A discussion of John Clare 's prose writings must be as much an account of the reception and publishing history of his work as it is a biographical sketch of the man himself. His life was a struggle from a disadvantaged peasant background to achieve recognition as a poet, and an equal struggle to achieve and retain his own sense of identity. His poems, despite a remarkable growth of interest in Clare's work, have still not been fully published, although Eric Robinson and David Powell have made a substantial start on a projected eight-volume complete edition with The Later Poems of John Clare (2 volumes, 1984), which includes all of the extant poems from the period 1837 to 1864. The prose has been even longer in reaching publication and is only now beginning to receive the attention which it deserves. There has been continued interest in the prose as evidence of the...