Sassoon Journals : Journal, 15 Feb. 1917-2 June 1917

Sassoon Journals

<p>The volume is a ruled notebook entitled 'Journal and Notes' and mostly comprises diary entries and reflective passages written in France. Contents include:</p> <p>Diary entries:</p> <ul> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(5);return false;'>2r-3v</a>]. Sassoon's return to France</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>4r-6v</a>]. 'No.25 Stationary Hospital Rouen' [where Sassoon was recuperating from German measles]</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(62);return false;'>30v-32r</a>]. at Amiens</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(55);return false;'>27r</a>]. on joining the RWF Second Battalion at Corbie</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(66);return false;'>32v</a>]. 'Dream Pictures' (on ideas for a book of 'Consolations for Homesick soldiers in the Field')</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(79);return false;'>39r-42r</a>]. preparations for the attack at Arras</li> </ul> <br /> <p>Drafts of poetry:</p> <ul> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(20);return false;'>9v</a>]. 'The Lesson of War', later called 'The Smell'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(21);return false;'>10r</a>]. 'Life Belts (Southampton to Havre)'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(24);return false;'>11v</a>]. 'Victims'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(30);return false;'>14v-15r</a>]. 'The Lift'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(33);return false;'>16r</a>]. untitled, begins 'Brown as the pine stems high'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(44);return false;'>21v-22r</a>]. 'To an A.A.G. (Reinforcements)'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(48);return false;'>23v-24r</a>]. untitled, begins 'If I were stout and bald and short of breath' (early draft of 'Base Details')</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(50);return false;'>24v-25r</a>]. 'In the Church of St. Ouen'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(56);return false;'>27v-28r</a>]. 'Return'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(75);return false;'>37r</a>], [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(111);return false;'>50v</a>]. 'Foot Inspection'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(85);return false;'>42r</a>]. 'Song (To an Old June). The Hawthorn Tree'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(121);return false;'>45r</a>] 'Supreme Sacrifice'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(120);return false;'>45v</a>]. untitled, begins 'O Lads I've Loved'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(119);return false;'>45v-46r</a>]. untitled, begins 'The battle and the sunlight'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(119);return false;'>46r</a>]. 'In an Underground Dressing-Station'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(118);return false;'>46v</a>]. 'A Quiet Walk'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(116);return false;'>47r-47v</a>]. 'The Toast of the Town', later called 'A War Widow'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(114);return false;'>48v</a>]. 'Death in the Garden'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(110);return false;'>50r</a>]. untitled, begins 'Lost in a Laurel Thicket', together with a sketch of a youth holding an arrow</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(106);return false;'>52v</a>]. untitled, begins 'Give me the passion to re-build'</li> </ul> <br /> <p>Sketches and doodles:</p> <ul> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(18);return false;'>8v</a>], [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(22);return false;'>10v-11r</a>]. preparatory sketches for watercolours of gothic windows and stained glass in the abbey church of St Ouen</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(19);return false;'>9r</a>]. a pine forest</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(110);return false;'>50r</a>]. a youth holding an arrow, together with a verse beginning 'Lost in a Laurel Thicket'</li> </ul> <br /> <p>Prose passages:</p> <ul> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(25);return false;'>12r-14r</a>]. 'Reinforcements at Rouen'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(34);return false;'>16v-19r</a>]. 'In the Cathedral (Purple Passage)'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(40);return false;'>19v-21r</a>]. 'Lunch on Sunday in Rouen'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(100);return false;'>53r-55v</a>]. 'Points of View'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(99);return false;'>56r</a>]. 'Thoughts in a Cathedral'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(91);return false;'>56v-60r</a>]. 'Character sketches of Officers in Hospital at Rouen'</li> </ul> <br /> <p>Quotations:</p> <ul> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(70);return false;'>34v</a>]. R.J.C. Greaves 'How he Came'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(88);return false;'>61v</a>]. Thomas Hardy, 'Let me enjoy the earth no less'</li> </ul> <br /> <p>Other:</p> <ul> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(4);return false;'>1v</a>]. locations and dates of time spent at or near the Western Front</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(32);return false;'>15v</a>]. notes entitled '3 reasons for teaching bayonet fighting'</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(122);return false;'>43r-44v</a>]. preparatory notes and a draft of Sassoon's statement against the conduct of the war</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(70);return false;'>34v</a>]. list of drinks and cocktails</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(82);return false;'>40v</a>]. list of physical exercises</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(86);return false;'>42v</a>]; [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(109);return false;'>51r</a>]. lists of members of his battalion and section and their fates</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(107);return false;'>51v-52r</a>]. copy of a letter from Ottoline M[orrell]</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(4);return false;'>1v</a>]; [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(87);return false;'>62r</a>]; [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(89);return false;'>60v-61r</a>]. acquaintances' contact details</li> <li> [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(87);return false;'>62r</a>]. list of books taken to France</li> </ul> <br /> <p> N.B. Sassoon wrote from both ends of this notebook; from folio [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(125);return false;'>43r</a>] entries resume from the opposite end. Enclosure is to be found in a separate envelope. The foliation is the archivist's.</p>