Editing Humbert Wolfe

{{Short description|Italian-born British poet, man of letters and civil servant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Humbert Wolfe
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the Bath|CB]] [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]]
| image            = Humbert Wolfe.png
| birth_date       = 5 January 1885
| birth_place      = [[Milan]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]
| death_date       = 5 January 1940
| partner          = [[Pamela Frankau]]
| notable_works    = The Uncelestial City
| caption          = Drawing by [[William Rothenstein]], 1931
| alma_mater       = [[Wadham College]], Oxford
}}
'''Humbert Wolfe''' [[Order of the Bath|CB]] [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (5 January 1885 – 5 January 1940) was an Italian-born British poet, [[intellectual|man of letters]] and civil servant.

==Biography==
Humbert Wolfe was born in [[Milan]], Italy, and came from a [[Italian Jew|Jewish]] family background,<ref name="tca">"Wolfe, Humbert" in [[Stanley Kunitz|Stanley J. Kunitz]] and Howard Haycraft, ''Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature'', (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950, (pp. 1540-1)</ref> his father, Martin Wolff, being of German descent and his mother, Consuela, ''née'' Terraccini, Italian. He was brought up in [[Bradford]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]] and was a pupil at [[Bradford Grammar School]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moggridge|first=Donald|title=Maynard Keynes: An Economist's Biography|year=1992|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-05141-5|pages=915|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDeQIjT0Gq4C&q=humbert+wolfe+bradford+grammar&pg=PA915}}</ref> Wolfe attended [[Wadham College]] at the [[University of Oxford]].

He was one of the most popular British authors of the 1920s.<ref name="tca" /> He was also a translator of [[Heinrich Heine]], [[Edmond Fleg]] (1874–1963) and [[Jenő Heltai|Eugene Heltai]] (Heltai Jenő). A Christian convert, he remained very aware of his Jewish heritage.{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}}

His career was in the Civil Service, beginning in the [[Board of Trade]] and then in the [[Ministry of Labour (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Labour]]. By 1940 he had a position of high responsibility. His work was recognised with a [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] and then a [[Order of the Bath|CB]].

Wolfe said in an interview with ''Twentieth Century Authors'' that he was "of no political creed, except that his general view is that money and its possessors should be abolished."<ref name="tca"/>

Wolfe's verses have been set to music by a number of composers, including [[Gustav Holst]] in his ''12 Humbert Wolfe Songs'', Op. 48 (1929).<ref>[https://imslp.org/wiki/12_Humbert_Wolfe_Songs,_Op.48_(Holst,_Gustav) Holst, Gustav (1930). ''12 Humbert Wolfe Songs'', Op. 48]. London: Augener. Full score at imslp</ref>

He had a long-term affair with the novelist [[Pamela Frankau]], while remaining married.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

He died on his 55th birthday.

Though his works are little read today, the following [[epigram]] from ''The Uncelestial City'' continues to be widely known and quoted:

:<poem>
:You cannot hope 
::to bribe or twist,
:thank God! the 
::British journalist.
:But, seeing what 
::the man will do
:unbribed, there's 
::no occasion to.<ref>Mick Temple, ''The British Press''. McGraw-Hill International, 2008 {{ISBN|0335222978}}, (p.&nbsp;127)</ref></poem>

[[File:5 Heads Humbert Wolfe + Padgett.JPG|thumb|The 5 Heads of Humbert Wolfe by Anthony Padgett]]
In 2014–2015, five busts of the poet were created and sited by sculptor [[Anthony Padgett]] to mark the 75th anniversary of Wolfe's death.
The sculptures have been sited where Wolfe died in London – 75 [[Eccleston Square]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thelondonmagazine.co.uk/interiors-gardens/celebrity-homes/a-place-in-history-75-eccleston-square.html|title=The London Magazine}}</ref> where he studied – Wadham College Oxford,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/news/2015/june/celebrating-humbert-wolfe|title=Celebrating Humbert Wolfe|publisher=Wadham College Alumni News |date=5 June 2015}}</ref> where there is a collection of his manuscripts – 
[[New York Public Library]] and where he grew up – Bradford Library and [[Bradford Grammar School]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/14092341.Sculpture_of__colourful__Bradford_born_WW1_poet_to_be_presented_to_city/|title=Sculpture of 'colourful' Bradford-born WW1 poet to be presented to city|work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus}}</ref>

==Works==
*''[https://archive.org/details/londonsonnets00wolf/page/n7 London Sonnets]'' (1920)
*''[https://archive.org/details/shylockreasonswi00wolfiala/page/n3 Shylock Reasons with Mr. Chesterton and other poems]'' (1920)
* {{Cite EB1922 |wstitle= Labour Ministry and Department of Labour |volume = 31 |last= Wolfe |first=  Humbert |author-link= Humbert Wolfe|short=1}} ''Please note that a wikilink to the author's article on [Labour Supply and Regulation] in [EB1922] is not available''
*''[https://archive.org/details/circularsaws00wolfuoft/page/n5 Circular Saws]''  (1923)
*''[https://archive.org/details/laboursupplyregu00wolfuoft/page/ii Labour Supply and Regulation]'' (1923)
*''The Lilac'' (1924)
*''Lampoons'' (1925)
*''The Unknown Goddess''  (1925) poems
*''Humoresque'' (1926)
*''News of the Devil'' (1926) poems
*''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.114289/page/n1/mode/2up Requiem]'' (1927) poems
*''[https://archive.org/details/CursoryRhymesDesktop/page/n1/mode/1up Cursory Rhymes]'' (1927) poems
*''[https://archive.org/details/othersabide0000unse_v2i8/page/n7/mode/2up Others Abide]'' (1927) translator, Ancient Greek poems
*''Kensington Gardens'' (1924)
*''[https://archive.org/details/dialoguesmonolog00wolf/page/n7/mode/2up Dialogues and Monologues]'' (1928) criticism
*''This Blind Rose'' (1928) poems
*''Troy'' (1928) [[Faber & Gwyer]], [[Ariel poems (Faber)|Ariel poems]]
*''The Moon and Mrs. Misses Smith'' (1928)
*''The Craft of Verse'' (1928) essay
*''The Silver Cat and other poems'' (1928)
*''[https://archive.org/details/notes_english_verse_satire/page/n5 Notes on English Verse Satire]'' (1929)
*''[https://archive.org/details/wintermiscellany0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up A Winter Miscellany]'' (1930) editor, prose anthology, plus some original poems
*''Homage to Meleager'' (1930 Limited Edition)
*''[https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.234981 Tennyson]'' (1930) criticism of ''Maud''
*''[https://archive.org/details/uncelestialcity0000wolf/page/n5/mode/2up The Uncelestial City]''  (1930) poems
*''Early Poems'' (1930)
*''[https://archive.org/details/georgemoore0000wolf/page/n5/mode/2up George Moore]'' (1931) biography
*''Snow'' (1931) poems
*''Signpost to Poetry'' (1931)
*''Reverie of Policeman: A ballet in three acts'' (1933)
*''Now a Stranger'' (1933) autobiography
*''Romantic and Unromantic Poetry''  (1933)
*''Truffle Eater. Pretty Stories and funny pictures'' An anti-Nazi parody of the famous [[Struwwelpeter]], published under the alias "Oistros", with pictures by Archibald Louis Charles Savory (1933)
*''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.76332/page/n1/mode/2up Portraits by Inference]''  (1934) biographical sketches
*''Sonnets pour Helene'' (by [[Ronsard]]) (1934) translator
*''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.86633/page/n5/mode/2up X at Oberammergau : A poem]'' (1935) drama
*''The Fourth of August'' (1935) poems
*''Selected Lyrics of Heinrich Heine'' (1935) translator
*''P. L. M.: Peoples Landfalls Mountains''  (1936)
*''The Pilgrim's Way'' (1936)
*''[https://archive.org/details/personalities0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up Personalities; a selection from the writings of A. A. Baumann]'' (1936) editor, biographical sketches by [[Arthur A. Baumann]]
*''The Silent Knight: A Romantic Comedy in Three Acts'' (by Eugene Heltai)(1937)
*''Others Abide: Translated Greek Epigrams'' (1937)
*''The Upward Anguish'' (1938) autobiography
*''Out of Great Tribulation'' (1939) poems
*''Kensington Gardens in War-Time'' (1940) poems
*''[https://archive.org/details/cyranodebergera00rost/page/n3/mode/2up Cyrano de Bergerac]'' (1941) by [[Edmond Rostand]] translator

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Other sources===
{{Wikisource author}}
{{wikiquote}}
*Bagguley, Philip (1997). ''Harlequin in Whitehall: a Life of Humbert Wolfe, Poet and Civil Servant 1885-1940''. London: Nyala Publications, {{isbn|9780952937609}}
*Helen Ferris, ''Favorite Poems Old and New'' (1957).

==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=15281}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Humbert}}
[[Category:1885 births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Bradford]]
[[Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity from Judaism]]
[[Category:Civil servants in the Board of Trade]]
[[Category:Civil servants in the Ministry of Labour]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:People educated at Bradford Grammar School]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]