Luca Fumagalli

W.B. Yeats recognized him as his most important influence, while Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot willingly praised his lyrical ability. Yet, over time, the memory of Lionel Johnson (1867-1892), poet and critic, has been lost and until a few years ago, when some scholars gradually began to rediscover his life story and extraordinary production, one could come across his name at most by scrolling through the footnotes of some essay dedicated to fin de siècle literature.

Part of the responsibility must be attributed to Johnson himself who, shy and humble, always led a secluded existence. This also explains why, apart from a drawing by his friend Edwin Ellis, there are no portraits of him and only three photographs survive as an adult, the authenticity of which, among other things, is difficult to verify. His papers were also lost after his death, and until the publication in 2012 of the biographical volume Lionel Johnson: Victorian Dark Angel by Richard Whittington-Egan, to reconstruct his life scholars had to settle for his most personal poems, some letters, the memories of those who knew him and a handful of articles and short monographic essays. The inevitable consequence was a long reiteration of inaccuracies, omissions, if not outright slander, further denied by Robert Asch in his Lionel Johnson. Poetry and Prose (2021), a critical collection of the best of Johnson’s production that constitutes the right complement to Whittington-Egan’s work.

In general, more than the stereotype of the cursed poet of decadence, Johnson seems to embody with his life and work what Holbrook Jackson considered the most authentic aesthetics of the Eighteen Nineties: the search for a religious response to the cynicism and disillusionment that pervaded modern culture (this is also demonstrated by his most famous poem, “The Dark Angel”).

As a boy, thanks to winning a scholarship, he was able to enter Winchester College, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in England. In addition to accumulating prizes in English, history and the classical languages, from 1884 to 1886 he became editor of the school newspaper, the Wykehamist, which, through his efforts, developed into a quality literary paper. He took part in various educational initiatives and was a member of the Shakespeare society. Furthermore, Johnson corresponded with several Oxford students and with Walt Whitman, being considered by his classmates to be erudite and eccentric. There were even rumours that he had read all the books in the library and drank sal volatile; someone considered him a sinister type, perhaps homosexual, and on one occasion, probably due to dubious friendships, he reached the point of being involved in a scandal of some kind.

The Winchester years also marked the beginning of Johnson’s personal spiritual journey which, due to a withered faith, approached Buddhism and theosophy for a short period. Buddhism, in particular, disappointed him for being too tied to the oriental experience and for preaching an ascetic elitism clearly out of reach of the majority, especially the poor, towards whom the boy had a special attachment as evidenced by his participation in a charitable initiative like the Winchester Mission. Despite his doubts, he maintained a certain reverence for the priesthood, for the liturgy and for the person of Christ, so much so that later he found himself toying with the idea of taking Anglican orders. Anglo-Catholic Reverend Malise Cunninghame Graham, a friend of his, whose tragic and premature death inspired Johnson’s poem “In Memory”, most likely urged him in this direction.

The spiritual oscillations of the time, including the progressive approach to Catholicism, are testified by the correspondence with Frank Russell, elder brother of the philosopher Bertrand Russell, Charles Sayle and J. H. Badley, published in 1919 with the title Some Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson.

Now Snuggly Books, a small but meritorious publishing house that for years has taken on the task of promoting late nineteenth and early twentieth century authors little known to the general public, has just published The Complete Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson, a new edition of Johnson’s letters, edited by historian Ruth Derham and scholar Sarah Green, that restores for the first time the full text of them, without the cuts made by Russell, editor of the previous collection. The aim is to dispel the many myths that still circulate about Johnson and to return him to his context.

What Johnson wrote in the period of time from October 1883 to July 1885, when he was 17/18 years old, is in fact an excellent example of his complex, fascinating and sometimes even contradictory personality. He appears to be a sharp, sensitive boy with a solitary nature, with few but trustworthy confidants and a culture so vast that it allows him to quote by heart works of classical literature, pages of the Bible, but also modern English, French and German writers. Overall, the letters give the impression of an enthusiastic young man, passionate about reality, with fickle tastes like everyone else his age, ready to easily fall in love with an idea and then abandon it immediately afterwards. Likewise, the style also changes from calm to emphatic, and Johnson himself was aware of sometimes being prey to what he himself called «rhapsodies».

The greatest merit of The Complete Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson, the result of scrupulous research work, accompanied among other things by a long introduction on Johnson and the context in which his letters were written, is therefore that of restoring the authentic spirit, without mediation, of a poet who unfortunately continues to be reduced to nothing more than a symbol of the so-called “Tragic Generation”.

The book: Lionel Johnson, The Complete Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson, edited by Ruth Derham and Sarah Green, London, Snuggly Books, 2024, 296 pages, US$23.00.

Buy the book: https://www.snugglybooks.co.uk/the-complete-winchester-letters-of-lionel-johnson/

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