Davies (1871–1940) was a Welsh poet and writer. Table of Contents Preface Childhood Youth Manhood Brum A Tramp's Summer Vacation A Night's Ride Law in America A Prisoner His Own Judge Berry Picking The Cattleman's Office A Strange Cattleman Thieves The Canal The House-boat A Lynching The Camp Home Off Again A Voice in the Dark Hospitality London The Ark Gridling On the Downright The Farmhouse Rain and Poverty False Hopes On Tramp Again A Day's Companion The Fortune Some Ways of Making a Living At Last Success A House to Let W. It was his enthusiasm, expressed in the Preface, that ensured the initial success of a book now regarded as a classic. Shaw first read the Autobiography in manuscript, he was stunned by the raw power of its unvarnished narrative. A large part of the book's subject matter describes the way of life of the tramp in United Kingdom, Canada and the United States in the final decade of the 19th century.
He is best known for his poem ‘Leisure’, with its opening lines ‘What is this life if, full of care / We have no time to stand and stare’.The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp is an autobiography first published in 1908 by the Welsh poet and writer W. The principal themes in his work are the marvels of nature, observations about life’s hardships, his own tramping adventures and the various characters he met. He was unable to settle to regular work and spent a significant part of his life as a tramp, living in shelters and doss-houses in London, but began publishing his own poetry in 1905, and became a popular poet in his time and went on to mix with leading society figures. With a foreword by broadcaster and foreign correspondent, Trevor Fishlock, this Library of Wales edition also includes the original preface by George Bernard Shaw, who was instrumental in the book’s first publication. When George Bernard Shaw first read the Autobiography in manuscript, he was stunned by the raw power of its unvarnished narrative.
He was thrown into prison in Michigan, beaten up in New Orleans, witnessed a lynching in Tennessee, and got drunk pretty well everywhere. His experiences were richly coloured by the bullies, tricksters, and fellow-adventurers he encountered. Around the turn of the century, when he was twenty- two, his restless spirit of adventure led him to set off for America, and he worked around the country taking casual jobs where he could, thieving and begging where he couldn’t. William Henry Davies was born in a pub and learnt early in life to rely on his wits and his fists-and to drink. ‘I have read it through from beginning to end, and would have read more of it had there been any more to read’ George Bernard Shaw
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