Frederick William Rolfe

Frederick William Rolfe (born July 22, 1860, London, England—died Oct. 25, 1913, Venice, Italy) was an English author and eccentric, best known for his autobiographical fantasy Hadrian the Seventh. He provides the curious example of an artist rescued from obscurity by his biographer; many years after Rolfe’s death A.J.A. Symons wrote a colourful biographical fantasy, The Quest for Corvo (1934), the publication of which marked the beginning of Rolfe’s fame.

Rolfe left school at age 14 and became successively a pupil-teacher, a student at the University of Oxford, and a schoolmaster. Reared as a Protestant, he had from boyhood been drawn to religion, and his plans for a career in the church were laid in adolescence. In 1886 he became a Roman Catholic. There followed two unsuccessful attempts to become a priest, but his independence and the homosexuality that marked and embittered his life finally led to his dismissal from Scots College in Rome. This painful event caused him lifelong frustration.

For eight years he wandered, turning his hand to painting, photography, tutoring, inventing, and journalism. In 1898 he became a professional writer with the publication of retellings of the legends of Roman Catholic saints under the title Stories Toto Told Me, which made a name for him at the time. During the next decade his publications included a collection of short stories, In His Own Image (1901); a historical work, Chronicles of the House of Borgia (1901); and two novels, Hadrian the Seventh (1904) and Don Tarquinio (1905). Some of his works appeared after his death, notably The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole (1934). Rolfe was also a prolific letter writer, engaging in long and heated correspondence with his enemies.

Rolfe went to Venice for a holiday in 1908 and remained there for the rest of his life, varying between appalling privations and short periods of extravagance, mainly at the expense of friends and well-wishers with whom he then quarreled. Yet during this period he contrived to write one of his most notable works, The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole.