Corvo

Searchers for the pure caviar in the English aesthetic movement begin with the Yellow Book and conclude with the fragments, letters, reprints which are still appearing under the name of Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo. After the success of his stories of Italian folklore, his lawless, libelous literary career became submerged rather than publicized until it was sometimes asked—Was there ever such a person as Corvo?

There was! for we had the curious experience of contributing his first bibliography to John Squire’s Mercury (perhaps as a joke) and certainly as a joke contributing to the annual Corvine dinner at which patrons and publishers, whom Corvo had blackguarded with libel and blackmail, were able to relieve their long-pent feelings and even drink to the dead man’s health in a wine discovered to bear the name of Corvo Spumante!

SL

About the Author

Sir Shane Leslie

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Searchers for the pure caviar in the English aesthetic movement begin with the Yellow Book and conclude with the fragments, letters, reprints which are still appearing under the name of Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo. After the success of his stories of Italian folklore, his lawless, libelous literary career became submerged rather than publicized until it was sometimes asked—Was there ever such a person as Corvo?

There was! for we had the curious experience of contributing his first bibliography to John Squire’s Mercury (perhaps as a joke) and certainly as a joke contributing to the annual Corvine dinner at which patrons and publishers, whom Corvo had blackguarded with libel and blackmail, were able to relieve their long-pent feelings and even drink to the dead man’s health in a wine discovered to bear the name of Corvo Spumante!