This volume brings together, in definitive form, all of John Clare's important autobiographical writings. His "Autobiographical Fragments, Journal," and "Sketches" are set alongside his famous "Journey out of Essex," Maps of Clare's countryside, his will, and extracts from his asylum letters are also included, presenting the author in all his guises--ploughboy, gardener, and militiaman; lover and husband; acquaintance of Hazlitt, Lamb, and Coleridge; and finally, inmate in an asylum.