A. J. A. Symons
Alphonse James Albert 'Symons' was an English writer and bibliographer.
Early life and education
Symons was the eldest of four sons and a daughter born to auctioneer Morris Albert Symons, of Russian-Polish Jewish immigrant parentage, and Minnie Louise, née Bull. Due to the family's financial difficulties, his education was limited, and he was mainly self-educated. He was obliged to enter a trade at the age of fourteen, and for three years led a "life of drudgery" apprenticed to a furrier. Symons retained a sense of "intense humiliation" over his time in the fur trade, comparing it to "Dickens's time at Warren's blacking factory".Career
In 1922, he founded the First Edition Club to publish limited editions and to organize exhibitions of rare books and manuscripts. In 1924 he published a bibliography of first editions of the works of Yeats, and in 1930 he founded the Book Collector's Quarterly. He was an authority on writers and editions of the 1890s, and he published An Anthology of 'Nineties Verse in 1928.Symons completed his first biography, Emin, Governor of Equatoria, in 1928. In 1933 he brought out a biography of the explorer H. M. Stanley. Neither created much of a stir. In 1934, however, Symons published his masterpiece, The Quest for Corvo, a biography of the English author and eccentric Frederick Rolfe. Subtitled "An experiment in biography," The Quest for Corvo was a groundbreaking work: rather than being a simple narrative of a life, it describes an author's search for understanding of his subject, revealing aspects of Rolfe's life and character as they are revealed to the author. Though it appears entirely natural, the work is very skilfully orchestrated. The result is a vivid, prismatic portrait of Rolfe, those who knew him, and of Symons himself.
Symons wrote with difficulty and sought help in the study of psychoanalysis. He left several unfinished works, including a long-contemplated biography of Oscar Wilde, at his death. His author brother Julian Symons published his biography in 1950.