About the Author- Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was born in Higher Bockhamtpon, on the edge of Puddleton Health. When he was about twenty-two years old, he moved to London. While in London, he started writing poems. He was engaged to a young girl, Tryphena Sparks, for a short while. Tryphena was a sixteen-year-old relative. That engagement didn't last too long, though.

Later on, he met a young lady named Emma Lavinia Gifford. Emma was the one to encourage him to consider literature as his "true vocation." Hardy took Emma's advice and started writing novels. His first book, The Poor Man and the Lady (1867), was rejected by quite a few publishers. Hardy was hurt by this and destroyed the manuscript.

Hardy's first book to be recognized was From the Madding Crowd in 1874. Tess, written in 1891, was one of his books that did have a personal tie. Most of his books did not resemble any part of his life. The book resembled the dark side of his family connection in Berkshire. In 1896, Hardy announced he was through writing fiction novels. He went on writing poems the rest of his life.

Thomas Hardy and Emma Gifford were happily married with no children for some time. While married to Emma, Hardy had, or imagined he had, affairs with other women just passing through his life. In 1912, Emma passed away, and Hardy married his secretary, Florence Emily Dugdale two years later in 1914. She was almost fourty years younger than he was.

January 11, 1928, Thomas Hardy died in Dorchester, Dorset. His body was cremated. His heart, which was supposed to be burried in the city of his birth, was stolen from the kitchen by a cat. The cat ran into the woods with the heart and did not ever bring it back.


Sources:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/thardy.htm