Ronald Firbank

Gregory Mackie (University of British Columbia)

Ed. by Gillian Fenwick, University of Toronto
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

Born 17 Jan 1886
Died 21 May 1926
Activity 1905-1926

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Cultural Identities

LGBTQ

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Although the writings of Ronald Firbank (1886-1926) are classics of high camp, they also represent an important contribution to the style and technique of literary modernism, and are the expression of a unique and highly idiosyncratic creative voice. Because of his self-consciously whimsical humour and ostensible frivolity, Firbank has received less attention from scholars of modernism than contemporaries such as Woolf, Joyce, or Forster (who, although appreciative, considered Firbank a literary “glow-worm”); Evelyn Waugh and the Sitwells, however, admired him. Firbank’s ambiguous status as a cult writer appealing to a limited audience dates from the 1920s, and he has generally been considered among the “minor” writers of …

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2092 words

Citation: Mackie, Gregory. "Ronald Firbank". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 September 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1535, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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