John Galsworthy and Disabled Soldiers of the Great War ─ With an Illustrated Selection of His Writings

John Galsworthy (1867-1933) - recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for literature - was one of the best-selling authors of the twentieth century. While his name has become synonymous with The Forsyte Saga, his reputation in this context belies another he achieved during the Great War, which was his humanitarian support for and his compositions about soldiers disabled in the conflict, and more specifically what he described as the 'the sacred work' of rehabilitating these 'stricken heroes of the war' who, 'in every township and village of our countries ... will dwell for the next half-century'.
John Galsworthy and disabled soldiers of the Great War represents the most comprehensive study published to date about this aspect of Galsworthy's life and this literature of the 'war to end all wars.' It makes available for the first time in a single edition the most significant of his compositions about disabled soldiers, recovering them from scholarly neglect, examining their value as historical documents and connecting them to iconic images and artefacts of the period. In achieving these aims this work combines with various trajectories of scholarship and with renewed popular interest in Galsworthy to make him and his writings more relevant to dialogue about the immediate and future care of soldiers disabled in war.
John Galsworthy and disabled soldiers of the Great War will be of interest to a wide academic audience, to popular audiences interested in the history of the Great War, to policymakers associated with veterans' issues, and to medical and allied-health professionals in the fields of physical medicine and rehabilitation.