John Addington Symonds
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John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of gay love, which he referred to as l'amour de l'impossible (love of the impossible). A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies about writers and artists. He also wrote much poetry inspired by his homosexual affairs.
Symonds' A problem in Greek ethics (1883) was one of the first essays in English to defend homosexuality.
