Richard Hudson Library of Gay Literature and History Guide: Mapping Connections

British Author Circle:

Edward Carpenter was friends with John Addington Symonds and used Symonds' research on "Greek love" to write his own essay on "homogenic love." Frederick Rolfe hated Edward Carpenter for supporting socialism and John Addington Symonds for being a prude. John Gambril Nicholson was Frederick Rolfe's student. John Addington Symonds was interested in John Gambril Nicholson's poetry.

Ralph Chubb and Company:

Ralph Chubb was an English poet and artist. Although he wasn't very well known, his sister Muriel Chubb supported his work and held on to his papers after his death. When Anthony Reid reached out to Muriel for help in writing a Ralph Chubb biography, the two began to work together closely and became lifelong friends.

British Author Circle 2:

Oscar Wilde, John Gray, and Ronald Firbank were all a part of the same circle focused around aesthetics, poetry, and male beauty. Edward Carpenter's work Homogenic Love was set to be published the same year Oscar Wilde was jailed for "gross indecency with men," and was dropped by its publisher during the post Wilde-trial anti gay hysteria.

American Author Duo:

Author and poet Countee Cullen wrote a poem dedicated to playwright and author Lynn Riggs. The poem is called "That Bright Chimeric Beast" and can be found in Cullen's poetry collection Copper sun.

Walt Whitman:

Edward Carpenter was a big fan of Walt Whitman, being inspired by Whitman's openness about his attraction to men as expressed in his poetry. The two corresponded, and Carpenter even went to America (twice!) to visit Whitman in person.

Eugen Sandow:

Edward Carpenter was also a big fan of Eugen Sandow, enthusiastically participating in Sandow's exercise and physical wellness routines. He even wrote to Sandow about organizing an outdoor gymnasium in his town, and was featured in Sandow's health magazine.

This interesting essay discusses Sandow's "queering of body culture" both before and after the Oscar Wilde trial.

Charles Vaughn:

Charles Vaughn was the headmaster at Harrow School while John Addington Symonds was a pupil. Symonds' classmate and friend Alfred Pretor told Symonds that he and Vaughn were in a secret relationship. Symonds eventually brought the information to his father, who blackmailed Vaughn into resigning from his position and never again taking a high position in the church. Pretor was furious with Symonds for breaking his trust, and the two never spoke again. However, Vaughn and Pretor remained friends until Vaughn's death, and Pretor was personally appointed by Vaughn to manage his literary estate after his death.

Until scholar Phyllis Grosskurth uncovered Symonds' diaries in the 1970s, no one had known why exactly Vaughn had resigned his position at Harrow or why he consistently turned down bishoprics. Some scholars doubt Symonds' reliability, given that he was struggling immensely with his own sexuality at the time.

Anthony Reid:

Biographer for Ralph Chubb (with help from Ralph's sister Muriel).

Donald Weeks, Cecil Woolf, A. J. A. Symons:

Weeks, Woolf, and Symons all wrote biographies about or edited collections of letters from Frederick Rolfe, aka Baron Corvo.

Robert Peters:

Wrote biography of John Addington Symonds. Together with Edmund Gosse scrubbed all mentions of homosexual desire from Symonds' life and research (allegedly at the request of Symmonds and his wife). Gosse even burned Symonds' letters, despite opposition from Symonds' granddaughter.