| Thomas Hardy 2nd June 1840 - 11th January 1928
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Poet and Novelist. Hardy was born in Higher Brockhampton near Dorchester, a town, which became the centre of his fictional Wessex. His writing career spanned more than fifty years. His father was a master mason and builder, and his mother encouraged him in the pursuit of literature. He was educated in Dorchester, then in 1856 he was apprenticed to John Hicks, a local architect. After that hardy spent five years (1856-1867) in the architectural offices of Arthur Blomfield. By this time he was submitting his poetry to various periodicals. Hardy then returned to work for John Hicks and whilst surveying a church in St Junot in Cornwall, he met Emma Lavinia Gifford.
It was at this time that he began work on his first novel, Desperate Remedies (1871). For the next quarter of a century Hardy produced novels, one after another. Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) followed in 1874 by Far From the Madding Crowd, whose success enabled him to marry Emma Gifford. They firstly lived in Swanage, where he worked on The Hand of Ethelberta (1876) then in Sturminster Newton, where he wrote Return of the Native (1878). They then lived in London for three years while he wrote The Trumpet Major (1880) and A Laodicean (1881), though it was a period of ill health and marital problems. In 1881 they returned to Dorset, living in Wimborne, where Hardy wrote Two on a Tower (1882). In 1885 they moved into Max Gate on the edge of Dorchester, where they spent the rest of their lives. The Mayor of Casterbridge was published in 1886 and was followed by various novels up until 1895 when he published his last ever novel, Jude the Obscure. The novel reflected the problems of his married life and its bizarre reception greatly influenced his decision to give up novel writing.
For the last 30 years of his life he produced a vast amount of Poetry and the mantle of the Grand Old man of Letters tightened across his shoulders, as various accolades, distinctions and honorary degrees were bestowed on him. Emma died in 1912 and in 1914 he married his secretary, Florence Emily Dugdale, a woman almost forty years younger than he. Between the years 1920 to 1927 he worked on his autobiography. He died peacefully in Dorchester, Dorset, on January 11th 1928. |
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