Table of contents, foreword by Loryl MacDonald, curatorial introduction by the author, biographical introduction of Hardy by Michael Millgate, bibliography, endnotes. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Fisher Library (October 2016-February 2017) drawn from the collection donated to the library by Hardy scholar and University of Toronto Professor Emeritus Michael Millgate. Includes first editions, correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, and ephemera. Maps of Wessex on inside of wrappers.

Hardy (1840-1928) was one of the few writers to achieve eminence as both a novelist and a poet. He established his reputation in the Victorian period with such iconic novels as Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, set in the semi-fictional world of "Wessex." In 1897, embittered by critics who branded his last two novels "distasteful" and "obscene," Hardy abandoned prose and devoted the remaining thirty years of his life to writing poetry. By the time of his death, he was not only the last of the great Victorian novelists but had also become one of England's most important and influential modern poets.