The 25th of this month, last Saturday, was the 101st Anniversary of the death of Baron Corvo. Last year at this time there were banquets and catalogues and all sorts of things going on. This year, a little more staid perhaps but nonetheless on Thursday at Maggs Bros in London I was at the launch of Robert Scoble's second major book on the Baron. It was a very enjoyable evening and so nice to meet so many readers of this blog: and always good to be chastised for not posting something new every day! I will try and do better. This time, Scoble's book takes the story onwards from Rolfe's death and tells the story of the The Corvo Cult, the small but extremely dedicated group of people who chased down his life-story, his letters, his first editions: the publishers, collectors, academics, and literati who were, over the years infected with the Covo Bacillus. From the early days of John Lane and Henry Harland, through to Shane Leslie and A. J. A. Symons, Brocard Sewall, A. T. Bartholomew and onto G. F. Sims, Cecil Woolf, Timothy d'Arch Smith and Donald Weeks and up to the present day with some mention of the reconstituted Corvine Society. The names of those who at some point joined the Corvo Cult are legion and they all feature here in Scoble's tradmark lucid and entertaining prose backed up with a fastidious attention to detail in the footnotes... This is a book which is not just for those who know the Baron but also for anyone with an interest in books and literary life through the twentieth century. The book is published by Strange Attractor Press and is best ordered through their website, it is designed to make a pair with Robert's previous book, Raven: The Turbulent World of Baron Corvo.
