Lionel Johnson

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 15 Mar 1867
Died 4 Oct 1902
Activity 1887-1902

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Poet

Resources

Johnson's Works

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Johnson was a poet, critic and literary scholar. He was a close friend of W. B. Yeats and member of the Rhymers’ Club. Famously diminutive in stature – he was 5 foot 3 inches tall – Johnson was a prolific prose writer, contributing articles and reviews to newspapers, magazines and journals. He was specially influenced by the “classical” tradition in English as represented by Thomas Gray and Matthew Arnold, but in the early 1890s when he was writing poetry his two other passions predominated: Catholicism (to which he converted in 1891), and Celticism.

Poems

appeared in 1895 and

Ireland with other Poems

in 1897.

Lionel Pigot Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, on 15 March 1867, the sixth child and third son of Captain William Victor Johnson, retired military officer of the 90th

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1073 words

Citation: Desmarais, Jane. "Lionel Johnson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 November 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2383, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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