Hardy, Thomas

(1840-1928)

   Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, a hamlet near Stinsford, Dorset, to a musical family who contributed to the life of the village and to the church services. He was educated locally and became a pupil of John Hicks, an ecclesiastical architect in Dorchester. He then worked as an architect under Sir Arthur William Blomfield in London. Ill health brought him home to Dorset in 1867, and over the next thirty years he published fourteen novels-based mainly around Wessex-and a number of short stories. From 1898 he produced eight volumes of poetry as well as an epic poetic drama, The Dynasts, published as a whole in 1910. His three major collections are: Wessex Poems, 1898. Poems of Past and Present, 1901. Time's Laughingstocks, 1909. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1910. His ashes are buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey; his heart is buried at Stinsford. Some of his poems: "Afternoon Service at Mellstock," "Last Week in October," "Logs on the Hearth," "The Beauty," "The Chapel-Organist," "The Death of Regret," "The Farm-Woman's Winter," "The Harvest-Supper."

   Sources: Chief Modern Poets of Britain and America. 5th edition. Gerald DeWitt Sanders and John Herbert Nelson, eds. Macmillan, 1970. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. James Gibson, ed. Macmillan, 1978. The Faber Book of War Poetry. Kenneth Baker, ed. Faber and Faber, 1996. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).