About the Book
This is a new edition of "The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson," originally published in 1919 by The Modern Library, New York. Part of the project Immortal Literature Series of classic literature, this is a new edition of the classic work published in 1919-not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Pen House Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. Ernest Dowson wrote some of the best short poems of all time. Published in limited editions-little book of verses, the manuscript of another, a one-act play in verse, a few short stories, two novels written in collaboration, some translations from the French, done for money. "The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson," organized by his friend from the Rhymers' Club and the Lutetian Society, Arthur Williams Symons, is the best that was left by "a man who was undoubtedly a man of genius; one of the very few writers of our generation to whom that name can be applied in its most intimate sense." (Symons, 1900.) Screenwriter J. P. Miller's movie "Days of Wine and Roses," directed by Blake Edwards, was inspired by one of Dowson's most beautiful poems. The song, with music written by Henry Mancini and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, won the 1963 Oscar for Best Original Song. "Days of Wine and Roses" was recorded by several artists, among them Andy Williams, Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennet, Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass, Julie London, and Frank Sinatra. Wonderful and inspiring poetry. About the Authors: Ernest Christopher Dowson was born on August 2, 1867, in Lee, Kent, England. He is considered one of the most important English poets of the 1890s Decadent movement. Dowson joined the Rhymers' Club, a group of writers connected by their love of poetry and French culture which included, among others, William Butler Yeats, Lionel Johnson, Oscar Wilde, and Victor Plarr (also his biographer, who wrote: "Ernest Dowson was a dreamer with the finest and most delicate sense Arthur Symons of beauty."). Dowson was also one of the Lutetian Society translators. In 1889 he met Adelaide Foltinowicz, who was only twelve years old then, and who would inspire some of his best poetry. Her parents owned a modest restaurant in Soho, London, where Dowson used to frequent. Adelaide was the inspiration for his best-known poem, "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae." After Adelaide refused his offer of marriage, Dowson still remained faithful to her feelings for her for the next six years until she married another man. After that, Dowson was never the same. He drowned the pain of his unrequited love with wine and women, and sank into a life of dissolution until his death, penniless, on February 23, 1900, in in Catford, London, at the home of his friend, Robert Harborough Sherard. Arthur Williams Symons was born in Milford Haven, England, on February 28, 1865. He was one of the key exponents of the Symbolism in Britain. Still during the nineteenth century, he built an impressive intellectual and social network that comprised the most prominent figures of the time, among them Havelock Ellis, and John Addington Symonds, authors of "A Problem in Greek Ethics" (Symonds), and the first edition of "Sexual Inversion" (Ellis and Symonds). Symons was also a member of the very private Rhymers' Club and one of the Lutetian Society translators. He was a poet, a literary critic and journalist. One of his most important works is "The Symbolist Movement in Literature," published in 1899. Symons died on January 22, 1945, in Pembrokeshire, England.
