Theodore Wratislaw

D. J. Sheppard

Ed. by Jessica Gossling, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

Born 21 Apr 1871
Died 13 Sep 1933

Places

Born in United Kingdom
Active in United Kingdom

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Wratislaw's Works

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Theodore Wratislaw was a decadent poet of the 1890s, most renowned in the twentieth century as the author of the homoerotic poem “To a Sicilian Boy”, published in

The Artist and Journal of Home Culture

(August 1893). More recent research has identified him as the model for the title character of Max Beerbohm’s short story “Enoch Soames” (1916), about a stereotypically maudlin and obscure fin de siècle poet who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for posthumous fame. One of the few writers of the period to appear in both

The Yellow Book

and

The Savoy

, Wratislaw was, if not a friend, then at least friendly with a range of nineties figures, including Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, Lord Alfred Douglas, Lionel Johnson, Arthur Machen, M.P. Shiel, Arthur Symons, and Oscar Wilde.…

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1994 words

Citation: Sheppard, D. J.. "Theodore Wratislaw". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 June 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15156, accessed 31 October 2024.]