Symonds, John Addington (sĭm`ənz), 1840–93, English author. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, constant ill health exiled him for the greater part of his life to Italy and Switzerland. His many writings include travel books, Sketches in Italy and Greece (1874) and Italian Byways (1883); literary essays, Introduction to the Study of Dante (1872) and Studies of Greek Poets (1873–76); biographies of Shelley (1878), Sir Philip Sidney (1886), Ben Jonson (1886), and Michelangelo (1893); a masterly translation of the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1888); and several volumes of verse, notably Many Moods (1878) and Animi Figura (1882). Symonds's major work, The Renaissance in Italy (7 vol., 1875–86), is a classic collection of sketches in cultural history.

Bibliography

See biography by P. Grosskurth (1964); study by V. W. Brooks (1914, repr. 1970).

Symonds, John Addington

Symonds, chalk drawing by C. Orsi; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

(credit: Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London)

(born Oct. 5, 1840, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.—died April 19, 1893, Rome) English essayist, poet, and biographer. He traveled extensively for his health, finally settling in Switzerland. His chief work, Renaissance in Italy (1875–86), is a series of extended essays on cultural history. His writings include translations, travel sketches, several volumes of poetry, and studies of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ben Jonson, Sir Philip Sidney, Michelangelo, and Walt Whitman. A Problem in Greek Ethics (written 1871) and A Problem in Modern Ethics (1881) were among the first serious works treating homosexuality. His Memoirs (first published 1984) contains a frank account of his sexuality.