John Clare was a defining voice of the rural poetic tradition. His story was first set down more than two centuries ago and has captured the imagination of the reading public ever since. it is told most vividly and poignantly in Clare's own words.

This volume brings together, in definitive form, all Clare's important autobiographical writing. His Journal is set alongside his Sketches and 'Autobiographical Fragments' as well as his famous 'Journey out of Essex'. Maps of Clare's countryside are also included, as are his will and extracts from his asylum letters. Clare appears here as ploughboy, gardener's boy and militiaman; as lover and husband, acquaintance of Hazlitt, Lamb and Coleridge and finally, as inmate in an asylum: his manifold personas emerge with great freshness from this remarkable book.


Edited by Eric Robinson and David Powell with wood engravings by John Lawrence

Introduction

Sketches in the Life of John Clare
More Hints in the Life etc
Autobiographical Fragments
Appendix: Clare's Notes for his Autobiography
John Clare's Journal
Some Brief Observations
Memorandums
Clare's Will and Related Observations
Business Dealings with Edward Drury and John Taylor
The Will o Whisp or Jack a Lanthorn
A Remarkable Dream
'Closes of greensward...'
Journey out of Essex
Asylum Observations
Letter to Matthew Allen, c.27 August 1841
Self Identity
Autumn
Letters and Notes of the Northampton Period

Notes
Glossary
Index

Maps
Clare's Countryside
Journey out of Essex