Humbert Wolfe

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'Humbert WolfeJanuary 5, 1885, Milan, Italy – January 5, 1940), was an English poet, man of letters and civil servant, from a German-Jewish family background; 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 and Edmond Fleg (1874-1963). 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 the Ministry of Labour; his work was recognised with a CBE and then a CB. By 1940 he had a position of high responsibility.

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.

[edit] 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 (by Ronsard) (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) poems

[edit] Reference

  • Philip Bagguley, Harlequin in Whitehall: a Life of Humbert Wolfe, Poet and Civil Servant 1885-1940 (1997).
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