John Addington Symonds

Born in Bristol in 1840, he became an English poet, essayist, biographer, and cultural historian whose reputation rests largely on The Renaissance in Italy, his wide-ranging study of Italian literature, art, and history. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford, and later held a fellowship at Magdalen College.

Ill health shaped much of his adult life. After developing tuberculosis symptoms, he traveled frequently for treatment and eventually settled in Davos, Switzerland, though he died in Rome in 1893. Alongside his historical and critical writing, he also wrote biographies of major writers and artists.

He is especially important today as an early writer on same-sex desire. Works such as A Problem in Greek Ethics and A Problem in Modern Ethics explored male love with a frankness that was highly unusual in Victorian Britain, making his life and writing significant both in literary history and in the history of sexuality.