My Dear KJ... The Letters of Frederick Rolfe to Charles Kains-Jackson

In 1889, the small town of Christchurch on the South Coast of England was a sleepy neighbour to the booming Victorian seaside resort of Bournemouth. It was here that, somewhat wearied from two failed attempts to complete his vocational training for the Catholic priesthood, a writer and artist of no great achievement called Frederick Rolfe, now calling himself Baron Corvo, came to live for a few years.

Rolfe went on to become one of the most idiosyncratic novelists of nineteenth and twentieth century, attracting a loyal following of readers and collectors who value his eccentricity of language and the unique vision of his fiction. It was during his time in Christchurch that Rolfe wrote the letters in this current volume to a London solicitor called Charles Kains-Jackson, who was close to the whole of the 1890s 'set' as an editor and contributor to magazines.

These letters are one side of a correspondence unusual at this time because they are between two gay men, comfortable with their own and each other's sexuality. They range across art, poetry, religion, current affairs and a good dose of gossip. Rolfe is witty, outrageous, camp and insightful by turns.