Lionel Johnson born 15 March 1867 (d. 1902)
Born in Broadstairs, Kent, Lionel Johnson was a leading literary critic of his time, writing the first critical study of Thomas Hardy (1894).
He has earned a particular place in history for introducing his lover to a writer friend - his lover was Lord Alfred Douglas, the friend was Oscar Wilde...
So disgruntled was he with this betrayal that he turned to Catholicism and wrote a sonnet called The Destroyer of a Soul (1892) - 'I hate you with a necessary hate...'
The following year he wrote what is regarded as his finest work The Dark Angel (1893) - an anguished work inspired by his homosexuality.
He lived a rather solitary life in London, struggling with alcoholism and his repressed homosexuality.
Having lived long enough to see his rival in love get more than his comeuppance, he cracked his head open falling off a barstool in 1902. He was just 35 years old.