The Life of Francis Thompson

Francis Thompson wrote 'The Hound of Heaven,' the most terrifying and tender pursuit poem in the English language. This biography traces the life of a man whose spiritual vision far outstripped his earthly circumstances. Born in Preston in 1858 or 1859 (he never could remember, and didn't care which), Thompson was a sensitive, bookish boy who grew into a poet of staggering gifts - and staggering self-destruction. He wandered the streets of London, opium-haunted and starving, until Wilfred Meynell recognized his genius and became his patron. Yet Thompson could not be saved by patronage any more than by love. Everard Meynell, son of Thompson's discoverer, wrote this intimate biography in 1913, just years after the poet's death. He gives us the interior life: the mystical religious vision, the loneliness, the stubborn refusal to compromise his art for money or comfort. This is not a celebration of suffering, but an honest reckoning with a man who chose his calling over his survival. For readers who have ever felt the hound at their heels.