(Rev.) E(dwin) E(mmanuel) Bradford (1860-1944) was an English clergyman and Uranian poet. He attended Exeter College, Oxford, and received his B.A. 1884. He was vicar of Nordelph , Norfolk, from 1905 to 1944. Rev. Bradford's verse was outspokenly gay, but also remarkably popular during his lifetime. His work can just barely be interpreted as a sign of innocent "romantic friendship " with youths, but several verses, such as "The Bather in the Blue Grotto at Capri" and "Alan", are plainly erotically inspired. Many of his poems are direct though sometimes self-effacing pleas of love to the young males in his life. In the Reverend's own words:

Here's a loyal and a loving heart,

Take it, lad, or leave it.

Works

• Sonnets Songs & Ballads (1908)
• Passing the Love of Women and Other Peoms (1913)
• In Quest of Love and Other Poems (1913)
• Lays of Love and Life (1916)
• The New Chivalry and Other Poems (1918)
• The Romance of Youth and Other Poems (1920)
• Ralph Rawdon: a Story in Verse (1922)
• The True Aristocracy (1923)
• The Tree of Knowledge (1925)
• The Kingdom within You and Other Poems (1927)
• Strangers and Pilgrims (1929)
• Boyhood (1930)

Further Information

Bradford, Rev. E. E.; Paul Webb, ed. (1988). To Boys Unknown. London: GMP Publishers.

D'Arch Smith, Timothy (1970). Love in Earnest. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.