Talk:Frederick Rolfe

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[edit] Photo of Tito Biondi

Who is this person, and what relevance does he have to the life of Rolfe? There is zero mention of him in the article. JackofOz 00:56, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Looks like a Roman boy that caught Fred's fancy: [1] Haiduc 03:42, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

I guessed as much already, but unless there's some connection made to Biondi in the text, it causes the reader to ask the question I asked above. There is a "British photographers" category at the bottom, but nowhere in the text is there any mention of Rolfe having anything to do with photography, apart from this one example of his work. But this could have been a holiday snap for all we know. Is he really a recognised "British photographer" in the professional sense? Where are there any references to his body of photographic work? Did he photograph boys and nothing else? The questions just go on and on, but they are questions the article should be answering rather than creating in the minds of readers. Another point is that the implication of this sole example is that, because he was homosexual, his primary focus as he went through life was in the male form. That is a stereotype of gay behaviour that should be dead and buried by now. JackofOz 04:52, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

This article doesn't have a mention of his "History of the Borgias." I owned that book... --V. Joe 02:32, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

This is "Chronicles of the House of Borgia" and it has two mentions in the article. Cenedi 11:27, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Tito Biondi was I think the model for 'Toto', the narrator of 'Stories Toto Told Me' and 'In His Own Image' but I can't check that right now. The poster of the picture ought to make clear the relevance in the article. Cenedi 11:27, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Right you are Cenedi, thanks. I think the version I have is from "American Modern Library ", so they may have changed the title for that release...--V. Joe 21:20, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Almost one year on, and this issue still hasn't been resolved. There's still no certainty as to who Tito Biondi was and why his photo is here. This says:

More important though was Stories Toto Told Me, published by John Lane on 27 September 1898. These tales were based on conversations Rolfe had with local peasant boys during his happy period with the Duchess Sforza-Cesarini in Italy years earlier, and had already appeared in The Yellow Book in 1895 and 1896. Lane reissued them as Bodley Booklets.

No mention of Tito there, or anywhere else I can find in Google, except for this article and its mirrors. I'm removing it. JackofOz 03:21, 4 April 2007 (UTC) JackofOz 03:21, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

One should not allow one's *limited* Googling skills to form the meter of objective reality. Anyway, here is a source: Michael Matthew Kaylor, Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde (Brno, CZ: Masaryk University Press, 2006), p. 94. Rolfe's photograph is reproduced on that page, and the following caption is provided:

Portrait of Tito Biondi at Lake Nimi

Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo) (1860-1913)

Photograph, ca. 1890-92

Private collection

This book can be downloaded as a free, open-access PDF at [2], in case you would like to verify this detail.

Rolfe is indeed an important early photographer, as is also noted in the only other book on the English Uranians, Timothy d'Arch Smith, Love in Earnest: Some Notes on the Lives and Writings of English "Uranian" Poets from 1889 to 1930 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970), p. 62:

In the first volume of the Studio [a respected journal on art topics published by Gleeson White] is printed an essay on the male nude in photography which was almost certainly written by White himself, revealing him as an expert in this form of art. In the course of the article, he printed a photograph of Cecil Castle, nude, lying on his stomach, taken by Baron Corvo.

Not to be too obnoxious ... but Google isn't everything! Welland R 08:44, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh indeed. And my Googling skills can always do with improving. Thanks for the response. The issue I was trying to focus on was not whether this information was right or wrong per se, but why our article should include (a) a disembodied reference to Tito Biondi, whose name is mentioned nowhere at all except in the caption to the photo, and (b) the category "British photographers", when nowhere was there anything about this facet of Rolfe's life. It would be like including Bill Clinton in the category, say, "American mountaineers" but without saying a single word about his mountaineering activities in his article. I hope you can understand where I was coming from, Welland R. All I'm hoping for is for someone who has the requisite knowledge about Tito Biondi and Rolfe's photographics to come along and write something about them in the article. Then, my work here will be done and I'll go off and trouble someone else.  :) JackofOz 09:00, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

That Tito Biondi was the original of Toto and that Rolfe acted as a professional, if mostly unsuccessful, photographer is well attested to in the cited biographies. Xxanthippe 09:40, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

I just replaced the photo of Tito Biondi with one that is of higher quality ... especially important since Rolfe is here being considered as a "photographer." Welland R 09:27, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Quest for Corvo

Having read The Quest for Corvo, one thing I think should be mentioned on here (tactfully if possible) is Rolfe's querulous personality and tendency to fall out spectacularly with pretty much everyone who tried to help him and offer him food and board.

He lived in the era before the welfare state, and it must have been humiliating for him to have to rely on a succession of benefactors. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Meltingpot (talk • contribs) 10:44, 29 February 2008 (UTC)