Humbert Wolfe

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Humbert Wolfe, (January 5 1885 – January 5, 1940), was an English poet, man of letters and civil servant, from a German-Jewish family background; he was one of the most popular authors of the 1920s. He is now remembered for his epigram:

You cannot hope

to bribe or twist,

thank God! the

British journalist.

But, seeing what

the man will do

unbribed, there's

no occasion to.

He was also a translator, of Heinrich Heine and Edmond Fleg (1874-1963). A Christian convert, he remained very aware of his Jewish heritage. His career was in the Civil Service, beginning in the Board of Trade and then in the Ministry of Labour; his work was recognised with a CBE and then a CB. By 1940 he had a position of high responsibility.

He had a long-term affair with the novelist Pamela Frankau, while remaining married.

Works

London sonnets (1920)
Shylock reasons with Mr. Chesterton: and other poems (1920)
Circular saws (1923)
Labour supply and regulation (1923)
Lampoons (1925)
The Unknown Goddess (1925) poems
Humoresque (1926)
News of the Devil (1926) poems
Requiem (1927) poems
Cursory Rhymes (1927) editor
Others Abide (1927)
Kensington Gardens (1927)
Dialogues and monologues (1928) criticism
This Blind Rose (1928) poems
Troy (1928) Faber & Gwyer
The Moon and Mrs. Misses Smith (1928)
The Craft of Verse (1928) essay
The Silver Cat and other poems (1928)
Notes on English Verse Satires (1929)
A Winter Miscellany (1930) editor
Tennyson (1930)
The Uncelestial City (1930)
Early Poems (1930)
George Moore (1931)
Snow (1931) poems
Signpost to poetry (1931)
Reverie of policeman: A ballet in three acts (1933)
Now a stranger (1933) autobiography
Romantic and unromantic poetry 1933
Portraits by inference (1934)
Sonnets pour Helene (by Ronsard) (1934) translator
X at Oberammergau : A poem (1935) drama
The Fourth of August (1935) poems
Selected Lyrics of Heinrich Heine (1935) translator
P. L. M.: Peoples Landfalls Mountains 1936
The Pilgrim's Way (1936)
The Silent Knight : A romantic comedy in thr 1937
Others Abide: Translated Greek Epigrams 1937
The Upward Anguish (1938) autobiography
Out of Great Tribulation (1939) poems
Kensington Gardens in War-Time (1940) poems

Reference

Harlequin in Whitehall - a Life of Humbert Wolfe, Poet and Civil Servant 1885-1940 (1997) Philip Bagguley

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