Beardsley
by Stanley Weintraub
On This Page
Description
At twenty, "the Fra Angelico of Satanism," as Roger Fry was to call Aubrey Beardsley, was working as an obscure clerk in a London life insurance company. Three years later he was the most notorious--and perhaps the most influential--artist in England. His controversial drawings for Oscar Wilde's Salome were so daring and different that someone quipped that Wilde's play illustrated Beardsley's art. His work as art editor of the two most famous magazines of the 1890's, The Yellow Book and The show more Savoy, consolidated his fame although he was unreasonably dragged into the Wilde scandal and nearly destroyed by it. By the time he produced his strikingly scabrous drawings for a pornographer publisher's Lysistrata he was dying, yet still incredibly productive. But he had already indelibly stamped the age with his name. In a front-page review in the New York Times Book Review in 1967, art critic John Russell wrote of Beardsley that "as a biography--a life's story" the book "needs no successsor." Aubrey Beardsley: Imp of the Perverse began as an updating of the original biography but new material at hand and the need to reinterpret Beardsley from the perspective of augmented life-records made a mere updating impractical, especially since the climate for publishing has become far more receptive to truth in biography, however explicit. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
A look at a late Victorian Artist who has remained an inspiration to designers ever since. The personal life is pretty well covered and the prose is lively.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
62+ Works 3,782 Members
Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts & Humanities at Pennsylvania State University. He has written acclaimed works of military history on World Wars I & II. He lives in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. (Publisher Provided) Stanley Weintraub was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 17, 1929. He received a B.S. in education from show more West Chester State Teachers College in 1949 and a M. A. in English from Temple University. He served in the Army during the Korean Conflict where he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Korean Ribbon with five battle stars. Upon his return, he received a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University where he went on to teach until his retirement. He wrote over 40 books during his lifetime including Private and Public Shaw: A Dual Portrait of Lawrence of Arabia and George Bernard Shaw, Beardsley: A Biography, 11 Days in December, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, MacArthur's War, Long Day's Journey into War, and A Stillness Heard Round the World: The End of the Great War. He received the George Freedley Award in 1971 for Journey to Heartbreak: The Crucible Years of Bernard Shaw, 1914-1918 and the Freedom Foundation Award in 1980 for The London Yankees: Portraits of American Writers and Artists in London, 1894-1914. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Aubrey Beardsley
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 80
- Popularity
- 396,662
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.90)
- Languages
- English, German, Norwegian
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 6
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 6
