Siegfried Sassoon

Author profile

born

December 13, 1901 in Matfield, Kent, The United Kingdom

died

September 01, 1967

gender

male

genre

Poetry, Biographies & Memoirs

About this author

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Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was born into a wealthy banking family, the middle of 3 brothers. His Anglican mother and Jewish father separated when he was five. He had little subsequent contact with ‘pappy’, who died of TB 4 years later. He presented his mother with his first ‘volume’ at 11. Sassoon spent his youth hunting, cricketing, reading and writing. He was home-schooled until the age of 14 because of ill health. At school he was academically mediocre and teased for being un-athletic, unusually old and Jewish. He attended Clare College, Cambridge, but left without taking his degree. In 1911, Sassoon read ‘The Intermediate Sex’ by Edward Carpenter, a book about homosexuality which was a revelation for Sassoon. In 1913 he wrote ‘The Daffod...more Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was born into a wealthy banking family, the middle of 3 brothers. His Anglican mother and Jewish father separated when he was five. He had little subsequent contact with ‘pappy’, who died of TB 4 years later. He presented his mother with his first ‘volume’ at 11. Sassoon spent his youth hunting, cricketing, reading and writing. He was home-schooled until the age of 14 because of ill health. At school he was academically mediocre and teased for being un-athletic, unusually old and Jewish. He attended Clare College, Cambridge, but left without taking his degree. In 1911, Sassoon read ‘The Intermediate Sex’ by Edward Carpenter, a book about homosexuality which was a revelation for Sassoon. In 1913 he wrote ‘The Daffodil Murderer’, a parody of a John Masefield poem and his only pre-war success. A patriotic man, he enlisted on 3rd August, the day before Britain entered the war, as a trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry. After a riding accident which put him out of action, in May 1915 he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant. At the training depot he met David Thomas, whom he fell in love with.
In November Sassoon received word that his brother Hamo had died at Gallipoli. On 17th Nov he was shipped to France with David Thomas. He was put into C Company, First Battalion. It was here that he met Robert Graves, described in his diary as ‘a young poet in Third Battalion and very much disliked’. He took part in working parties, but no combat. He later became transport officer and so managed to stay out of the front lines. After time on leave, on the 18th of May, 1916 he received word that David Thomas had died of a bullet to the throat. Both Graves and Sassoon were distraught, and in Siegfried’s case it inspired ‘the lust to kill’. He abandoned transport duties and went out on patrols whenever possible, desperate to kill as many Germans as he could, earning him the nickname ‘Mad Jack’. In April he was recommended for the Military Cross for his action in bringing in the dead and wounded after a raid. He received his medal on the day before the Somme. For the first days of the Somme, he was in reserve opposite Fricourt, watching the slaughter from a ridge. Fricourt was successfully taken, and on the 4th July the First Battalion moved up to the front line to attack Mametz Wood. It was here that he famously took a trench single handed. Unfortunately, Siegfried did nothing to consolidate the trench; he simply sat down and read a book, later returning to a berating from Greaves. It was in 1917, convalescing in 'Blighty' from a wound, that he decided to make a stand against the war. Encouraged by pacifist friends, he ignored his orders to return to duty and issued a declaration against the war. The army refused to court martial him, sending him instead to Craiglockhart, an institution for soldiers driven mad by the war. Here he met and influenced Wilfred Owen. In 1918 he briefly returned to active service, in Palestine and then France again, but after being wounded by friendly fire he ended the war convalescing. After the war he made a predictably unhappy marriage and had a son, George. He continued to write, but will be remembered as a war poet.(less)

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Books by Siegfried Sassoon

Average rating: 4.08 · 838 ratings · 69 reviews · 26 distinct works

	The War Poems 4.18 avg rating — 280 ratings — published 1919 — 20 editions	My rating:
	Memoirs of an Infantry Officer 4.09 avg rating — 214 ratings — published 1930 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man 3.83 avg rating — 174 ratings — published 1928 — 14 editions	My rating:
	Collected Poems, 1908-1956 4.21 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1961 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Sherston's Progress 4.13 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 1936 — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston 4.11 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 1940 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Counter-Attack and Other Poems 4.44 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 1918 — 8 editions	My rating:
	The Old Century; And, Seven More Years by Siegfried Sassoon, Siegfried Sasson 4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1986	My rating:
	Diaries, 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Hart-Davis (Editor) 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1983 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Diaries, 1923-1925 by Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Hart-Davis (Editor) 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1985	My rating:

More books by Siegfried Sassoon…

Series by Siegfried Sassoon

The Sherston Memoir (2 books)
by Siegfried Sassoon

3.99 avg rating — 415 ratings

The Sassoon Diaries (3 books)
by Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Hart-Davis (Editor)

3.79 avg rating — 14 ratings

Quotes by Siegfried Sassoon

“The fact is that five years ago I was, as near as possible, a different person to what I am tonight. I, as I am now, didn't exist at all. Will the same thing happen in the next five years? I hope so.”
― Siegfried Sassoon

tags: change

14 people liked it

“Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,
And one arm bent across your sullen cold
Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,
Deep-shadow'd from the candle's guttering gold;
And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder;
Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head....
You are too young to fall asleep for ever;
And when you sleep you remind me of the dead.”
― Siegfried Sassoon, The War Poems

8 people liked it

“EVERYONE suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields;
on—on—and out of sight.
Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror Drifted away ... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.”
― Siegfried Sassoon, Collected Poems, 1908-1956

8 people liked it

See all Siegfried Sassoon's quotes »

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