Thomas Hardy did his best to ensure that the verdict of posterity on his life and character should be based on evidence which he selected and on his own estimate of his worth. If a man writes an autobiography, his self-praise, however discreet, is less effective than the praise of others. Even if he only breathes down his own trumpet he is liable to be accused of blowing it. Hardy’s technique of the trumpet was highly original. He wrote not an autobiography but a biography which was to be attributed after his death to his wife. Every chapter, except the last which describes his death, was written by Hardy and the manuscript was destroyed piecemeal immediately after it had been typed by his wife. The typescript itself was corrected in a disguised hand. Even the publishers were to be deceived into believing that the book was a genuine biography written by his widow. The publishers attribute the book, on the dust jacket, to “the poet and novelist’s second wife,” though they are, of course, well aware of the fact that the truth was hinted at in T. E. Lawrence’s published letters and revealed in 1954 by Professor Richard L. Purdy, who had scrutinized the surviving typescripts and other pertinent papers.
The Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840-1928, by Florence Emily Hardy. St. Martin’s, $7.00
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