Time to Stand and Stare: A Life of W. H. Davies, the Tramp-Poet

"W. H. Davies is best known today for his popular poem 'Leisure'. But this homage to the quiet life stands in stark contrast to the story of its author. Jobless, penniless and homeless for most of the first half of his life, Davies roamed the streets from the Welsh docklands to North America, losing his leg freeriding a train in Ontario along the way. At forty he wrote his life story, Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, which made him famous. A friend of Shaw, Conrad, the Sitwells and other influential writers and artists, the former hobo found himself at the centre of London's literary life during and after the First World War. Retiring to the Cotswolds with his wife, a former prostitute half his age, Davies died in 1940 leaving his estate to a small boy he had never met. In Time to Stand and Stare Barbara Hooper tells the story of the original Super-Tramp."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved