Siegfried Sassoon, Sassoon's Autobiography trilogy (The Old Century; The Weald of Youth; Siegfried's Journey)

Mhairi Catriona Pooler (University of Aberdeen)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1938 - 1945

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Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

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Between 1938 and 1945, Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) produced three volumes of autobiography charting his development as a poet, all of which were published by Faber and Faber. The first volume,

The Old Century and Seven More Years

(1938), relates his childhood, youth and university experience between the years 1886 and 1907; the second volume,

The Weald of Youth

(1942), goes on to describe his early adulthood and the burgeoning of his literary life in London until 1914; and the final volume,

Siegfried’s Journey 1916-1920

(1945), charts some of his wartime experiences and their impact on his poetry, and the restless years immediately after the Armistice.

This was Sassoon’s second autobiographical turn in the decades following the First World War. Amidst a surge in the publication of

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Citation: Pooler, Mhairi Catriona. "Sassoon's Autobiography trilogy (The Old Century; The Weald of Youth; Siegfried's Journey)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35636, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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