Adelaide, the love in the life and poetry of Ernest Dowson, Part II

Ernest Dowson as an undergraduate
Ernest Dowson as an undergraduate – from Wikimedia Commons

In the first part of this essay, I told how Ernest Dowson met Adelaide Foltinowicz, aged eleven years and a half, whom he nicknamed “Missie” or “Missy,” then he started spending his evenings at her father’s restaurant where she worked as a waitress, and gradually fell in love with her. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Adelaide, the love in the life and poetry of Ernest Dowson, Part I

Charles Edward Conder - Ernest Dowson
Charles Edward Conder – Ernest Dowson, pencil (c.1890s) – National Portrait Gallery NPG 2209

In two previous articles, “Ernest Dowson and the Cult of Minnie Terry” (in Pigtails in Paint) and “Ernest Dowson and the ages of woman” (in this blog), I told that in his youth Ernest Dowson worshipped little girls, in particular the child actress Minnie Terry. But this infatuation remained somewhat on the surface, it did not really move his soul. Indeed, it vanished as soon as he met the true passion of his life, Adelaide Foltinowicz, a girl he nicknamed “Missie” or “Missy.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…