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John Francis Bloxam
1873–1928
An Oxford undergraduate turned churchman, he is remembered for a small but striking body of late-Victorian writing that caused far more noise than its size would suggest. His name is most closely linked with The Chameleon and with a story that later became entangled in the public scandal around Oscar Wilde.
1 Audiobook
The Priest and the Acolyte
by John Francis Bloxam
About the author
Born in 1873 and also known as Jack Bloxam, he was an English writer and churchman associated with the Uranian literary circle. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford, where he edited the short-lived magazine The Chameleon: a Bazaar of Dangerous and Smiling Chances.
His best-known work is the 1894 story The Priest and the Acolyte, published in the only issue of The Chameleon. He also wrote the poem A Summer Hour, and the contents of The Chameleon later drew attention during the trials of Oscar Wilde, giving Bloxam an unexpected place in literary history.
After this brief burst of literary activity, he became a priest and seems to have spent the rest of his life in the clergy. He died in 1928. On the sources I could confirm here, no suitable portrait image was clearly available.