THOMAS, Helen.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

World Without End. First edition, inscribed by the author within two months of publication on the front free endpaper, "Kathleen Davies who is the friend of Jenny and now of Helen Thomas, March 1931". Thomas first adopted the disguise of "Jenny" for her memoir As It Was (1926), which she continues with World Without End.Thomas began her autobiographical series in an attempt to lift herself out of the depression that followed the death of her husband, the poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917), at the Battle of Arras. The memoirs follow the meeting, marriage, and eventual separation of the couple, who are referred to in the narrative as Jenny and David. Her tender yet frank account of married life received mixed reviews upon publication. Despite disguising the identities of all the book's characters, many friends took objection to the explicit sexual details which ostensibly hurt Edward's reputation as a war hero. Robert Frost was so appalled by the memoirs that, in later editions of his Selected Poems, he dropped the original dedication to Helen. Thomas's writings have since been reappraised; World Without End reveals her "exceptional ability to describe the woman's experience as lover, mother, and housewife" (ODNB).

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