Lionel Johnson

This article is about the English poet. For the character in Cat's Cradle, see Bokononism.

Lionel Johnson
Born	Lionel Pigot Johnson (1867-03-15)15 March 1867 Broadstairs, Kent
Died
Nationality	English
Occupation	Poet, essayist, and critic

Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 – 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist, and critic.

Life

Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, United Kingdom 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 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.

In October 2018, Strange Attractor Press is publishing, Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era's Dark Angel, which is edited by Nina Antonia and contains a detailed biographical essay on Lionel Johnson by Ms. Antonia. Duncan Fallowell included Incurable in his list of books for the books of the year section (2018) in The Spectator. Michael Dirda in his 5 December 2018 book review for The Washington Post entitled "The '90s are having a literary moment. That is, the 1890s... " recommended Incurable as a must read. Eric Hoffman reviewed Incurable in the Fortean Times on February 25, 2019 saying "This handsome volume from the excellent Strange Attractor Press includes a lengthy, authoritative introduction by Antonia, which provides biographical and critical contexts...Incurable is an accessible introduction to the work of this minor, yet distinctive, poet."

In popular culture

In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Dark Angels chapter of Space Marines, whose leader is named Lion El Jonson, derive their name from his poem.

Works

• Twenty one poems written by Lionel Johnson, selected by William Butler Yeats (Dun Emer Press, 1904) online text
• Some Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson, (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1919.)
• The collected poems of Lionel Johnson (1953) edited by Ian Fletcher, Unicorn Press, London (reprinted 1982).
• Post Liminium. Essays and Critical Papers (1911) edited by Thomas Whittemore, Elkin Mathews, London (reprinted 1968).

References

• Lionel Johnson Victorian Dark Angel by Richard Whittington-Egan, Cappella Archive (2012).
• At the Heart of the 1890s: Essays on Lionel Johnson Gary Paterson, AMS Press (2008)
• Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era’s Dark Angel edited by Nina Antonia, Strange Attractor Press (2018)

External links

• Works by Lionel Johnson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Lionel Johnson at Open Library