"They were not true, those dreams, those story books of youth..."

July 24, 2010 7:58 AM

Dream Voices: Siegfried Sassoon, Memory and War: artifacts, manuscripts, and illustrations from the diaries and notebooks of the World War I poet, currently on display at Cambridge University Library (exhibition blog), with an accompanying Picasa gallery, and audio slideshow from the BBC.
posted by steef (8 comments total)

This is wonderful!
posted by serazin at 8:43 AM on July 24, 2010

Sassoon's poetry is easily googled, for anyone who hasn't had a chance to read him yet. I only learned about him recently, through reading Goodby to all That, and I think it's worth mentioning that as well as becoming a powerful anti-war poet, he was a socialist and queer, and an all-around fascinating character.
posted by serazin at 9:06 AM on July 24, 2010

How versatile, he was a hair stylist and a poet!
posted by Omon Ra at 10:04 AM on July 24, 2010

Ummm, that comment was supposed to have a borat tag...
posted by Omon Ra at 10:08 AM on July 24, 2010

(obligatory hipster reference) the lyrics to Electrelane's "The Valleys" were mainly from Sassoon's "A Letter Home"
posted by camdan at 10:38 AM on July 24, 2010

First I had ever heard of him. Thanks for the introduction steef :)
posted by puny human at 2:25 PM on July 24, 2010

This is fascinating, thanks - he was a much more prolific doodler than I'd ever considered!
posted by Coobeastie at 5:45 AM on July 25, 2010

Cambridge has posted video from the panel discussion at the "Dream Voices" exhibit opening: Max Egremont speaks on Sassoon's life and continuing significance as a writer; Santanu Das explores Sassoon's responses to the death of his friend David Thomas in 1916; and Tim Kendall discusses Sassoon's poem, "The Kiss".
posted by steef at 10:25 AM on July 29, 2010