Life and Remains of John Clare, The "Northamptonshire Peasant Poet"

A collected life and remains of John Clare combines a biographical sketch and abundant documentary material—letters, diary extracts, and editorial commentary—with selections of poetry and prose left in manuscript. Selections include numerous poems composed during his confinement in an asylum, a set of miscellaneous published pieces, prose fragments that illuminate his thought, and a group of traditional ballads he recorded. The correspondence and editor's notes trace a rural upbringing, economic hardship, poetic devotion to landscape and natural detail, and struggles with deteriorating mental health, while the editor explains manuscript sources, the selection process, and the need for revision in many asylum works.