Richard le Gallienne (1866 - 1947)

Richard le Gallienne was a British poet and essayist born in 1866. He married twice, the second time to Danish journalist Julie Noiregard, but divorced when their daughter, Eva, was only three.

A member of the Oscar Wilde circle, le Gallienne was a literary critic and contributor to the Yellow Book, along with Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm and Ernest Dowson. His works include the poems Volumes in Folio (1889), the novel Quest of the Golden Girl (1896), and Attitudes and Avowals (1910), a collection of essays and papers. Two books of reminiscences about the prominent literary figures of the 1890's include The Romantic 90’s (1925) and From a Paris Garret (1936).

"Of all the poets I know, I think Richard Le Gallienne looks most like a poet. When Ebony and Ivory came out, I sent him a copy; and I shall never forget the thrill of pleasure he gave me when he came to tea at Patchin Place, carrying the book in his hand for me to inscribe. For Richard Le Gallienne always represented to my mind the last of the great figures of the Nineties; and in truth, because of a certain look of fatality he wore over his shoulders, like Caesar's cloak, one was constantly being reminded that one was talking with a man who had sat at meat with Swinburne, with Dowson, with Lionel Johnson, and with Oscar Wilde. In later days, I used to walk with him in the Catskill Mountains, and have seen him many times come toward me with his jacket on his arm, light of step as any fisher-boy; but even then I never lost the impression, though we might be happy for long hours together, that in some curious way he was set apart, that he was hearing, from the hollow chasms of the great stone-quarries he loved, a voice I could not hear, seeing through the slim trunks of the silver birches which rose out of the bracken a form that I could not see." (from Llewelyn Powys, The Verdict of Bridlegoose)

Richard le Gallienne died in 1947.

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