Theodore Watts

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Theodore Watts painted by Miss HB Norris, 1902 - Frontispiece to “Aylwin” - Illustrated Edition, published by Hurst & Blackett, Ltd. London, 1906

Walter Theodore Watts or Watts-Dunton (born October 12, 1832 in St. Ives , then Huntingdonshire , † June 6, 1914 in Putney ( London )) was an English poet and literary critic. He is better known today as a close friend of Algernon Charles Swinburne , whom he saved from alcoholism .

His initial interest in science changed and he became a lawyer in London. He met Dante Gabriel Rossetti when he advised him about a stolen check. He helped Swinburne by freeing him from his extortionate publisher John Camden Hotten in 1872. He became a friend of the Pre-Raphaelites and had a lifelong friendship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

But his true love was literature. He wrote for The Examiner newspaper . From 1875 to 1898 he was the main reviewer of poetry and literature for Athenaeum magazine . He also contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica with an entry on poems in 1885 .

When his client and friend Swinburne was in danger of becoming addicted to alcohol, he took him into his house in 1879 and took over his guardianship. Swinburne lived with him for about 30 years. What is less known is that he also prevented the completion of Swinburne's sadomasochistic novel Lesbia Brandon .

Watts' household also included his sister Miranda Mason, her husband Charles (who was also a lawyer), with their son Bertie (born 1874). They employed a cook and a maid.

Watts Dunton later took in Henry Treffry Dunn , himself a painter and assistant to Dante Rosetti. Like Swinburne, Dunn was addicted to alcohol and died in "Les Pines" in 1899.

In 1897 he added his mother's maiden name, Dunton , to his last name .

After a long life as a bachelor, Watts-Dunton married 29-year-old Clara Jane Reich at the age of 73 in 1905, whom he first met when she was a schoolgirl at the age of 16. She moved into "Les Pines" and a few years after the death of her husband in 1922 published a book about life in the Swinburne-Watts-Dunton household entitled " The Home Life of Swinburne ". In it she vigorously contradicts the rumors that their marriage was unhappy or a marriage of convenience.

Works

It was not until 1897 that Watts published a volume under his own name, a collection of poems entitled The Coming of Love , some of which he had previously reprinted from time to time in magazines. The novel " Aylwin " followed, which was a great success in Victorian England after its publication in 1898. Henry Aylwin is cruelly separated from his childhood sweetheart Winifred Wynne and goes on a search for her, with his girlfriend, the gypsy Sinfi Lovell, helps him. By 1914 this book had had 26 editions and the reprint could be found in the "World Classics" until 1950. It also contains a fictional description of Dante Rossetti and his circle of friends. Today this book is practically unknown.

Watts-Dunton's memoir, Old Familiar Faces (1916), is a valuable contribution to his life and time.

as an author
  • The Coming of Love and other poems . John Lane, London 1897.
  • Aylwin . University Press, Oxford 1950 (reprint of London 1898 edition).
  • The Christmas Dream . London 1901.
  • Christmas at the Mermaid . John Lane London 1902. (illustrated by Herbert Cole ).
  • Poetry and The Renascence of Wonder . Kennikat Press, Port Washington, NY 1970, ISBN 0-8046-1057-6 (reprinted from London 1903 edition).
  • Studies of Shakespeare . London 1910.
  • Old Familiar Faces . London 1916.
  • Works by Watts-Dunton on the Internet Archive - online
  • The Rhodes memorial at Oxford. The work of Cecil Rhodes; a sonnet sequence . Publisher: Henry Frowde, London 1907
as editor
his wife as an author

Photo gallery

  • Theodore Watts-Dunton painted by Dante Gabriel Rosetti in 1874

further reading

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Watts, Theodore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Watts-Dunton, Walter Theodore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet and literary critic
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Ives , then Huntingdonshire
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1914
Place of death Putney ( London )