Gray was a poet, editor, translator, and 1890s dandy figure, regarded by many as the model for Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray. He is best remembered for his first verse collection, Silverpoints (1893), which established him as an accomplished translator and poet in the French symboliste tradition. By 1895, “with a promising career behind him”, according to the poet Theodore Wratislaw (Wratislaw 1893: 328), he dissociated himself from Wilde’s decadent circle and devoted himself to Catholicism and writing spiritual verse, moving permanently to Edinburgh in 1901, where he became rector of the parish of St Patrick’s.
John Henry Gray was born in Bethnal Green, London, on 10 March 1866, the eldest of nine children. …
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Citation: Desmarais, Jane. "John Gray". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1848, accessed 22 November 2024.]
