AETERNUSPUBLISHING

Life and work

John Richard Jefferies

1848–1887

The fields of Wiltshire, and the world beyond them.

Jefferies looked closely at a country within walking distance. Fields, hedges, labour and the movement of animals became the materials of a prose that could pass from observation into speculation.

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John Richard Jefferies
Richard Jefferies. Frontispiece to Walter Besant’s The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies, 1888. ↗

English-language editions

The books reveal the range between the precisely seen countryside and the landscapes the mind builds from it.

Bevis (Annotated)

AMBER

Bevis (Annotated)

A packing-case becomes the beginning of a project. A brook becomes the Mississippi. Bevis and Mark give the countryside new names, build and equip their craft, and set out for islands whose remoteness grows with every plan.

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Wood Magic (Annotated)

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Wood Magic (Annotated)

Bevis has questions to ask the creatures in the garden, and the creatures have a great deal to tell him. A magpie rules a kingdom, birds dispute their rank, and the affairs of the countryside extend far beyond the business visible from the farmhouse door. The boy listens, wanders, interrupts, and discovers how much can happen within the reach of a short expedition.

Forthcoming

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Life and work

A life in context

The nature essay is only one part of his work. Bevis imagines childhood’s freedom; After London asks what might follow the collapse of a civilisation.

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Origins and early years

He grew up at Coate in Wiltshire. The farm and its surrounding countryside supplied a durable store of observation, though his writing continually outgrew a purely local subject.

The course of a life

Journalism and essays opened into several literary forms. During his short life he wrote about agriculture and rural society as well as the inward life and imagined futures.

The literary work

The Story of My Heart is an exploration of inward experience; After London transforms familiar terrain into a strange future. The observer of an English field was also an inventor of worlds.

The legacy

Jefferies offers an attentive, restless form of nature writing. His local knowledge makes the larger imaginative departures more remarkable.

A life in dates
  1. Born at Coate, Wiltshire
  2. Bevis
  3. The Story of My Heart
  4. After London
Historical sources and further reading

Further editions

  • The Arctic Prairies (Illustrated)

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1911

    Seton’s northern journey connects travel, natural history and the patient observation of animals.

  • The Matabele Campaign, 1896

    Robert Baden-Powell · 1897

    The Matabele campaign narrative connects movement through difficult country with military scouting and field observation.

  • Aids to Scouting for N.-C.Os. & Men

    Robert Baden-Powell · 1899

    Baden-Powell’s military scouting manual offers a comparison with the observation and practical judgement of the camp and trail.

  • Der Sturz Prempehs

    Robert Baden-Powell · 1896 · German-language edition

    This campaign narrative places travel, field observation and camp life within a military expedition.

  • Wilde Tiere, die ich kannte

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1898 · German-language edition

    Seton makes the individual animal the centre of a story, extending outdoor observation into narrative.

  • Wahb. Lebensgeschichte eines Grizzlybären

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1900 · German-language edition

    The life of a grizzly gives animal observation the sustained shape of a biography.

  • Leben der Gejagten

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1901 · German-language edition

    Seton follows hunted animals through stories that join the field observer’s attention to the storyteller’s craft.

  • Tierhelden. Portraits aus der Wildnis

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1905 · German-language edition

    These animal stories develop the close attention to character and behaviour found across Seton’s outdoor writing.

  • Zwei kleine Wilde

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1903 · German-language edition

    Boys learning outdoor skills give Woodcraft a narrative form beside the practical camping handbooks.

  • Rolf in der Wildnis

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1911 · German-language edition

    Rolf’s education in the woods brings practical outdoor learning into an adventure story.

  • Die arktischen Prärien

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1911 · German-language edition

    Seton’s northern journey connects travel, natural history and the patient observation of animals.

  • Monarch

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1904 · German-language edition

    A California grizzly supplies another meeting point between the animal story and the history of a landscape.

  • Das Buch des Waldhandwerks und der Indianerweisheit · Band I

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1912 · German-language edition

    Seton gathers Woodcraft instruction into an educational scheme of outdoor skills and observation.

  • Das Buch des Waldhandwerks und der Indianerweisheit · Band II

    Ernest Thompson Seton · 1912 · German-language edition

    Seton gathers Woodcraft instruction into an educational scheme of outdoor skills and observation.