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WORLD WITHOUT END—Helen Thomas —Harper ($2.50).**
Few poets' wives are fitted to write about their lately lyric husbands, but some do. Latest rusher-in is Helen Thomas, relict of the late Edward Thomas, who was killed at Arras in 1917. If you have a sweet tooth for idyllic romance you will chew on this with gusto; if not, World Without End may make your teeth a little edgy.
First part, titled As It Was, appeared under the initials "H. T." in 1927. found so many readers Mrs. Thomas decided to continue her story and avow her authorship. First & last a lovestory, it is outspoken to the breaking-point. Uncaustic Critic John Middleton Murry calls it "a love that was so utterly candid as it was utterly innocent."
She ("Jenny" in the story) was the daughter of a literary hacketeer, he ("David") the scion of a civil servant. Neither had money, both were excited about literature. Her mother disliked and distrusted David and his untrimmed locks, discouraged his steady advances toward her daughter. When Jenny's father died she took a job as governess, managed to see her lover occasionally. Since both disapproved of marriage they planned to live together secretly; but, strong on fancies, they were short on facts. "We were still very ignorant of sex, and only knew in a vague way through the reading of poetry how the human sexual act was performed." Nature took its course, however, and when Jenny found she was pregnant they decided to get married. David was still at Oxford when the first baby was born.
They had three children, a hard time all around; but Jenny was happy, except when David was in one of his "moods," or discovered some new female affinity. Then the War came. David enlisted in the Artists' Rifles, came home on his last leave. The story ends with the lovers' wrenching farewell on a foggy morning.
Everyone knows married life is intimate, but few ex-wives have ursula-parrotted their intimacies in public. Even if Publisher Harper had not told you World Without End was a true story it would leave a bad taste in your mouth, for you feel that Helen Thomas has reveled in this revelation.
The poetry of Philip Edward Thomas, little known in the U. S., is worth acquaintance. Friend and follower of U. S. Poet Robert Frost, he had begun to develop a voice of his own when Death came to him at 39.
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