What do you think?
Rate this book
Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era Dark Angel
Hardback special edition limited to 100 copies.
Writings that shed new light on one of the most gifted, if reclusive, poets of the fin-de-siècle.
A lost poet of the decadent era, Lionel Johnson is the shadow man of the 1890s, an enigma “pale as wasted golden hair.” History has all but forgotten Johnson, except as a footnote to the lives of more celebrated characters like W. B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde.
Johnson should have been one of the great poets of the age but was already drinking eau-de-cologne for kicks while a teenager at Winchester College. His attraction to absinthe damaged his fragile health and cast him forever into a waking dream of haunted rooms and spectral poetry. A habitual insomniac, he haunted medieval burial grounds after dark, jotting down the epitaphs of the gone-too-young, as if anticipating his own early demise at the age of 35—falling from a bar stool in a Fleet Street pub.
It was rumored that Johnson performed “strange religious rites” in his rooms at Oxford and experimented with hashish in the company of fellow poet Ernest Dowson. Moving to London, he fell in with Simeon Solomon, Oscar Wilde, and Aubrey Beardsley, and would contribute to the leading decadent publications of the day, including The Chameleon, The Yellow Book, and The Savoy.
Like a glimmering of a votive candle in one of Johnson's dream churches, I ncurable sheds new light on one of the most gifted, if reclusive, poets of the fin-de-siècle. Containing a detailed biography, illustrations, rare and unusual material including previously unseen letters, poetry, and essays, Incurable pays tribute to this enchanting and eccentric poet while providing fresh insight into an era that continues to fascinate.
Writings that shed new light on one of the most gifted, if reclusive, poets of the fin-de-siècle.
A lost poet of the decadent era, Lionel Johnson is the shadow man of the 1890s, an enigma “pale as wasted golden hair.” History has all but forgotten Johnson, except as a footnote to the lives of more celebrated characters like W. B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde.
Johnson should have been one of the great poets of the age but was already drinking eau-de-cologne for kicks while a teenager at Winchester College. His attraction to absinthe damaged his fragile health and cast him forever into a waking dream of haunted rooms and spectral poetry. A habitual insomniac, he haunted medieval burial grounds after dark, jotting down the epitaphs of the gone-too-young, as if anticipating his own early demise at the age of 35—falling from a bar stool in a Fleet Street pub.
It was rumored that Johnson performed “strange religious rites” in his rooms at Oxford and experimented with hashish in the company of fellow poet Ernest Dowson. Moving to London, he fell in with Simeon Solomon, Oscar Wilde, and Aubrey Beardsley, and would contribute to the leading decadent publications of the day, including The Chameleon, The Yellow Book, and The Savoy.
Like a glimmering of a votive candle in one of Johnson's dream churches, I ncurable sheds new light on one of the most gifted, if reclusive, poets of the fin-de-siècle. Containing a detailed biography, illustrations, rare and unusual material including previously unseen letters, poetry, and essays, Incurable pays tribute to this enchanting and eccentric poet while providing fresh insight into an era that continues to fascinate.
216 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2018
2 people are currently reading
288 people want to read
About the author
Lionel Pigot Johnson
60 books7 followersLionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 – 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist and critic.
Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, England in 1867 and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating in 1890. He became a Catholic convert in June 1891. Also in June 1891 Johnson introduced his cousin Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas to his friend Oscar Wilde. He later repudiated Wilde in "The Destroyer of a Soul" (1892), deeply regretting initiating what became the highly scandalous love affair between the two men.
In 1893 he published what some would consider his greatest work, "Dark Angel". During his lifetime were published: The Art of Thomas Hardy (1894), Poems (1895), and Ireland and Other Poems (1897).
He was one of the Rhymers' Club, and cousin to Olivia Shakespear (who dedicated her novel The False Laurel to him). Johnson lived a solitary life in London, struggling with alcoholism and repressed homosexuality. He died of a stroke in 1902, after either a fall in the street, or a fall from a barstool in the Green Dragon on Fleet Street.
Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, England in 1867 and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating in 1890. He became a Catholic convert in June 1891. Also in June 1891 Johnson introduced his cousin Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas to his friend Oscar Wilde. He later repudiated Wilde in "The Destroyer of a Soul" (1892), deeply regretting initiating what became the highly scandalous love affair between the two men.
In 1893 he published what some would consider his greatest work, "Dark Angel". During his lifetime were published: The Art of Thomas Hardy (1894), Poems (1895), and Ireland and Other Poems (1897).
He was one of the Rhymers' Club, and cousin to Olivia Shakespear (who dedicated her novel The False Laurel to him). Johnson lived a solitary life in London, struggling with alcoholism and repressed homosexuality. He died of a stroke in 1902, after either a fall in the street, or a fall from a barstool in the Green Dragon on Fleet Street.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 3, 2019
Composer of decidedly otherworldly poems hampered by clichés and archaisms, an imbiber of absinthe and eau de cologne, smoker of opium and hashish, and rumored student of the occult, dead at the early age of 35, the result of his self-destructive excesses, Lionel Johnson is the epitome of the poet maudit, fin de siècle era poet. Alternately described by his more earthly contemporaries as an ethereal, diminutive "spiritual waif" (he stood at just over 150 cm) who "adored the unreal" (George Santayana), Johnson is an ultimately tragic figure undone by his fragility and his unfulfilled desire to rank among the greatest of English poets.
Indeed, Johnson is exactly the type of poet that could only exist in the Decadent era of late 19th century England, and by today's standards he strikes one as an horribly--almost perversely, given his personal eccentricities and affectations--pretentious poet, his legacy burdened by his poetry's slavish adherence to the literary fashions of his day, the era of art for art's sake exemplified by the Yellow Book (1894-1897), a literary periodical to which he contributed. Johnson's poems are comprised almost exclusively of ornate meditations on nature and dreams, gloomy elegies, and turgid odes to England. Flowery adjectives, fragrances, colors, winds, clouds, glades, dells, stars, shadows, Grecian and Christian imagery, royalty, melancholy, and mortality proliferate.
Despite these limitations, the visionary and musical qualities of Johnson's poetry may nevertheless be of interest the modern reader. In this new collection, Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era's Dark Angel, editor Nina Antonia heroically attempts to rescue Johnson from his current, somewhat obscure position as a minor poet most notable for his influence on the early work of the much superior poet W.B. Yeats--Johnson's cousin was the novelist Olivia Shakespear, Yeats' mistress--and his association with more renowned literary figures such as Oscar Wilde; Johnson, a repressed homosexual, moved among the then-emerging homosexual subculture in London, and most scholars agree that his sonnet "Destroyer of a Soul" (1892), recounts the torrid love affair between Wilde (the destroyer) and Alfred Lord Douglas (the soul), whom Johnson had introduced to Wilde.
This handsome volume from the always excellent Strange Attractor Press includes a lengthy, authoritative introduction by Antonia, providing insightful biographical and critical contexts. Also included are three brief, representative essays by Johnson, evidencing his distinct aesthetics, a handful of photographs, previously unpublished letters and reviews. Incurable is a compact, accessible, and welcome introduction to the work of this minor, yet distinctive, poet. -- Eric Hoffman, Fortean Times
Indeed, Johnson is exactly the type of poet that could only exist in the Decadent era of late 19th century England, and by today's standards he strikes one as an horribly--almost perversely, given his personal eccentricities and affectations--pretentious poet, his legacy burdened by his poetry's slavish adherence to the literary fashions of his day, the era of art for art's sake exemplified by the Yellow Book (1894-1897), a literary periodical to which he contributed. Johnson's poems are comprised almost exclusively of ornate meditations on nature and dreams, gloomy elegies, and turgid odes to England. Flowery adjectives, fragrances, colors, winds, clouds, glades, dells, stars, shadows, Grecian and Christian imagery, royalty, melancholy, and mortality proliferate.
Despite these limitations, the visionary and musical qualities of Johnson's poetry may nevertheless be of interest the modern reader. In this new collection, Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era's Dark Angel, editor Nina Antonia heroically attempts to rescue Johnson from his current, somewhat obscure position as a minor poet most notable for his influence on the early work of the much superior poet W.B. Yeats--Johnson's cousin was the novelist Olivia Shakespear, Yeats' mistress--and his association with more renowned literary figures such as Oscar Wilde; Johnson, a repressed homosexual, moved among the then-emerging homosexual subculture in London, and most scholars agree that his sonnet "Destroyer of a Soul" (1892), recounts the torrid love affair between Wilde (the destroyer) and Alfred Lord Douglas (the soul), whom Johnson had introduced to Wilde.
This handsome volume from the always excellent Strange Attractor Press includes a lengthy, authoritative introduction by Antonia, providing insightful biographical and critical contexts. Also included are three brief, representative essays by Johnson, evidencing his distinct aesthetics, a handful of photographs, previously unpublished letters and reviews. Incurable is a compact, accessible, and welcome introduction to the work of this minor, yet distinctive, poet. -- Eric Hoffman, Fortean Times
June 26, 2019
"Ah, day by swift malignant day,
Life vanishes in vanity:
Whilst I, life's phantom victim, play
The music of my misery.
Draw near, ah dear delaying Death!
Draw near, and silence my sad breath" (pg. 58)
Despite Nina Antonia's very informative introduction, Lionel Johnson still has a mystery to him (which is a good thing). I did not know that he was the one to introduce Lord Alfred Douglas to Oscar Wilde either which is very interesting.
My favorite poems of Lionel Johnson were "The Destroyer of a Soul", "The Dark Angel", and "The Precept of Silence". The first stanza of the latter I really liked:
"I know you: solitary griefs,
Desolate passions, aching hours!
I know you: tremulous beliefs,
Agonized hopes, and ashen flowers!" (pg. 148)
His poems about Ireland did not do much for me, I think because I am not familiar with Irish history or Celtic mythology. I did really enjoy the three essays he wrote though, especially "The Cultured Faun".
Life vanishes in vanity:
Whilst I, life's phantom victim, play
The music of my misery.
Draw near, ah dear delaying Death!
Draw near, and silence my sad breath" (pg. 58)
Despite Nina Antonia's very informative introduction, Lionel Johnson still has a mystery to him (which is a good thing). I did not know that he was the one to introduce Lord Alfred Douglas to Oscar Wilde either which is very interesting.
My favorite poems of Lionel Johnson were "The Destroyer of a Soul", "The Dark Angel", and "The Precept of Silence". The first stanza of the latter I really liked:
"I know you: solitary griefs,
Desolate passions, aching hours!
I know you: tremulous beliefs,
Agonized hopes, and ashen flowers!" (pg. 148)
His poems about Ireland did not do much for me, I think because I am not familiar with Irish history or Celtic mythology. I did really enjoy the three essays he wrote though, especially "The Cultured Faun".
February 14, 2022
Ovvero di fantasmi, corpi, sangue, molte tazze di tè, ma sicuramente altrettanti bicchieri di assenzio: "Literature is a thing of beauty, blood and nerves."
March 1, 2019
One of the less interesting poets of the age; incurable, perhaps, but not investible. I'll sit with the book, drink with it, and try again in a few months. (I'll probably think it's brilliant by then.) The foreword was great. The rest was a one-note fugue, a bit metrically stifled, with clichéd imagery. Johnson's biography is more interesting than his writing; but even his biography isn't that fetching.
August 11, 2020
Johnson is of interest for his influence in the lives of Oscar Wilde and WB Yeats, and was respected among poets of his brief era.
This is an attractive volume, pleasing to hold, with a 50 page introduction that offers an insighful biography of the poet. It holds a number of amusing essays and a collection of ephemeral writings alongside a nicely printed and presented collection of his poetry.
My initial impression of the poetry is negative. It seems to me dated and very conventional, a period piece that has not lasted; but it often has a lovely, almost religious or prayerful tone, not least in a number of elegies, of which I was most struck by:
Beyond
All was for you and you are dead.
For came there sorrow, came there splendour,
You still were mine, and I yours only:
Then on my breast lay down your head,
Triumphant in its dear surrender:
One were we then: though one, not lonely.
Oh, is it you are dead, or I?
Both! both dead, since we are asunder:
You sleeping: I for ever walking
Through the dark valley, hard and dry ...
Other poems too, at first unpromising, may be brought to life by finding the best reader or tone, as in this YouTube reading of Dark Angel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwP77...
Johnson died at 35 through alcoholism and drink destroyed his talent even sooner. Lionel himself wrote of another writer, with whom he identified closely, "there was a certain grimly pathetic and humorous common-sense about him, which saved him from being too angelic a drunkard, too ethereal a vagabond."
This is an attractive volume, pleasing to hold, with a 50 page introduction that offers an insighful biography of the poet. It holds a number of amusing essays and a collection of ephemeral writings alongside a nicely printed and presented collection of his poetry.
My initial impression of the poetry is negative. It seems to me dated and very conventional, a period piece that has not lasted; but it often has a lovely, almost religious or prayerful tone, not least in a number of elegies, of which I was most struck by:
Beyond
All was for you and you are dead.
For came there sorrow, came there splendour,
You still were mine, and I yours only:
Then on my breast lay down your head,
Triumphant in its dear surrender:
One were we then: though one, not lonely.
Oh, is it you are dead, or I?
Both! both dead, since we are asunder:
You sleeping: I for ever walking
Through the dark valley, hard and dry ...
Other poems too, at first unpromising, may be brought to life by finding the best reader or tone, as in this YouTube reading of Dark Angel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwP77...
Johnson died at 35 through alcoholism and drink destroyed his talent even sooner. Lionel himself wrote of another writer, with whom he identified closely, "there was a certain grimly pathetic and humorous common-sense about him, which saved him from being too angelic a drunkard, too ethereal a vagabond."
May 5, 2021
Johnson is a wonderful English decadent poet, whose work has long been out of print. This is the only collection available at present, and it's a good one. It has a well-written biographical introduction (one will search in vain for another account nearly as good or detailed), a fine selection of the poems (translations accompany those in Latin), and a small but entertaining sampling from his fiction and criticism.
It was edited by Nina Antonia, the Rock 'n' Roll journalist who wrote the definitive Johnny Thunders bio, so it's done with verve and sympathy for the drugged-out, nonconformist and doomed.
Johnson was gay, alcoholic, mystical, and Catholic. If you enjoy the art of his friend Aubrey Beardsley or the poetry of his contemporaries Yeats and Pound (both of whom edited posthumous editions of his works), he's well worth a look.
I give it five stars, but note that it's a book only for those who enjoy the Baudelaire to Oscar Wilde end of the spectrum.
It was edited by Nina Antonia, the Rock 'n' Roll journalist who wrote the definitive Johnny Thunders bio, so it's done with verve and sympathy for the drugged-out, nonconformist and doomed.
Johnson was gay, alcoholic, mystical, and Catholic. If you enjoy the art of his friend Aubrey Beardsley or the poetry of his contemporaries Yeats and Pound (both of whom edited posthumous editions of his works), he's well worth a look.
I give it five stars, but note that it's a book only for those who enjoy the Baudelaire to Oscar Wilde end of the spectrum.
October 11, 2022
A amazing book that includes a biography, decadent poetry and essays by Lionel Johnson a man who once rubbed shoulders with Oscar Wilde and W.B Yeats but is seldom talked about today
August 19, 2022
One of my favorite books of the autumnal seasons. Haunted, otherworldly, bearing that passion for fairytale and myth that I tend to gravitate towards. Certainly no masterclass in "unique" figurative language or general lyricism, Johnson's self-destructive and self-pitying tendencies nevertheless present themselves as genuine and stirring. Without the ego that often becomes the pitfall of such poets, Johnson is like a warm blanket.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews