Gallipoli

Many chronicles have been written about war, but few, if any, can compare with John Masefield's masterpiece, Gallipoli. It can be found on countless lists of the finest literary works of all time, and is one of his major achievements.

The Battle of Gallipoli campaign began one fateful Sunday morning in April 1915.

A joint British Empire (including the newly formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps ANZAC) and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, and secure a sea route to Russia.

The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides.

With access to military documents, England's future poet-laureate John Masefield published this moving account of the Allied efforts in Dardanelles less than a year after the defeat.

Published when the terror of Gallipoli was fresh in people's minds, Masefield described what the common soldier had endured in that dreadful campaign.

His masterly description of the campaign was one of the first to tell of the events that made ANZAC soldiers famous all over the world and remains as transcendent as ever in this beautifully realized 21st century digital edition; as relevant today as when it was first published a century ago.

JOHN MASEFIELD (1878-1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinct sensibility to all his works. He is best remembered as the author of Gallipoli, the classic children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, nineteen other novels, including Captain Margaret, Multitude and Solitude, and Sard Harker, and many memorable poems, including "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever", from his anthology Saltwater Ballads.

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