The City of Dreadful Night

James Thomson with eight drawings by Clifford Harper

James Thomson's epic poem The City of Dreadful Night appeared in 1874 and was
read by many, but in the decades that followed the poem and the poet sank into
obscurity. It deserves a new fame. The poem is a deeply questioning and dark vision
of the City we inhabit, and it challenges the illusions that inhabit us. Thomson - atheist,
alcoholic, anarchist and insomniac - speaks form the place where we all live.