 505)

  38 JM, letter to CPS, 29 Apr 1915 (John Rylands University Library of Manchester)

  39 JM, letter to Ethel Ross, 31 May 1915 (formerly in the collection of Mrs. Rosemary Magnus (RVAM))

  40 JM, letter to Harry Masefield (HM), 8 Jun 1915 (RVAM)

  41 JM, letter to Mary Cabot Wheelwright, 27 Jul 1915 (Pierpont Morgan Library)

  42 JM, letter to CM, 17 Jul 1915 (Bodleian)

  43 JM, letter to CM, 18 Jul 1915 (Bodleian)

  44 John North, Gallipoli – The Fading Vision, London: Faber and Faber, 1936, pp.73 – 74. North comments, incidentally, on Masefield’s Gallipoli that ‘the strength and the felicity of its diction lulls the spirit; and it has been largely responsible for the poetical growth of the Gallipoli legend’ (p.20)

  45 JM, letter to HM, 13 Aug [1915], (RVAM)

  46 The Times, 20 Aug 1915, p.3 and 27 Aug 1915, p.9

  47 JM, letter to EHM, 11 and 12 Sep 1915 (Berg Collection, New York Public Library)

  48 JM, letter to EHM, 14 Oct 1915 (Berg Collection, New York Public Library)

  49 JM, letter to EHM, 16 Oct [1915] (Berg Collection, New York Public Library). First published, untitled, within Good Friday and other poems, New York: Macmillan, 1916. The sonnet was first published in England, as sonnet XXIII, within Sonnets and Poems, Letchworth: Garden City Press, 1916. The title ‘Skyros’ was first printed in ed. Philip W. Errington, Sea-Fever: Selected Poems of John Masefield, Manchester: Carcanet, 2005

  50 JM, letter to HM, 13 Jun 1916 (RVAM)

  51 JM, letter to FL, 21 Oct 1916 (TS copy within CBSA)

  52 JM, printed letter, Oct 1915 (a copy addressed to Edward Marsh is present within the Berg Collection, New York Public Library)

  53 [J.B. Pond Lyceum Bureau], John Masefield . . . in Lectures of Literary Interest, New York: J.B. Pond Lyceum Bureau, [1915] (Hamilton College)

  54 The New York Times Magazine, 27 Jan 1918, p.11

  55 JM, letter to Edmund Gosse, 1 Jan 1916 (Brotherton Library, University of Leeds)

  56 See note 53

  57 The New York Times, 13 Jan 1916, p.12

  58 JM, letter to Grant Richards, 21 Apr 1908 (Fales Library, New York University)

  59 The New York Times, 13 January 1916, p.12

  60 ‘A Report on American Opinion and some Suggestions’, A Supplement to the American Press Résumé (April 7, 1916) (National Archives)

  61 JM, letter to CM, undated within LftF, p.105

  62 See note 60

  63 Ibid.

  64 JM, letter to CM, 11 Feb 1916 (CBS p.144)

  65 JM, letter to CM, 3 Feb 1916 (CBS p.149)

  66 Unidentified source (LftF, p.106)

  67 JM, letter to CM, undated within LftF, p.108

  68 N.P.D., ‘Mr. Masefield Lectures’, unidentified newspaper source (CBSA and see also CBS pp.141 – 42)

  69 Corliss Lamont, ‘Introduction’, LtoFL, p.2

  70 JM, letter to FL, 21 Mar [1916], (LtoFL, p.10)

  71 Gilbert Parker, letter to JM, 30 Mar 1916 (HRC, University of Texas)

  72 See note 60

  73 See note 54

  74 The Times, 22 Sep 1916, p.9

  75 The Times, 27 Oct 1916, p.4 and 9 Mar 1917, p.11

  76 JM, ‘The Wanderer’, Philip the King and other poems, London: Heinemann, 1914, pp.61 – 71

  77 Sanford Sternlicht, John Masefield, Boston: Twayne, 1977, p.124

  78 Henry W. Nevinson, Fire of Life, London: Nisbet, 1935, p.344

  79 Ian Hamilton, letter to JM, 18 Jul 1916 (Bodleian)

  80 JM, letter to William Rothenstein, 9 Nov 1916 (Houghton Library, University of Harvard)

  81 JM, letter to HM, 16 Aug 1916 (TS copy within CBSA)

  82 C.F.G. Masterman to M.W. Lampson, 18 Aug 1916 (National Archives)

  83 See note 13

  84 JM, letter to CM, 21 Oct 1916 (LftF, pp.190 – 91)

  85 JM, letter to CM, 21 Oct 1916 (LftF, p.189)

  86 JM, letter to CM, 4 Sep 1916 (LftF, p.123)

  87 JM, letter to CM, 9 Oct 1916 (LftF, p.177)

  88 JM, letter to CM, 12 Oct 1916 (LftF, p.180)

  89 JM, letter to CM, 4 Oct 1916 (LftF, p.170)

  90 JM, letter to CM, 16 Oct 1916 (LftF, p.187)

  91 JM, letter to CM, 21 Oct 1916 (LftF, p.192)

  92 JM, letter to CM, 22 Oct 1916 (LftF, p.193)

  93 Lytton, p.81

  94 It is assumed Masefield does not refer to Sonnets (published in America by Macmillan in February 1916). This was a specifically American publication (with the dedication ‘To My American Friends’). It is more likely that Masefield refers to Sonnets and Poems of August / September 1916. Sonnets and Poems was published by The Garden City Press, Letchworth, in an edition of 200 copies and in a regular edition by Masefield (‘printed at Letchworth by the Garden City Press’). The editions were not a strictly commercial enterprise although they caused concern to Masefield’s commercial publisher, William Heinemann (see Philip W. Errington, John Masefield – The ‘Great Auk’ of English Literature, London: The British Library, 2004, p.150). A gift of this book should be considered significant since it was not merely a copy of Masefield’s latest offering from Heinemann.

  95 JM, letter to CM, 12 Mar 1917 (LftF, pp.212 – 13)

  96 JM, letter to CM, 21 Mar 1917 (LftF, p.224)

  97 JM, letter to CM, 3 Mar 1917 (LftF, p.202)

  98 JM, letter to CM, 20 Mar 1917 (LftF, p.222)

  99 JM, letter to CM, 23 Mar 1917 (LftF, p.226)

  100 JM, letter to CM, 31 Mar 1917 (LftF, p.234)

  101 JM, letter to CM, 16 Apr 1917 (LftF, p.247)

  102 JM, lett
er to CM, 18 Apr 1917 (LftF, p.250)

  103 JM, letter to CM, 15 Mar 1917 (LftF, p.216)

  104 JM, letter to CM, 7 Mar 1917 (LftF, p.207)

  105 JM, letter to CM, 29 Apr 1917 (LftF, p.264)

  106 JM, letter to CM, 16 May 1917 (LftF, p.283)

  107 JM, letter to CM, 8 (or 9) May 1917 (LftF, p.275)

  108 JM, letter to CM, 12 May 1917 (LftF, p.277)

  109 JM, letter to CM, 23 May 1917 (LftF, p.293)

  110 Contained in the archives of The Society of Authors as the literary representatives of the estate of John Masefield. I am extremely grateful to W.H. Masefield and The Society of Authors for permission to consult these documents.

  111 JM, ‘Foreword’, The Battle of the Somme, London: Heinemann, 1919, pp.2 – 3

  112 Lytton, pp.80 – 81

  113 JM, letter to Annie Horniman, 10 Mar 1918 (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)

  114 JM, letter to J.B. Pond, 20 Nov 1916 (University of Iowa)

  115 JM, letter to FL, 16 Apr [1917] (LtoFL, p.36)

  116 J.B. Pond, letter to A.P. Saunders, 12 Feb 1918 (Hamilton College)

  117 JM, letter to Margaret Bridges (MB), 24 Jan 1918 (ed. Donald Stanford, John Masefield Letters to Margaret Bridges (1915 – 1919), Manchester: Carcanet, 1984 (LtoMB), p.81)

  118 JM, letter to FL, 15 Jul [1918] (LtoFL, p.71)

  119 JM, letter to MB, 9 Feb 1918 (LtoMB, p.82)

  120 JM, letter to MB, 13 Feb 1918 (LtoMB, p.83)

  121 See note 54

  122 JM, letter to FL, 5 Mar [1918] (LtoFL, p.61)

  123 JM, letter to FL, 27 Mar 1918 (LtoFL, p.62)

  124 See J.B. Pond advertisement published within The New York Times, 17 Apr 1918, p.11

  125 JM, letter to FL, 27 Mar 1918 (LtoFL, pp.62 – 63)

  126 Ibid.

  127 The New York Times, 2 Jun 1918, p.41

  128 JM, letter to MB, 27 May 1918 (LtoMB, p.97)

  129 JM, letter to MB, 1 Jun 1918 (LtoMB, p.98)

  130 Manchester Guardian, 7 July 1917, p.26

  131 See Corliss Lamont, Remembering John Masefield, London: Kaye & Ward, 1972, pp.83 – 84

  132 JM, letter to FL, 20 Jul [1918] (LtoFL, p.72)

  133 JM, letter to A.G. Gardiner, 27 Sep 1918 (British Library of Political and Economic Science)

  134 JM, letter to Siegfried Sassoon, 5 Sep 1918 (Cambridge University Library)

  135 See Sotheby’s auction catalogue, 18 July 1991, lot 90

  136 JM, letter to Ronald Ross, 7 Oct 1918 (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

  137 JM, letter to FL, 13 Nov [1918] (LtoFL, p.74)

  138 JM, letter to HWN, (Bodleian)

  139 JM, letter to Cecil Roberts, 3 Dec 1918 (Churchill College, Cambridge)

  140 Answers, 14 December 1918, p.43

  141 JM, ‘Note’, Reynard the Fox . . . with Selected Sonnets and Lyrics, London: Heinemann, 1946, p.[v]

  142 Ibid.

  A Note on the Texts

  This edition collects together for the first time Masefield’s four books on the First World War: Gallipoli, The Old Front Line, St. George and the Dragon (first published in America as The War and the Future) and The Battle of the Somme.

  The first three were printed in England by William Heinemann and in the United States by Macmillan. Each edition presents a number of editorial choices. The texts of Gallipoli are, for example, very slightly different with the American text probably comprising a slightly earlier version than the English text. I have followed the English text except when minor punctuation changes from the American version are to be preferred. The Old Front Line was first published by Macmillan and it is the later Heinemann printing that comprises a slightly later textual state with the inclusion of chapter headings and this has been used here as the copy-text. St. George and the Dragon was probably set from a copy of The War and the Future and I have therefore used the American version as my copy-text except where the text in St. George and the Dragon has evidently been corrected. The Battle of the Somme was published only in an English edition (limited to 250 copies) and this is the only printed source. This is the first commercial printing of the text.

  Of the other texts, many are taken from contemporary periodicals from both England and the United States: five are from The New York Times, four are from the Manchester Guardian and others are taken from The English Review, the Daily Chronicle, Harper’s Monthly Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, The Nation, Answers and The Times. The limited distribution of Yale Alumni Weekly deserves special mention and I am grateful to Yale University for providing me with a copy.

  Other contributions are taken from their appearance in other volumes by Masefield (Good Friday and other poems and a new edition of Gallipoli) or from volumes with contributions by Masefield (see The Queen’s Book of the Red Cross and works by Edward G.D. Liveing and E.J. Rule). The Yale Review’s 1928 publication of Masefield’s Any Dead to Any Living is an oddity in Masefield bibliography and it is a pleasure to include it here.

  Finally Masefield’s ‘A Report on American Opinion and Some Suggestion’ was printed within Foreign Office war papers (see National Archives FO 371/2835 pp 62922).

  Texts have been edited to provide English renderings of words throughout, together with modern usage (‘to-day’ becomes ‘today’, for example). To provide consistency across such a disparate group of texts has been challenging and I ask for the reader’s patience for any errors. My choice and location of texts has been informed by my bibliographical work on Masefield and I refer any interested readers to John Masefield – The ‘Great Auk’ of English Literature, London: The British Library, 2004.

  August, 1914

  How still this quiet cornfield is tonight;

  By an intenser glow the evening falls,

  Bringing, not darkness, but a deeper light;

  Among the stooks a partridge covey calls.

  The windows glitter on the distant hill;

  Beyond the hedge the sheep-bells in the fold

  Stumble on sudden music and are still;

  The forlorn pinewoods droop above the wold.

  An endless quiet valley reaches out

  Past the blue hills into the evening sky;

  Over the stubble, cawing, goes a rout

  Of rooks from harvest, flagging as they fly.

  So beautiful it is, I never saw

  So great a beauty on these English fields,

  Touched by the twilight’s coming, into awe,

  Ripe to the soul and rich with summer’s yields.

  These homes, this valley spread below me here,

  The rooks, the tilted stacks, the beasts in pen,

  Have been the heartfelt things, past-speaking dear

  To unknown generations of dead men,

  Who, century after century, held these farms,

  And, looking out to watch the changing sky,

  Heard, as we hear, the rumours and alarms

  Of war at hand and danger pressing nigh,

  And knew, as we know, that the message meant

  The breaking-off of ties, the loss of friends,

  Death like a miser getting in his rent

  And no new stones laid where the trackway ends.

  The harvest not yet won, the empty bin,

  The friendly horses taken from the stalls,

  The fallow on the hill not yet brought in,

  The cracks unplastered in the leaking walls;

  Yet heard the news, and went discouraged home,

  And brooded by the fire with heavy mind,

  With such dumb loving of the Berkshire loam

  As breaks the dumb hearts of the English kind,

  Then sadly rose and left the well-loved Downs

  And so, by ship to sea, and knew no more

  The fields of home, the byres, the market towns,

  Nor the dear outline of the English shore,

  But knew the misery of the soaking trench,

  The freezing in the rigging, the desp
air

  In the revolting second of the wrench

  When the blind soul is flung against the air,