From W. H. Davies

Scope and Content

Willam Henry Davies (1871-1940). Welsh poet and writer.

On the advice of George Bernard Shaw, Davies sent Edward a volume of his poetry, 'The Soul's Destroyer'.

Then literary critic for the Daily Chronicle, Edward gave the book excellent reviews and the two writers became good friends. Davies came to stay with the Thomases and entertained them with stories of his travels as a vagrant in America. Edward encouraged him to write this narrative, and the result was 'Autobiography of a Super-Tramp' (1908).

In 1907 Edward shared a cottage with Davies in Egg Pie Lane, Sevenoaks. Davies wrote of Edward, he gave me a fine boom in several influential papers...and became a practical friend, finding me a small cottage in the Weald of Kent...my rent, coal and light being paid mysteriously by Thomas and his friends.' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)