ARTHUR SYMONS: SELECTED LETTERS, 1880-1935 Arthur Symons (1910) (Courtesy of Princeton University Library) Arthur Sytnons: Selected Letters, 1880-1935 Edited by KARL BECKSON Professor of English, Brooklyn College City University of New York and JOHN M. MUNRO Professor of English American University of Beirut M MACMILLAN Selection and editorial matter© Karl Beckson and John M. Munro 1989 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989 978-0-333-46450-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastern Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset ISBN 978-1-349-10217-4 ISBN 978-1-349-10215-0 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-10215-0 Contents Frontispiece: Arthur Symons (1910) List of Plates vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction ix I Arthur Symons: His Career and Influence ix II Sources of Letters xii III Editorial Procedures xiv IV Key to Abbreviations xvi Biographical Chronology xviii Selected Letters 1 1 The Shaping of Talent: 1880--9 3 2 Achievement and Dissipation: 1890--6 55 3 Triumph and Disaster: 1897-1908 115 4 Years of Decline: 1909-35 201 5 Epilogue 261 Appendices A Index of Recipients and Writers of Letters (other than Symons) 263 B Index of Sources 265 C Havelock Ellis: An Unpublished Letter on Symons 267 Select Bibliography of Symons's Works 272 Index 275 v List of Plates 1 Arthur Symons, c. 1884 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). 2 Frederick J. Furnivall, c. 1886 (from John Munro, Dr. Furnivall: A Personal Record, 1911). 3 Arthur Symons, 1891 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). 4 Fountain Court, the Temple (from T. Earle Welby, Arthur Symons: A Critical Study, 1925). 5 Katherine Willard, 1891 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). 6 Frank Willard (from 'Josiah Flynt', My Life, 1908). 7 James Dykes Campbell (from Illustrated London News, 14 May 1892). 8 'Some Persons of the 90s', a drawing by Max Beerbohm (1925), showing Symons, Henry Harland, Charles Conder, Will Rothenstein, Max Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, Richard Le Galli­ enne, Walter Sickert, George Moore, John Davidson, Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, and 'Enoch Soames' (courtesy of Mrs Eva Reichmann and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). 9 Lydia, c. 1893 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). 10 Empire Theatre, 1896 (from Ivor Guest, The Empire Ballet, 1962). 11 John Lane, 1900 (from E. C. Stedman Papers, Columbia University Library). 12 Havelock Ellis and Edith Lees, 1896 (from Phyllis Grosskurth, Havelock Ellis: A Biography (1980), courtesy of Professor Fran<;ois Lafitte). 13 Rhoda Bowser, later Symons, 1897 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). 14 Edmund Gosse, 1896 (from Evan Charteris, The Life and Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse, 1931). 15 Sarojini Naidu, 1906 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). 16 Island Cottage, Wittersham (from T. Earle Welby, Arthur Symons: A Critical Study, 1925). 17 Arthur Symons and Api at Island Cottage, 1907 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). 18 John Quinn (27 August 1909), a drawing by Augustus John (courtesy of Thomas F. Conroy, MD). 19 Agnes Tobin (c. 1909), a drawing by Augustus John (from Agnes Tobin: Letters, Translations, Poems, 1958). 20 Iseult Gonne, c. 1914 (from Samuel Levenson, Maud Gonne, 1976). 21 Rhoda Symons in the Goetzes' garden, c. 1915 (courtesy of Kenneth A. Lohf). 22 Arthur and Rhoda Symons, c. 1920 (courtesy of Mrs Diana P. Read). 23 Arthur Symons at Island Cottage, c. 1920 (courtesy of Princeton University Library). vi Acknowledgements In the process of locating, gathering, and editing the letters for this volume, we have received the generous assistance of many who informed us where letters were, allowed us to examine letters in their collections, sent us photocopies, or, on occasion, the letters themselves. Our greatest debt is to the late Mrs Lucy Featherstone, Symons's sister­ in-law, who kindly allowed us to examine and make copies from well over 1000 letters then in her possession. Mrs Hope Rutherford, her daughter, also kindly granted us access to these letters after they had passed on to her. We are also indebted to Mrs Nona Hill, Mrs Rutherford's sister, who over the years encouraged us in this project. The Featherstone collection, purchased by Mr Kenneth A. Lohf, Librarian for Rare Books and Manuscripts at Columbia University, includes not only 1017 letters written by Arthur Symons but also 1044 letters written to him by his wife, Rhoda, in an exchange that spans some thirty-five years. These letters have been donated to the Columbia University Library by Mr Lohf. We are indeed grateful to him for granting us access to this extraordinary collection and for permission to publish selected letters by Symons and excerpts from Rhoda's letters. We also wish to acknowledge the kindness of Mr Brian Read (Dorset, England), owner of the Symons copyright, for permission to publish the letters and excerpts included in this volume. Of those who responded to our queries and requests, we are especially grateful to the late Professor Peter Irvine (University of Cincinnati), who read the manuscript at an early stage and offered valuable suggestions for its improvement, and to Dr John Stokes (University of Warwick), who kindly consented to read the manuscript in its pre-publication stage. Others to whom we are grateful, who provided us with copies of photographs, photocopies and microfilms of letters, transcripts where access was impossible, or, in several instances, the original manuscripts themselves, include: Mrs Summerfield Baldwin, Professor Haskell Block, Professor P. G. Castex, Dr Thomas F. Conroy, Mr Edward A. Craig, Professor Ian Fletcher, the late Mr James Gilvarry, Sir Rupert Hart­ Davis, Mr Michael Holroyd, Mr Clinton Krauss, Professor Mary Lago, Mr Robert Lowery, Ms Madeline Mason, Mrs Diana P. Read, the Reverend Herbert Boyce Satcher, Professor Stanley Weintraub, and Mr Michael Yeats. To those who provided us with miscellaneous assistance and infor­ mation we wish to acknowledge our deep appreciation: Professor Edward Baugh, Mr R. M. Busby, Ms Margaret Campbell, Professor A. E. Carter, Mr Alexander P. Clark, Dr Carl Dolmetsch, Professor vii viii Acknowledgements Charles Duffy, Mr J. A. Edwards, Professor Lawrence Evans, Dr Malcolm Easton, Professor Jules Gelernt, Professor Randolph Goodman, Professor Giovanni Gullace, Professor H. Pearson Gundy, Mrs Marinka Gurewich, Professor C. Michael Hancher, Ms Mary M. Hirth, Mr R. I. Kamp, Professor Frederick R. Karl, Professor Norman Kelvin, Professor Bettina Knapp, Professor Dan Laurence, M. Michel Legagneux, Professor James G. Nelson, Professor Robert L. Peters, Professor B. L. Reid, Mr Jack Russell, Professor Arnold Schwab, Dr Pamela Shelden, Professor Richard Sogliuzzo, Dr R. K. R. Thornton, Ms Ann Thwaite, and Professor Martha Vogeler. To the following institutions, we are grateful for their permission to publish letters located in their respective libraries: Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique, British Library, Bryn Mawr College, Cambridge University, Case Western Reserve University, Library of Congress, Cornell Univer­ sity, Dorset County Museum (Dorchester, England), Bibliotheque Litteraire Jacques Doucet (Paris), Harvard University, Museum of the City of New York, New York Public Library (Manuscript Division and the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection), Northwestern University, Princeton University, Queen's University (Canada), State University of New York at Buffalo, University of Iowa, University of Leeds, University of London, University of Pennsylvania, University of Reading (England), University of Texas, and Yale University. We are also grateful to Dame Janet Vaughan for permission to publish extracts from two hitherto unpublished letters written by her grandfather, John Addington Symonds, to Symons; to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for permission to quote from John Davidson's reader's report on London Nights; to the Society of Authors on behalf of the Estate of Havelock Ellis for permission to publish letters by Havelock Ellis in Appendix C; to Ms Janet Medley for permission to publish the George Moore letter to Symons (Letter 146); and to Ms Jennifer Gosse for permission to publish Letters 73 and 114, written by her grandfather, Edmund Gosse. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the generosity of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York for providing Karl Beckson with released time and a summer research grant with which to pursue this work; to the American University of Beirut for providing John M. Munro with financial aid in the preparation of a portion of the typescript and to the Fulbright Program for a summer grant to enable him to complete work on the annotations. Introduction I ARTHUR SYMONS: HIS CAREER AND INFLUENCE Arthur Symons is no longer a neglected figure, for since 1953, with the publication of Ruth Z. Temple's The Critic's Alchemy: A Study of the Introduction of French Symbolism into England, which contains five chapters on Symons, an increasing number of scholars and critics have asserted his claim for serious recognition as a writer of undoubted talent and considerable significance. It is true that Symons had some perceptive admirers of an earlier date- Howard Mumford Jones, for example, who in 1920 wrote that 'none ... in the scanty array of authentic English criticism . of our contemporaries is more nearly assured of a per­ manent place than hen - but such opinions were, until recently, comparatively rare.