Charles Philip Castle Kains Jackson (1857–1933) was an English poet closely associated with the
Uranian school.
Biography
Beginning in 1888, in addition to a career as a lawyer, he served as editor for the periodical ''
The Artist and Journal of Home Culture'', which became something of an official periodical for the movement. In it, he praised such artists as
Henry Scott Tuke (to whom he dedicated a homo-erotic sonnet entitled "Sonnet on a picture by Tuke") and
Henry Oliver Walker
Henry Oliver Walker (May 14, 1843 – January 14, 1929) was an American painter of figures and portraits best known for his mural decorations. His works include a series of paintings honoring various poets for the Library of Congress and de ...
. He also befriended such similar-minded contemporaries as
Frederick William Rolfe
Frederick William Rolfe (surname pronounced ), better known as Baron Corvo (Italian for "Crow"), and also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe (22 July 1860 – 25 October 1913), was an English writer, artist, ph ...
,
Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carried a homoer ...
and
John Addington Symonds
John Addington Symonds, Jr. (; 5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies of writers and artists. Although m ...
.
The homosexual and pederastic aspects of ''The Artist and Journal of Home Culture'' declined after the replacement of Kains Jackson as an editor in 1894. The final issue edited by Kains Jackson included his essay, ''the New Chivalry'', an argument for the moral and societal benefits of
pederasty and erotic male friendship on the grounds of both
Platonism and
Social Darwinism. According to Kains Jackson, the New Chivalry would promote "the youthful masculine ideal" over the Old Chivalry's emphasis on the feminine. Jackson's volumes of poetry include ''Finibus Cantat Amor'' (1922) and ''Lysis'' (1924).
Kains Jackson was a member of the
Order of Chaeronea, a secret society for homosexuals founded in 1897 by
George Ives, which was named after the location of
the battle where the
Sacred Band of Thebes was finally annihilated in 338 BC.
[The Knitting Circle: George Ives. ] Other members included
Samuel Elsworth Cottam,
Montague Summers, and
John Gambril Nicholson.
Jackson discovered the poetry of
Edward Cracroft Lefroy. He published two small books of poetry, both concerning his romance with his cousin Cecil Castle who died in 1922. A third unpublished collection of 85 poems, titled ''Alba Ligustra'', dating from 1925–28, was sold by an American book dealer in 2017. Many of the poems concerned Kains-Jackson's memories of Castle, and other poems and notes referred to
Henry Scott Tuke.
References
Aldrich, Robert and Garry Wotherspoon (eds.). ''Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day''. Routledge, 2001.
Frantzen, Allen J. ''Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice and the Great War.'' University of Chicago Press, 2003.
External links
Famous GLBT: Charles Kains Jackson
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Charles Kains
British gay writers
1857 births
1933 deaths
English LGBT poets
English male poets
Uranians