Barbellion, W. N. P., 1889-1919

• Bruce Frederick Cummings

Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion was the pen name of Bruce Frederick Cummings.

He was born on September 7, 1889, in Barnstaple, Devon, England.

He was an English diarist and a naturalist at heart who ended up working at the British Museum's Department of Natural History in London. He began his journal at the age of thirteen and continued to record his observations there, gradually moving from dry scientific notes to a more personal, literary style. In 1915, he was called to enlist in the British Army to fight in World War I. However, a medical officer diagnosed him with multiple sclerosis, deeming him unfit for active duty. This news profoundly affected Cummings, and as a result, his journal became much more intense and personal. His diaries were published in March 1919 under the title The Journal of a Disappointed Man. He used the pseudonym "W. N. P. Barbellion" to protect the identities of his family and friends, choosing the forenames "Wilhelm," "Nero," and "Pilate" as examples of the most wretched men ever to have lived. The book has been frequently reprinted in paperback and is considered a classic of English literature. The book is compared to the works of notable writers, including Franz Kafka and James Joyce. Barbellion summarizes his life in one of the last entries of The Journal of a Disappointed Man: "I am only twenty-eight, but I have condensed into those few years a tolerably long life: I have loved and married, and have a family; I have wept and enjoyed, struggled and overcome, and when the hour comes, I shall be content to die."

In 1915, he married Winifred Eleanor Benger Abbey (1890-1979). He died on October 22, 1919, in Buckinghamshire, England.