No Loaf of Bread for Corvo

The Stormy Letters of
Frederick Rolfe to John Lane

PATRICK T LAWLOR

. n the morning of February 27, 1899, a shabby author,
Ifailed priest, and paranoid genius called upon his publish¬
er in Vigo Street, London. Frederick Rolfe, better known
as Baron Corvo, had come to London from a one-month stay in
the Holywell workhouse in North Wales to seek his fame and for¬
tune. Although equipped with immense talent and drive, Rolfe was
destined to live an tmhappy, frustrated life. His personal relation¬
ships inevitably floundered on the rocky shore of his disturbed
psyche. The Rare Book and Manuscript Library now houses the
fascinating series of letters written by Rolfe to his publisher, John
Lane, between 1894 and 1903, the period when Rolfe was desper¬
ately endeavoring to make his mark on the literary world.

A publisher of talent and insight, founder of the Bodley Head
imprint, John Lane accepted a number of stories by Rolfe for his
influential, trendsetting literary quarterly The Yellow Book, edited
by Henry Harland and Aubrey Beardsley, issued quarterly
between April 1894 and April 1897. A shrewd and successful busi¬
nessman, Lane was perfectly capable of taking advantage of an
author's financial need. Rolfe knew this but was often in no posi¬
tion to object, for it was his publisher, Rolfe believed, who held
the key to success.

Rolfe attracted the attention and appreciation of Lane and
Harland with his outrageous yet charming retellings of the legends
of Cathohc saints, "Stories Toto Told Me." Begun in 1890 in
Italy—where Rolfe had gone to study for the priesthood—and
continued thereafter in England, the wit, humor, and idiosyncratic
artifice of the stories appealed to Lane's decadent sensibilities. The
first of six Toto stories appeared in the October 1895 issue of The
Yellow Book. Unfortunately, Lane was not quick to pay for material
 

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