Ronald Firbank
Ronald Firbank (Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank, 1886–1926) was a novelist.
At the age of ten he went briefly to Uppingham School[1] and then on to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He converted to Catholicism in 1907. In 1909 he left Cambridge without taking a degree.
Living off his inheritance, he travelled around Spain, Italy, the Middle East, and North Africa. Openly gay[2] and chronically shy, he was an enthusiastic consumer of alcohol and cannabis. He died of lung disease in Rome, aged 40, and is buried in the Campo Verano cemetery.[3]
His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with references to religion, social-climbing, and sexuality.
References
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- ↑ Fletcher, Ifan Kyrle (1930). Ronald Firbank. A Memoir. London: Duckworth.
- ↑ Oscar Levant (1968). The Unimportance of being Oscar, Putnam, pp. 158-159.
- ↑ Firbank's grave may be found in Riquadro (Section) 38 of the Reparto Stranieri (Foreigners Section) in Campo Verano. His official record on the cemetery office computer states that this is the 'Rep Stranieri Anglicani' (Anglican Foreigners Section), but Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff is buried (in a communal grave) in the same section, and his official record states that it is the 'Reparto Stranieri Cattolici = Zona Inglese' (Catholic Foreigners Section, English Zone), so it would appear that Section 38 was used for both Anglicans and Catholics.