Humbert Wolfe

Humbert Wolfe was born in Milan, Italy, and came from a Jewish family background,"Wolfe, Humbert" in Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950, (pp. 1540-1) his father, Martin Wolff, being of German descent and his mother, Consuela, née Terraccini, Italian. He was brought up in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire and was a pupil at Bradford Grammar School.{{Cite book|last=Moggridge|first=Donald|title=Maynard Keynes: An Economist's Biography|year=1992|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-05141-5|pages=915|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDeQIjT0Gq4C&q=humbert+wolfe+bradford+grammar&pg=PA915}} Wolfe attended Wadham College at the University of Oxford.

He was one of the most popular British authors of the 1920s. He was also a translator of Heinrich Heine, Edmond Fleg (1874–1963) and Eugene Heltai (Heltai Jenő). A Christian convert, he remained very aware of his Jewish heritage.{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}}

His career was in the Civil Service, beginning in the Board of Trade and then in the Ministry of Labour. By 1940 he had a position of high responsibility. His work was recognised with a CBE and then a CB.

Wolfe said in an interview with Twentieth Century Authors that he was "of no political creed, except that his general view is that money and its possessors should be abolished."

Wolfe's verses have been set to music by a number of composers, including Gustav Holst in his 12 Humbert Wolfe Songs, Op. 48 (1929).[https://imslp.org/wiki/12_Humbert_Wolfe_Songs,_Op.48_(Holst,_Gustav) Holst, Gustav (1930). 12 Humbert Wolfe Songs, Op. 48]. London: Augener. Full score at imslp

He had a long-term affair with the novelist Pamela Frankau, while remaining married.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

He died on his 55th birthday.

Though his works are little read today, the following epigram from The Uncelestial City continues to be widely known and quoted:

:

:You cannot hope

::to bribe or twist,

:thank God! the

::British journalist.

:But, seeing what

::the man will do

:unbribed, there's

::no occasion to.Mick Temple, The British Press. McGraw-Hill International, 2008 {{ISBN|0335222978}}, (p. 127)

File:5 Heads Humbert Wolfe + Padgett.JPG

In 2014–2015, five busts of the poet were created and sited by sculptor Anthony Padgett to mark the 75th anniversary of Wolfe's death.

The sculptures have been sited where Wolfe died in London – 75 Eccleston Square,{{cite web|url=http://www.thelondonmagazine.co.uk/interiors-gardens/celebrity-homes/a-place-in-history-75-eccleston-square.html|title=The London Magazine}} where he studied – Wadham College Oxford,{{cite web|url=https://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/news/2015/june/celebrating-humbert-wolfe|title=Celebrating Humbert Wolfe|publisher=Wadham College Alumni News |date=5 June 2015}} where there is a collection of his manuscripts –

New York Public Library and where he grew up – Bradford Library and Bradford Grammar School.{{cite web|url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/14092341.Sculpture_of__colourful__Bradford_born_WW1_poet_to_be_presented_to_city/|title=Sculpture of 'colourful' Bradford-born WW1 poet to be presented to city|work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus}}

• [https://archive.org/details/londonsonnets00wolf/page/n7 London Sonnets] (1920)
• [https://archive.org/details/shylockreasonswi00wolfiala/page/n3 Shylock Reasons with Mr. Chesterton and other poems] (1920)
• {{Cite EB1922 |wstitle= Labour Ministry and Department of Labour |volume = 31 |last= Wolfe |first= Humbert |author-link= Humbert Wolfe|short=1}} Please note that a wikilink to the author's article on [Labour Supply and Regulation] in [EB1922] is not available
• [https://archive.org/details/circularsaws00wolfuoft/page/n5 Circular Saws] (1923)
• [https://archive.org/details/laboursupplyregu00wolfuoft/page/ii Labour Supply and Regulation] (1923)
• The Lilac (1924)
• Lampoons (1925)
• The Unknown Goddess (1925) poems
• Humoresque (1926)
• News of the Devil (1926) poems
• [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.114289/page/n1/mode/2up Requiem] (1927) poems
• [https://archive.org/details/CursoryRhymesDesktop/page/n1/mode/1up Cursory Rhymes] (1927) poems
• [https://archive.org/details/othersabide0000unse_v2i8/page/n7/mode/2up Others Abide] (1927) translator, Ancient Greek poems
• Kensington Gardens (1924)
• [https://archive.org/details/dialoguesmonolog00wolf/page/n7/mode/2up Dialogues and Monologues] (1928) criticism
• This Blind Rose (1928) poems
• Troy (1928) Faber & Gwyer, Ariel poems
• The Moon and Mrs. Misses Smith (1928)
• The Craft of Verse (1928) essay
• The Silver Cat and other poems (1928)
• [https://archive.org/details/notes_english_verse_satire/page/n5 Notes on English Verse Satire] (1929)
• [https://archive.org/details/wintermiscellany0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up A Winter Miscellany] (1930) editor, prose anthology, plus some original poems
• Homage to Meleager (1930 Limited Edition)
• [https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.234981 Tennyson] (1930) criticism of Maud
• [https://archive.org/details/uncelestialcity0000wolf/page/n5/mode/2up The Uncelestial City] (1930) poems
• Early Poems (1930)
• [https://archive.org/details/georgemoore0000wolf/page/n5/mode/2up George Moore] (1931) biography
• Snow (1931) poems
• Signpost to Poetry (1931)
• Reverie of Policeman: A ballet in three acts (1933)
• Now a Stranger (1933) autobiography
• Romantic and Unromantic Poetry (1933)
• Truffle Eater. Pretty Stories and funny pictures An anti-Nazi parody of the famous Struwwelpeter, published under the alias "Oistros", with pictures by Archibald Louis Charles Savory (1933)
• [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.76332/page/n1/mode/2up Portraits by Inference] (1934) biographical sketches
• Sonnets pour Helene (by Ronsard) (1934) translator
• [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.86633/page/n5/mode/2up X at Oberammergau : A poem] (1935) drama
• The Fourth of August (1935) poems
• Selected Lyrics of Heinrich Heine (1935) translator
• P. L. M.: Peoples Landfalls Mountains (1936)
• The Pilgrim's Way (1936)
• [https://archive.org/details/personalities0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up Personalities; a selection from the writings of A. A. Baumann] (1936) editor, biographical sketches by Arthur A. Baumann
• The Silent Knight: A Romantic Comedy in Three Acts (by Eugene Heltai)(1937)
• Others Abide: Translated Greek Epigrams (1937)
• The Upward Anguish (1938) autobiography
• Out of Great Tribulation (1939) poems
• Kensington Gardens in War-Time (1940) poems
• [https://archive.org/details/cyranodebergera00rost/page/n3/mode/2up Cyrano de Bergerac] (1941) by Edmond Rostand translator

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikisource author}}

{{wikiquote}}

• Bagguley, Philip (1997). Harlequin in Whitehall: a Life of Humbert Wolfe, Poet and Civil Servant 1885-1940. London: Nyala Publications, {{isbn|9780952937609}}
• Helen Ferris, Favorite Poems Old and New (1957).

• {{Librivox author |id=15281}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Humbert}}

Category:1885 births

Category:1940 deaths

Category:Writers from Bradford

Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford

Category:Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom

Category:Converts to Christianity from Judaism

Category:Civil servants in the Board of Trade

Category:Civil servants in the Ministry of Labour

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath

Category:People educated at Bradford Grammar School

Category:English male poets

Category:20th-century English poets

Category:20th-century English male writers