The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (Valancourt eClassics) Read Online Free PDF

acquaintance. Mr Prentice was disposed to help, though dubious of his power. The firm’s correspondence with Rolfe had long before been destroyed, and none of the present members had ever met him. On the other hand, I learned, to my great astonishment, that the manuscript of The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole lay at that moment in Messrs Chatto’s safe; had lain there forgotten, in fact, since the time of Rolfe’s death. All eagerness, I asked to be allowed to read it; but here the traditional caution of the publisher stood in my way. Prentice, too, had observed Mr Swinnerton’s letter to The Times, with its references to libels; and he was in consequence unwilling to show the manuscript without authority. What authority he would accept was not clear. Rolfe’s barrister brother, he told me, was alive and in London; but there was great uncertainty as to whether he or that Anglican clergyman to whom Mr Pirie-Gordon had referred owned the rights of the long-forgotten book. He advised me, and I determined, to seek Mr Herbert Rolfe. I wrote at once; and the passage of a few posts brought me the following:
     
    Dear Sir,
    I am not unwilling to give you facts relating to my brother Frederick William Rolfe, but I fear I cannot spare much time for the purpose. I am certainly anxious that whatever may be written about him may be correct. You might perhaps send me a list of the facts you require. Or would you prefer to see me in chambers here? If so please come before term begins. An appointment could be arranged by telephone. I shall probably be in from about 11.30 to 4.0 p.m. most ensuing days. I presume you would let me see a proof of whatever you may write. Did you know my brother personally?
    I should warn you that I may not be able to furnish you with precise dates for each of his movements.
    Yours faithfully,
    Herbert Rolfe
     
    Before I could reply to Mr Rolfe’s guarded offer, however, another letter arrived:
     
    Dear Sir,
    My brother opened your letter by mistake, and has only just forwarded it. I put all I could collect about Baron Corvo into a Mercury article illustrated by his writings. His novel Hadrian the Seventh was discovered by R. H. Benson, and had a great influence on us at Cambridge twenty years ago. I was entirely carried away by his tyrianthine style. Grant Richards had a book of letters of Corvo. After the failure of his firm it passed to More and Co., who showed me stacks of coloured script. Apply to Grant Richards, who published the Borgia book for Rolfe. You will have to get his leave to use the letters.
    Yours sincerely
    Shane Leslie
     
    I wrote forthwith to ‘More and Co.’, whom I had no difficulty in identifying as the De la More Press, publishers of a series of King’s Classics which had been very familiar to my boyhood. While I was waiting for a reply, yet another avenue was disclosed to me:
     
    Dear Sir,
    If you will let me know what day will suit, I will call upon you at 5   p.m. on that day to talk about Baron Corvo.
    Yours faithfully
    Harry Pirie-Gordon
     
    Looking back, I find in each of these letters a reflection of its writer, from the legal caution of Mr Rolfe, the ready helpfulness of Mr Swinnerton, Mr Leslie’s use of the word ‘tyrianthine’, Mr Pirie-Gordon’s brevity. The most urgent letter seemed to be Mr Rolfe’s; and, obeying his instruction, I telephoned to fix an appointment next day. But meanwhile a new woodcock fell to my springe: Mr Kains-Jackson was announced. He had answered my letter promptly and in person.
     
    *
     
    My white-haired visitor had a very interesting story to tell; for he had known Rolfe intimately, and, as I found later, nearly everyone who knew Rolfe thought him the most remarkable man of his acquaintance. This particular connection came about by chance in the very early ’nineties, when Mr Jackson, then a City solicitor, was taking a customary holiday at Christchurch in Hampshire, at that time a quiet village quite separated from Bournemouth,