William Henry Davies

Disgrifiad

Poet and prose writer William Henry Davies (1871-1940) was born in Newport and brought up in a dockland public house. He was educated at local elementary schools where he acquired a love of English poetry and the Bible. After leaving school, he was apprenticed to a picture-framer, absorbing from this work an appreciation of art. Walks in rural Gwent sharpened his interest in nature and friends encouraged him to extend his reading. In 1893 he set out for America where, unable to find regular employment, he became a tramp, taking occasional farm jobs, begging and wintering in gaols. He returned to Newport in 1898, squandering there and in London the greater part of an inheritance before setting out for the Klondyke. In Ontario in March 1899, his right foot was crushed when he fell under the train on which he was trying to steal a ride, and his leg had to be amputated below the knee. He settled in London and applied himself obsessively to the tasks of study and writing. His first volume was published at his own expense and was reviewed by George Bernard Shaw in the Daily Mail. In the same year moved to Sevenoaks and subsequently publishe a second collection, followed by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1908) which was an immediate critical success and sold steadily. This was followed by further poetry and prose publications and in 1911 he was awarded a Civil List pension. In 1913, he moved to London and continued to publish. Davies married in 1923 and moved to East Grinstead, followed by Nailsworth. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Wales in 1929. Information taken from Meic Stephens' New Companion to the Literature of Wales (University of Wales Press, 1998)