This collection was brought together by members of the Thomas Hardy Society in honor of the 75th birthday of Dr. James Gibson, the chairman of the society in 1994. Contributors include Michael Irwin, Anthony Thwaite, Phillip Mallett, Simon Curtis, Rosemary Sumner and others. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet, who was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth.