Arthur Symons

In this new biography of Arthur Symons (1865-1945), Karl Beckson uses much previously unpublished material that reveals new dimensions of Symons' life and art. As a critic and poet, Symons was a major figure in the development of early Modernism in England. The impact on twentieth-century writers of his major work, "The Symbolist Movement in Literature" (1899), and his personal relationships with such figures as Walter Pater, Paul Verlaine, W.B. Yeats, Joseph Conrad, and James Joyce, have assured Symons an important place in literary history. At the time of his mental breakdown in 1908 - told here in harrowing detail - Yeats called him "the best critic of his generation".