Clare was an inveterate scribbler whom, because of his poverty, was forced to write upon whatever came to hand, using ink, pencil or an ink concoction he created himself. Within the Peterborough Archives many of these scraps can be seen: newspaper and parcel labels, old bills, prospectus pages for future books, old account ledgers, as well as exercise books and loose pages.
This small collection has been gleaned from such jottings, often in margins, sometimes barely legible, but all worthy of consideration even though sometimes fragmentary. Whilst we make no claims of quality, we believe that further examination of these works will interest, excite and entrance readers.
As his first biographer put it, “There was no limit to the applause bestowed upon Clare, unanimous in their admiration of a poetical genius coming before them in the humble garb of a farm labourer”.
“… he remains above all the poets’ poet”.
R.S. Thomas
The collection even contains two 'radical' poems I encountered for the first time in the Archives in late June 2016, together with poems and prose Professor Eric Robinson and I have been accumulating for some years.
Hidden Treasures has now (Sept-2019) gone to a 2nd edition (£6 + £1 P&P) and a Kindle edition (PDF) is available at £2.50 - just send me a message to arborfield@pm.me or leave me a message on the John Clare Poet facebook page.
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