ABSTRACT
Ted Hughes is already regarded as a major poet of the twentieth century. This book presents the evidence for his being read as a writer with huge significance for the future of the human species in the twenty-first century. Although the complete body of his work is still in the process of being archived and published, there is plenty of evidence for such a claim. We have a Collected Poems, together with selections of his essays, translations and letters which include useful annotations and notes. And the bulk of Hughes’s papers are now available to scholars in two great libraries in Britain and America. Essentially a poet, the range of his work also includes stories, plays, translations, essays and letters. Within them is a body of work that Hughes called ‘within hearing of children’ that is not only of great educational value, but also essential for adult readers who wish to hear what Hughes has to say to the twenty-first century.
