A.J.A. Symons: His Life And Speculations

When A.J.A. Symons died in 1941 he was known to a wide public as author of an “experiment in biography”, The Quest For Corvo, which is one of the more remarkable biographies of the inter-war period; and to a more limited one as a bibliographer, gourmet, dandy, wit and fantastic (and mysterious) character. This book about him by his brother Julian commemorates a meteoric career in literary society.Julian Symons tales of the First Edition Club which is brother directed from one room in the Pall Mall, and of its influence on English bibliography; of the Wine and Food Society, that gourmets’ paradise, which A.J.A. Symons founded with André L. Simon; of “A.J.’s” skill as calligrapher and amateur forger, of his eccentricities as collector and dandy. The portrait which emerges is of a multi-faceted and memorable character, a social adventurer with a sense of style, a fastidious literary buccaneer whose own life was in many ways as remarkable as that of his biographical subject, “Baron Corvo”. Among the many epitaphs A.J.A. Symons wrote for himself, one in particular seemed suitable to his adventurous spirit: “No one so poor has lived so well.”Julian Symons is himself a poet and critic of distinction. He has written this biography of his brother with a coolness and subdued irony that transform what might have been a record of family piety into a notable work of literature.