Celebrity Graveland

June 02, 1840 – January 11, 1928

You can take the boy out of Wessex, but you can’t take the Wessex out of the boy.

Victorian novelist, poet and lover of old buildings, Thomas Hardy, wrote often about the fantasized English county of Wessex in his works. Though the places he referenced were real (including his home county of Dorset,) he recalled the archaic name “Wessex” to incorporate it all into an idealized whole. The themes and arcs of his stories played heavily on the country life of his youth. When he relocated to London in his 20s, the stark difference between the metropolitan privilege of the capital and the struggles of his beloved rural stomping grounds became a central tenant in his writings.

Hardy published 18 novels including the classics Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. He wrote dozens of short stories and, in his late 50s, finally started publishing his poems. He challenged the Victorian social norms of the day in his writings. He loved the theatre but balked at adaptations of his work on the stage. Preferring instead to become somewhat of a stage director himself. When he wasn’t writing or working with his local drama society, Hardy was a tireless advocate for preservation of old buildings and historical structures. He lived to the age of 87 and died in his home in Dorchester. His wishes were to be buried in his hometown of Stinsford, but the executor of his estate thought he should be buried alongside other prominent English authors in Westminster. In the end, Hardy’s ashes were interred in the abbey, but his heart – both poetically and literally – was buried in Stinsford.

Burial

Westminster Abbey – London, UK

Specific Location

The South Transept (aka “Poet’s Corner”) – Southwestern section, immediately to the right of Charles Dickens and below Rudyard Kipling.

This entry was posted on September 25, 2023 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Westminster Abbey with tags Poets, Westminster Abbey, Writers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.