John Gray

Jane Desmarais (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

Born 2 Mar 1866
Died 14 Jun 1934
Activity 1886-1934

Places

Born in United Kingdom
Active in United Kingdom

Activities

Primary

Clergyman
Poet

Other

Editor
Literary Critic/ Historian
Novelist
Playwright / Dramatist
Translator

Resources

Gray's Works

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Gray was a poet, editor, translator, and 1890s dandy figure, regarded by many as the model for Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray. He is best remembered for his first verse collection,

Silverpoints

(1893), which established him as an accomplished translator and poet in the French

symboliste

tradition. By 1895, “with a promising career behind him”, according to the poet Theodore Wratislaw (Wratislaw 1893: 328), he dissociated himself from Wilde’s decadent circle and devoted himself to Catholicism and writing spiritual verse, moving permanently to Edinburgh in 1901, where he became rector of the parish of St Patrick’s.

John Henry Gray was born in Bethnal Green, London, on 10 March 1866, the eldest of nine children. He came from a working-class Nonconformist family of Scottish descent. His

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1067 words

Citation: Desmarais, Jane. "John Gray". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1848, accessed 21 November 2024.]