Ralph Nicholas Chubb (8 February 1892 - 14 January 1960) was a British poet, printer, and artist. Heavily influenced by Whitman, Blake, and the Romantics, his work was the creation of a highly intricate personal mythology, one that was anti-materialist and sexually revolutionary. Ralph Chubb in 1912. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... January 14 is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (born Walter Whitman) (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist born on Long Island, New York. ... William Blake (1807) William Blake (November 28, 1757–August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. ... Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... This article primarily focuses on the general concepts of matter and existence. ...

Life

Ralph Chubb was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. His family moved to the historic town of St Albans before his first birthday. Chubb attended St Albans School and Selwyn College Cambridge before becoming an officer in the First World War. He served with distinction but developed neurasthenia, and he was invalided out in 1918. From 1919 to 1922 Chubb studied at the Slade School of Art in London. It was there that he met Leon Underwood and other influential artists. He went on to contribute several articles and poems for Underwood's magazine, The Island. Although his work was displayed at such venues as the Goupil Gallery and the Royal Academy of Art, his paintings did not sell. He moved with his family to the village of Curridge, near Newbury in Berkshire. He began to devote his artistic talents to the printed works which would remain his chief labor in life. Harpenden is a town in the City and District of St Albans of Hertfordshire in the East of England. ... Hertfordshire (pronounced Hartfordshire and abbreviated as Herts) is an inland county in the United Kingdom, officially part of the East of England Government region. ... St Albans (thus spelt, no apostrophe or dot) is the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35. ... The Abbey Gateway, now home to the schools History, Economics and Classics departments. ... Full name Selwyn College Motto ΑΝΔΡΙΖΕΣΘΕ quit ye like men Named after George Augustus Selwyn Previous names - Established 1882 Sister College(s) Keble College Master Prof. ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... Combatants Allies: • Serbia, • Russia, • France, • Romania, • Belgium, • British Empire and Dominions, • United States, • Italy, • ...and others Central Powers: • Germany, • Austria-Hungary, • Ottoman Empire, • Bulgaria Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total: 8 million Full list Military dead: 3 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total: 6 million Full... Neurasthenia was a term first coined by George Miller Beard in 1869 to describe a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety and pessimism. ... Part of the University College London, the Slade School of Art was founded in 1868 as the result of an endowment by Felix Slade. ... Leon Underwood (born 25 December 1890 in London -- October 9, 1975) was a British sculptor, painter, and engraver. ... This article refers to an art institution in London. ... Newbury is the principal town in the west of the county of Berkshire in the United Kingdom. ... Berkshire (IPA: or  ; sometimes abbreviated to Berks) is a county in England and forms part of the South East England region. ...

His books were created in several chief phases. His typeset books of the twenties were a humble offering, exhibiting Chubb's talent for woodcutting and his quaint, visually inspired poetry. Even at this early stage, Chubb's lifelong obsession with adolescent males was beginning to become apparent. He expands upon this theme more explicitly in An Appendix, a pederastic and spiritualist manifesto duplicated from a cursive manuscript. An Appendix was the first of his printed works to be printed in his own hand; he soon followed this with the first of his opulent lithographic books, The Sun Spirit. Throughout the nineteen-thirties, Chubb's books became more elaborate and appealing. Water Cherubs crystallizes Chubb's aesthetic of the youthful male form, and The Secret Country unfolds like an illuminated manuscript, recounting stories of Chubb's family and his journeys among the Romani of the New Forest in Hampshire. Chubb's printing press was interrupted by the war, but in 1948 he entered into the third period of career with two massive volumes: The Child Of Dawn and Flames of Sunrise. Each page of these two volumes is crowded with obscure digressions on Chubb's mythology and drawings of symbolic significance. Briefly summarized, Chubb's vision was a prophecy of the redemption of 'Albion', or England, by the boy-god Ra-el-phaos, of whom Ralph claimed himself to be the prophet and herald. This echoes an earlier announcement to be found in The Heavenly Cupid: Spiritualism is a religion in which contact with the spirits of the dead through a medium is central. ... Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface. ... Romany (or Romani) relates to: The Roma: a people sometimes called (to them, pejoratively) Gypsies. ... Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River For other uses, see New Forest (disambiguation). ... Hampshire (abbr. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The white cliffs of Dover Albion (in Ptolemy Alouion), is the most ancient name of Great Britain, though often used to refer specifically to England. ...

I announce a secret event as tremendous and mysterious as any that has occurred in the spiritual history of the world. I announce the inauguration of a Third Dispensation, the dispensation of the Holy Ghost on earth, and the visible advent thereof on earth in the form of a Young Boy of thirteen years old, naked perfect and unblemished.

Other themes run through all of Chubb's work. He was forever haunted by the memory of a young chorister at St Albans who disappeared from Chubb's life just as he had summoned up the courage to speak to him. Similarly, a brief sexual relationship with another boy when Ralph was 19 seemed to serve as a template for future visions of paradise. Chubb's books become progressively more self-involved and paranoid. Seeking to articulate his pederastic desires, he created a personal mythology which explained everything in terms only he could understand. Nonetheless, Chubb's work is of fascinating psychological significance; each of the various angels, knights, seers, and boy-gods in his dream world represents an aspect of his introspective and persecuted self.

Chubb, like many other artists of his generation, resented science for its intrusion into his imagination. He disparaged the scientists, orthodox theologians, and politicians of world, accusing them of squelching his personal thirst for liberty. In 1927 he wrote:

Existence, besides being a miracle, is a symbol. Albeit here for inscrutable purposes the spirit is only to be discerned as it were in a distorting-glass. (The Book of God's Madness)

Chubb sought to persuade his readers in An Appendix of the verity of his solipsism by illustrating some examples of serendipitous events from his life. His aim is more on the mark when he excoriates the taboos and frustrations of modern life.

The green green hills, the blue blue sky, blue sea, great golden SUN, yellow dandelions, the pink naked beauty of ripe boyhood, deathless free and happy, brimming with health. This I must have. Nothing less than this can ever satisfy me! GIVE ME MY HEAVEN! GIVE ME MY HEAVEN! (Water-Cherubs)

Failing in health and facing continuing legal and financial difficulties, Ralph Chubb abandoned his controversial works in the mid-fifties, and began to collect and reprint his early poems and childhood memories. Treasure Trove and The Golden City (published posthumously) are devoid of the usual profusion of naked, lissome youths, but instead offer a glimpse into his youthful imagination, and some of his most charming poetry. In the final years of his life he donated his remaining volumes to the national libraries of Britain. He died peacefully at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire and was buried next to his parents at the Kingsclere Woodland Church. Hampshire (abbr. ...

Chubb's own assessment of his work conforms to the general critical reaction:

I do not necessarily claim to be a great artist or writer; but I claim to be a true spirit--this is a subtler test. Seek me out; but you may not find me. (An Appendix)

Works

None of the editions of Chubb's books exceed more than 200 copies, and some of his lithographed masterworks exist in only 30 or 40 copies, of which a mere 6 or 7 are meticulously hand-colored by Chubb. Reduced full-page illustration from Treasure Trove, by Ralph Chubb (1892-1960) Original Source: Chubb, Ralph. ...

The dates and titles of Chubb's printed works are given below.

Early typeset works

• 1924 MANHOOD
• 1924 THE SACRIFICE OF YOUTH
• 1925 A FABLE OF LOVE & WAR
• 1927 THE CLOUD & THE VOICE
• 1928 WOODCUTS
• 1928 THE BOOK OF GOD'S MADNESS
• 1929 AN APPENDIX (duplicated hand-written text)

Lithographed texts

• 1930 SONGS OF MANKIND
• 1931 THE SUN SPIRIT
• 1934 THE HEAVENLY CUPID
• 1935 SONGS PASTORAL AND PARADISAL (illustrated by Vincent Stuart; script by Helen Hinkley)
• 1936 WATER CHERUBS
• 1939 THE SECRET COUNTRY

Post-war prophetic texts

• 1948 THE CHILD OF DAWN
• 1953 FLAMES OF SUNRISE

Juvenalia and early romances

• 1957 TREASURE TROVE
• 1960 THE GOLDEN CITY

Posthumous works

• 1965 THE DAY OF ST ALBAN
• 1970 AUTUMN LEAVES

Further reading

• Cave, Roderick (1960). In Blake's Tradition: the Press of Ralph Chubb. The American Book Collector. 11 (2), p8-17
• Cave, Roderick (1960). 'Blake's Mantle', a Memoir of Ralph Chubb. Book Design and Production. 3 (2), p24-8
• D'Arch Smith, Timothy (1970). Love in Earnest. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Rahman, Tariq (1991). Ephebophilia and the Creation of a Spiritual Myth in the Works of Ralph Nicholas Chubb. Journal of Homosexuality. 20 (1-2), p103-127
• Reid, Anthony (1970). Ralph Chubb: The Unknown. Reprinted from The Private Library. 3 (3-4).