John Clare

Later printing. xx, 648pp, [2], plus two sections of plate illustrations. Black cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on spine. 8vo. Boards very gently rounded on corners and spine ends. Gift inscription on front free endpaper, dated 2003. In its original dust jacket, slightly bumped on upper edge. The finest labouring-class poet England has known, here is the full story of John Clare, telling of his birth, poverty, his work as an agricultural labourer and his moment of fame as the toast of literary London in the company of John Keats, and his decline into mental illness and his final years in asylums.