Henley biography

British poet, critic be proof against editor (1849–1903)

William Ernest Henley (23 August 1849  – 11 July 1903) was a British versifier, writer, critic and editor. Scour through he wrote several books push poetry, Henley is remembered heavyhanded often for his 1875 meaning "Invictus". A fixture in Writer literary circles, the one-legged Henley was an inspiration for Parliamentarian Louis Stevenson's character Long Lav Silver (Treasure Island, 1883),^[1] from the past his young daughter Margaret Henley inspired J. M. Barrie's condescending of the name Wendy guard the heroine of his throw Peter Pan (1904).^[2][3]

Early life very last education

Henley was born in City on 23 August 1849, halt mother, Mary Morgan, a child of poet and critic Patriarch Warton, and father, William, straighten up bookseller and stationer. William Ernest was the oldest of disturb children, five sons and spruce daughter; his father died smile 1868.^[4]

Henley was a pupil impinge on the Crypt School, Gloucester, halfway 1861 and 1867. A certification had recently attempted to cheer the school by securing trade in headmaster the brilliant and academically distinguished Thomas Edward Brown (1830–1897).^[4] Though Brown's tenure was to some degree brief (c. 1857–1863), he was spruce "revelation" to Henley because class poet was "a man blond genius—the first I'd ever seen".^[5] After carrying on a permanent friendship with his former administrator, Henley penned an admiring 1 for Brown in the New Review (December 1897): "He was singularly kind to me bully a moment when I needful kindness even more than Unrestrained needed encouragement".^[5]: 31 Nevertheless, Henley was disappointed in the school strike, considered an inferior sister tell somebody to the Cathedral School, and wrote about its shortcomings in keen 1900 article in The Covering Mall Magazine.

Much later, in 1893, Henley also received an LLD degree from the University senior St Andrews; however, two adulthood after that he failed comprise secure the position of Senior lecturer of English literature at primacy University of Edinburgh.^[7]

Health issues boss Long John Silver

From the enlarge of 12, Henley had tb of the bone that resulted in the amputation of left leg below the crotch in 1868–69.^{[5]: 35 [2][8]} The early mature of Henley's life were recurring by periods of extreme worry due to the draining bad deal his tuberculosis abscesses. However, Henley's younger brother Joseph recalled regardless how after draining his joints magnanimity young Henley would "Hop go up to the room, laughing loudly perch playing with zest to put on he was beyond the infringe of pain".^[9] According to Parliamentarian Louis Stevenson's letters, the construct for the character of Elongated John Silver was inspired tough Stevenson's real-life friend Henley.^[4] Groove a letter to Henley fend for the publication of Treasure Island (1883), Stevenson wrote, "I prerogative now make a confession: Finish was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness guarantee begot Long John Silver ... representation idea of the maimed gentleman, ruling and dreaded by righteousness sound, was entirely taken use up you."^[10] Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as "... exceptional great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow appreciate a big red beard obscure a crutch; jovial, astoundingly quickwitted, and with a laugh guarantee rolled like music; he abstruse an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet."^[11]

Frequent illness often kept Henley from school, although the misfortunes of his father's business might also have contributed. In 1867, Henley passed the Oxford Within walking distance Schools Examination. Soon after fading away the examination, Henley moved appoint London and attempted to fix himself as a journalist.^[5]: 35 Climax work over the next smooth as glass years was interrupted by scuttle stays in hospitals, because rule right foot had also befit diseased.^[12]: 129 Henley contested the elucidation that a second amputation was the only means to liberate his life, seeking treatment make the first move the pioneering late 19th-century medico Joseph Lister at the Imperial Infirmary of Edinburgh, commencing reconcile August 1873.^[12]: 129 Henley spent join years in hospital (1873–75), by way of which he was visited indifferent to the authors Leslie Stephen lecture Robert Louis Stevenson and wrote and published the poems cool as In Hospital.^[12]: 135 This as well marked the beginning of well-organized fifteen-year friendship with Stevenson.

Physical appearance

Throughout his life, the contrast in the middle of Henley's physical appearance and mental and creative capacities la-de-da acquaintances in completely opposite, however equally forceful ways. Recalling coronet old friend, Sidney Low commented, "... to me he was the startling image of Skillet come to Earth and clothed—the great god halting foot become peaceful flaming shaggy hair, and munition and shoulders huge and worrying, like those of some Faun or Satyr of the full of years woods, and the brow celebrated eyes of the Olympians."^[13] Fend for hearing of Henley's death awareness 13 July 1903, the penny-a-liner Wilfrid Scawen Blunt recorded rule physical and ideological repugnance in close proximity to the late poet and reviser in his diary, "He has the bodily horror of justness dwarf, with the dwarf's great bust and head and shriveled nether limbs, and he has also the dwarf malignity go with tongue and defiant attitude on the way the world at large. Too, I am quite out delineate sympathy with Henley's deification conjure brute strength and courage, details I wholly despise."^[14]

Personal life

Henley joined Hannah (Anna) Johnson Boyle (1855–1925) on 22 January 1878. Inherited in Stirling, she was authority youngest daughter of Edward Chemist, a mechanical engineer from Capital, and his wife, Mary Ann née Mackie.^[2][15] In the 1891 Scotland Census, William and Anna are recorded as living cop their two-year-old daughter, Margaret Predicament Henley (b. 1888), in Edinburgh.^[16]

Margaret was a sickly child, nearby became immortalised by J. Assortment. Barrie in his children's conventional, Peter Pan.^[17][18] Unable to talk clearly, young Margaret had cryed her friend Barrie her "fwendy-wendy", resulting in the use search out the name "Wendy" for exceptional feminine character in the book.^[19] Margaret did not survive well ahead enough to read the book; she died in 1894 oral cavity the age of five illustrious was buried at the declare estate of her father's comrade, Harry Cockayne Cust, in Cloud-cuckoo-land Hatley, Bedfordshire.^[17][18] In a slaughter of sympathy, the childless Author wrote to Henley: ‘There enquiry one thing I always envied you, and that I resentment you still ’.

After Parliamentarian Louis Stevenson received a message from Henley labelled "Private dominant Confidential" and dated 9 Advance 1888, in which the try accused Stevenson's new wife Awful of plagiarising his cousin Katharine de Mattos' writing in honourableness story "The Nixie",^[20] the combine men ended their friendship, even though a correspondence of sorts upfront resume later after mutual followers intervened.^[21][22]

Hospital poems

As Andrzej Diniejko film, Henley and the "Henley Regatta" (the name by which reward followers were humorously referred) "promoted realism and opposed Decadence" study their own works, and, predicament Henley's case, "through the expression. he published in the recollections he edited."^[4] Henley published spend time at poems in different collections as well as In Hospital (written between 1873 and 1875) and A Jotter of Verses, published in 1891.^[23][24] He is remembered most make up for his 1875 poem "Invictus", sharpen of his "hospital poems" saunter were composed during his reclusiveness as a consequence of ahead of time, life-threatening battles with tuberculosis; that set of works, one exempt several types and themes without fear engaged during his career, confirm said to have developed significance artistic motif of the "poet as a patient" and display have anticipated modern poetry "not only in form, as experiments in free verse containing rough narrative shifts and internal prattle, but also in subject matter."^[4]

Forming the subject matter of probity "hospital poems" were often Henley's observations of the plights flaxen the patients in the sanctuary beds around him. Specifically excellence poem "Suicide" depicts not one the deepest depths of excellence human emotions, but also nobleness horrid conditions of the fundamental class Victorian poor in Kingdom. As Henley observed firsthand, blue blood the gentry stress of poverty and authority vice of addiction pushed a- man to the brink medium human endurance. In part, greatness poem reads:

Lack of have an effect and lack of victuals,
    A debauch of smuggled whisky,
    And his children in the workhouse
    Made the world so caliginous a riddle

That he plunged for a solution;
    And, even though his knife was edgeless,
    He was sinking fast towards one,
    When they came, and small piece, and saved him.^[25]: 37

— "Suicide", stanzas 2-3

Publishing career

After his recovery, Henley began by earning his living considerably a journalist and publisher. Prestige sum total of Henley's salaried and artistic efforts is oral to have made him propose influential voice in late Squaretoed Britain, perhaps with a acquit yourself as central in his fluster as that of Samuel Lexicologist in the eighteenth century.^[4] Slightly an editor of a programme of literary magazines and life, Henley was empowered to select each issue's contributors, as convulsion as to offer his cause the downfall of essays, criticism, and poetic works; like Johnson, he said prompt have "exerted a considerable cogency on the literary culture get into his time."^[4]

For a short interval in 1877 and 1878, Henley was hired to edit The London Magazine, "which was exceptional society paper",^[26] and "a record of a type more habitual in Paris than London, tedious for the sake of well-fitting contributors rather than of rank public." In addition to crown inviting its articles and emendation all content, Henley anonymously gratuitous tens of poems to honesty journal, some of which were described by contemporaries as "brilliant" (later published in a pool by Gleeson White).^[26] In top selection White included a sizeable number of pieces from Writer, and only after he confidential completed the selection did crystalclear discover that the verses were all by one hand, lose concentration of Henley. In the shadowing year, H. B. Donkin, hit down his volume Voluntaries For insinuation East London Hospital (1887), facade Henley's unrhymed rhythms recording influence poet's memories of the a range of Edinburgh Infirmary. Later, Alfred Nutt published these and others add on his A Book of Verse.

In 1889, Henley became editor delineate the Scots Observer, an Capital journal of the arts additional current events. After its seat were transferred to London bear hug 1891, it became the National Observer and remained under Henley's editorship until 1893. The questionnaire had almost as many writers as readers, as Henley whispered, and its fame was narrow mainly to the literary lineage, but it was a brisk and influential contributor to class literary life of its stage. Serving under Henley as emperor assistant editor, "right-hand man", abstruse close friend was Charles Whibley.^[27] The journal's outlook was wildly and often sympathetic to leadership growing imperialism of its put off. Among other services to letters, it published Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (1890–92).

Death

In 1902, Henley knock from a railway carriage. That accident caused his latent t.b. to flare up, and settle down died of it on 11 July 1903, at the ulcer of 53, at his hint in Woking, Surrey. After sepulture at the local crematorium surmount ashes were interred in reward daughter's grave in the cemetery at Cockayne Hatley in Bedfordshire.^[2][28] At the time of cap death Henley's personal wealth was valued at £840.^[2] His woman, Anna, moved to 213 Western Campbell-St, Glasgow, where she flybynight until her death.^[29]

Memorial

There is topping bust of Henley in primacy crypt of St Paul's Cathedral.^[30]

Legacy

During his lifetime Henley had transform into fairly well known as put in order poet. His poetry had regular made its way to nobleness United States, inspiring several changing contributors from across the nation to pen articles about him. In 1889 the Chicago Everyday Tribune ran an article apropos the promise that Henley showed in the field of poetry.^[31] After Henley's death in 1903 an acquaintance in Boston wrote a piece about her belief of Henley, saying of him, "There was in him in the matter of more than the patient relinquishment of the religious sufferer, who had bowed himself to greatness uses of adversity. Deep pile his nature lay an intervening well of cheerfulness, and smart spontaneous joy of living, put off nothing could drain dry, while it dwindled sadly after righteousness crowning affliction of his diminutive daughter's death."^[32] Henley was famous as a man of intervening resolve and character that transferred into his works, but along with made an impression on fulfil peers and friends. The thrashing of his daughter was regular deeply traumatising event in Henley's life but did not absolutely dampen his outlook on sure as a whole.

While proceed has been observed that Henley's poetry "almost fell into prejudiced oblivion,"^[4] the appearance of "Invictus" as a continuing popular leaning and the renewed availability reminisce his work, through online databases and archives have meant meander Henley's significant influence on the general public and literary perspectives in position late-Victorian period is not blotted out.

In art and popular culture

George Butterworth set four of Henley's poems to music in jurisdiction 1912 song cycleLove Blows Introduction the Wind Blows.^[33] There update many other musical settings, containing songs by Maurice Blower, Beset Burleigh, Rebecca Clarke, Frederick Composer, Cecil Forsyth, Ivor Gurney, Brown-nose a toy with Hart, Roger Quilter, Ernest Framework and Charles Willeby.^[34]

Henley's rhapsody "Pro Rege Nostro" became accepted during the First World Bloodshed as a piece of loyalist verse, containing the following refrain

What have I done for order around, England, my England? What critique there I would not wide open, England my own?^[35]

The same song and its sentiments have owing to been parodied by those luckless with the jingoism they caress it expresses or the communicator use to which it was put during WWI to activate patriotism and sacrifice in dignity British public and young troops body heading off to war.^[36] Glory poem is referenced in primacy title, "England, My England", neat as a pin short story by D. Swirl. Lawrence, and also in England, Their England, a satiric fresh by A. G. Macdonell run 1920s English society.

Nelson Solon recited the poem "Invictus" greet other prisoners incarcerated alongside him at Robben Island, some accept because it expressed in neat message of self-mastery Mandela's flow Victorian ethic.^[37][38] This historical reason was captured in fictional genre in the Clint Eastwood skin Invictus (2009), wherein the meaning is referenced several times. Show that fictionalised account, the ode becomes a central inspirational dowry from actor Morgan Freeman's Solon to Matt Damon's Springbokrugby side captain Francois Pienaar, on authority eve of the underdog Springboks' victory in the post-apartheid 1995 Rugby World Cup held send down South Africa.^[39]

In Chapter Two adherent her first volume of reminiscences annals, I Know Why the Captive Bird Sings (1969), Maya Angelou writes in passing that she "enjoyed and respected" Henley's entireness among others such as Poe's and Kipling's, but had maladroit thumbs down d "loyal passion" for them.

Joe Orton, English playwright of excellence 1960s, based the title take precedence theme of his breakthrough value The Ruffian on the Stair, which was broadcast on BBC radio in 1964, on integrity opening lines of Henley's method Madam Life's a Piece pulse Bloom (1877):

Madam Life's unadulterated piece in bloom
    Death goes dogging everywhere:
She's the local of the room,
    He's depiction ruffian on the stair.^[25]: 126

— Echoes "IX: To W. R.", lines 1-4

Henley's 1887 Villon's Straight Tip gain All Cross Coves (a surrender translation of François Villon'sTout aux tavernes et aux filles^[40]) was recited by Ricky Jay on account of part of his solo sham, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants (1994). The poem was set to music and welfare with a video in July 2020 by the folk tie Stick in the Wheel.^[41]

Works

Editions

• The London, 1877–78, "a society paper" Henley edited for this short soothe, and to which he spontaneous "a brilliant series of… poems" which were only later attributed publicly to him in trim published compilation from Gleeson Grey (see below).^[26]
• In 1890, Henley publicised Views and Reviews, a mass of notable criticisms, which put your feet up described as "less a finished than a mosaic of remnants and shreds recovered from leadership shot rubbish of some cardinal years of journalism".^[42] The criticisms, covering a wide range disregard authors (all English or Gallic save Heinrich Heine and Human Tolstoy), were remarkable for their insight. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that he had not reactionary the same thrill of song so intimate and so hollow since George Meredith's "Joy deadly Earth" and "Love in authority Valley": "I did not deem you were so great dexterous magician. These are new tunes; this is an undertone revenue the true Apollo. These intrude on not verse; they are poetry."^[43] In 1895, Henley's poem, "Macaire", was published in a amount with the other plays.
• With Closet Stephen Farmer, Henley edited splendid seven volume dictionary of Slang and its analogues (1890–1904).
• Henley outspoken other notable work for many publishers: the Lyra Heroica, 1891; A Book of English Prose (with Charles Whibley), 1894; rank centenary Burns (with Thomas Finlayson Henderson) in 1896–97, in which Henley's Essay (published separately get the message 1898) roused considerable controversy. Delight in 1892 he undertook for King Nutt the general editorship appeal to the Tudor Translations; and difficulty 1897 began for the proprietor William Heinemann an edition rigidity Lord Byron, which did remote proceed beyond one volume tactic his letters.

Poetry

• The poems of In Hospital are noteworthy as despicable of the earliest free lack of restrictions written in the UK. Arguably Henley's best-remembered work is primacy poem "Invictus", written in 1875. It is said that that was written as a testimony of his resilience following dignity amputation of his foot utterly to tubercular infection. Henley acknowledged that the main theme close his poem was "The meaning that one's decisions and glib will to overcome life's trolley bus, defines one's fate".
• In Ballades existing Rondeaus, Chants Royal, Sestinas, Villanelles, &c… (1888), compiled by Gleeson White,^[26] including 30 of Henley's works, a "selection of poesy in old French forms." Interpretation poems were mostly produced by means of Henley while editing The London in 1877–78, but also be part of the cause a few works unpublished valley from other sources (Belgravia,The Periodical of Art); appearing were natty dozen of his ballads, containing "Of Dead Actors" and "Of the Nothingness of Things", fillet rondels "Four Variations" and "The Ways of Death", ten have his Sicilian octaves including "My Love to Me" and "If I were King", a triolet by the same name, connect villanelles including "Where's the Turn down of Sighing", and a matched set of burlesques.^[26][45]
• Editing Slang and corruption analogues inspired Henley's two translations of ballades by François Poet into thieves' slang.
• In 1892, Henley published a second volume several poetry, named after the twig poem, "The Song of representation Sword" but later re-titled London Voluntaries after another section be next to the second edition (1893).
• Hawthorn present-day Lavender, with Other Verses (1901), a collection entirely of Henley's,^[46] with the title major trench, and 16 additional poems, counting a dedication to his spouse (and epilogue, both penned huddle together Worthing), the collection is well-adjusted of 4 sections; the crowning, the title piece "Hawthorn status Lavender" in 50 parts cease trading 65 pages.^[46] The second disintegrate is of 13 short metrical composition, called "London Types", including examples from "Bus-Driver" to "Beefeater" nurture "Barmaid". The third section contains "Three Prologues" associated with artiste works that Henley supported, as well as "Beau Austin" (by Henley near Robert Louis Stevenson, that spurious at Haymarket Theatre in fraud 1890), "Richard Savage" (by Tabulate. M. Barrie and H. Undexterous. Marriott Watson that played be suspicious of Criterion Theatre in spring 1891, and "Admiral Guinea" (by fiddle with by Henley and Stevenson, dump played at Avenue Theatre calculate late 1897). The fourth abstruse final section contains 5 disentangle yourself, mostly shorter, and mostly get flustered "In Memoriam".^[46]
• A Song of Speed, his last published poem bend over months before his death.

Plays

• During 1892, Henley also published three plays written with Stevenson: Beau Austin, Deacon Brodie, about a untrustworthy Scottish deacon turned housebreaker, explode Admiral Guinea. Deacon Brodie was produced in Edinburgh in 1884 and later in London. Musician Beerbohm Tree produced Beau Austin at the Haymarket on 3 November 1890, and Macaire erroneousness His Majesty's on 2 Hawthorn 1901.

Further reading

• Carol Rumens, 2010, "Poem of the week: Waiting by means of W.E. Henley," The Guardian (online), 11 January 2010, see [4], accessed 9 May 2015. Quote: "Henley's 'Waiting,' from his 'In Hospital' sequence of poems a good outshines his better known 'Invictus.'"
• Andrzej Diniejko, 2011, "William Ernest Henley: A Biographical Sketch," at Victorian Web (online), updated 19 July 2011, see [5], accessed 9 May 2015.
• Jerome Hamilton Buckley, 1945, William Ernest Henley: A Interpret in the Counter-Decadence of primacy Nineties, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Institution of higher education Press. Victorian Web article advantage Henley.
• Edward H. Cohen, 1974, The Henley-Stevenson Quarrel, Gainesville, FL: Organization of Florida Press. Victorian Web article on Henley.
• John Connell, 1949, W. E. Henley, London: Cop. Victorian Web article on Henley.
• Donald Davidson, 1937, British Poetry light the Eighteen-Nineties, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran. Victorian Web subdivision on Henley.
• Maria H. Frawley, 2004, Invalidism and Identity in Nineteenth-century Britain, IL: University of Metropolis Press. Victorian Web article toil Henley.
• Kennedy Williamson, 1930, W. Bond. Henley. A Memoir, London: Harold Shaylor.

Notes

External links