Karl Beckson, Ian Fletcher, Lawrence W. Markert and John Stokes, Arthur Symons: A Bibliography (Greensboro, NC: ELT Press, 1990) xii + 330 pp.

Abstract

Oscar Wilde wondered who or what was the “syndicate” actually responsible for the enormous output of “Symons Ltd”.¹ Arthur Symons’ work between 1882 and 1942 is as remarkable for its sheer bulk as for its protean diversity, for Symons was not only an editor, journalist, playwright and poet, but also a translator of von Hofmannsthal and D’Annunzio, a spokesman for literary Decadence, and a leading theorist of symbolism. Yet, prior to the release of this first full-length bibliography, Symons’s vast oeuvre, including the 1300 or so notes, articles and reviews that he placed in newspapers and periodicals such as The Star, The Academy and The Athenaeum, had never been accurately catalogued. The task was further complicated by Symons’ exasperating habit during the 1920s and 1930s, fol’owing his tragic mental breakdown in 1908 and incomplete recovery, of cannibalising his earlier, higher-quality work for such uneven volumes as Dramatis Personae (1923), Eleonora Duse (1926) and A Study of Walter Pater (1932).