Hardy was an unknown architect in 1870, a famous novelist by 1895, and acknowledged as a great novelist, poet and epic dramatist when he died in 1928. With fame came a never-ending stream of friends and writers anxious to record their impressions of him. Among them were Virginia Woolf, Siegfried Sassoon, Gustav Holst, T.E. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, E.M. Forster, Robert Graves, and many more. This volume is a selection of the most interesting and important of the many hundreds of recollections which have been gathered together by the editor over many years. It should be of interest to anyone wishing to know more about Hardy's life, thoughts and writings.