- Humbert Wolfe
Humbert Wolfe CB CBE (
January 5 1885 ,Milan ,Italy –January 5 ,1940 ), was an Italian-born English poet, man of letters and civil servant, from a Jewish family background, his father being a German Jew (Martin Wolff) and his mother an Italian Jew (Consuela, nee Terraccini).He was one of the most popular authors of the 1920s. He is now remembered for his
epigram ::You cannot hope:to bribe or twist,:thank God! the:British journalist.:But, seeing what:the man will do:unbribed, there's:no occasion to.
He was also a translator of
Heinrich Heine ,Edmond Fleg (1874-1963)and Eugene Heltai. A Christian convert, he remained very aware of his Jewish heritage.His career was in the Civil Service, beginning in the
Board of Trade and then in theMinistry of Labour . By 1940 he had a position of high responsibility. His work was recognised with a CBE and then a CB.Wolfe's verses have been set to music by a number of composers, including
Gustav Holst in his "12 Humbert Wolfe Settings", Op. 48 (1929).He had a long-term affair with the novelist
Pamela Frankau , while remaining married.He died on his 55th birthday.
Works
*London sonnets (1920)
*Shylock reasons with Mr. Chesterton: and other poems (1920)
*Circular saws (1923)
*Labour supply and regulation (1923)
*Lampoons (1925)
*The Unknown Goddess (1925) poems
*Humoresque (1926)
*News of the Devil (1926) poems
*Requiem (1927) poems
*Cursory Rhymes (1927) editor
*Others Abide (1927)
*Kensington Gardens (1927)
*Dialogues and monologues (1928) criticism
*This Blind Rose (1928) poems
*Troy (1928)Faber & Gwyer
*The Moon and Mrs. Misses Smith (1928)
*The Craft of Verse (1928) essay
*The Silver Cat and other poems (1928)
*Notes on English Verse Satires (1929)
*A Winter Miscellany (1930) editor
*Tennyson (1930)
*The Uncelestial City (1930)
*Early Poems (1930)
*George Moore (1931)
*Snow (1931) poems
*Signpost to poetry (1931)
*Reverie of policeman: A ballet in three acts (1933)
*Now a stranger (1933) autobiography
*Romantic and unromantic poetry 1933
*Portraits by inference (1934)
*Sonnets pour Helene (byRonsard ) (1934) translator
*X at Oberammergau : A poem (1935) drama
*The Fourth of August (1935) poems
*Selected Lyrics of Heinrich Heine (1935) translator
*P. L. M.: Peoples Landfalls Mountains 1936
*The Pilgrim's Way (1936)
*The Silent Knight : A romantic comedy in the year 1937
*Others Abide: Translated Greek Epigrams 1937
*The Upward Anguish (1938) autobiography
*Out of Great Tribulation (1939) poems
*Kensington Gardens in War-Time (1940) poemsReferences
*Philip Bagguley, "Harlequin in Whitehall: a Life of Humbert Wolfe, Poet and Civil Servant 1885-1940" (1997).
External links
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