Isaac Rosenberg has long been regarded as one of the most important artistic figures of the First World War. Poems such as Dead Man s Dump and Break of Day in the Trenches have been included in every significant war anthology and have earned him a place in Poets Corner. He studied at the Slade School of Art at the same time as Stanley Spencer and Mark Gertler, showing promise as a painter. His poverty, education and background made him an outsider, yet it was just that experience which equipped him to cope with the unforeseen horror of war in the trenches: I am determined that this war, with all its powers for devastation, shall not master my poeting. Inexplicably for such a major figure, Rosenberg s work has been out of print for many years. In this Selected Poems and Letters, his biographer Jean Liddiard has made a substantial selection of his finest poems and most revealing letters, providing also an authoritative introduction and a detailed chronology."