d. November 5, 1923
Known as "Fersen". He became one of the most notorious of Europe's fin de siècle gay men, principally because he was at the center of a major French homosexual scandal. In July 1903 he was arrested together with another aristocrat, Hamelin de Warren, and charged with indecent assault and "exciting minors to debauchery".
The importance of the scandal derived from the fact that the youths in question were boys of good family from well known Parisian high schools: the Lycée Carnot, the Lycée Condorcet, and the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly.
The occasion of the supposed offence was a series of tableaux vivants organized in his house in which a number of these boys took part, namely one to whom he had written indiscretely passionate letters.
The assault charge was thrown out, but he was found guilty of the lesser offence and and sentenced to a fine, a six month prison sentence and "forfeiture of family rights".
Consequently he moved to Capri, where he became a central figure in the island's gay men expatriate colony until his death.
His lover in Italy was Nino Cesarini, that he made his friends portray in paintings and nude pictures.
He was also the founder of the short-lived gay-erotic magazine Akadémos (1909), to which he contributed under the pen name of "Sonyeuse".
If you want to read one of Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd's poems, please go at his page in our book Famous Homoerotic Poems.
His work include:
Chansons légères (1901)
Ébauches et débauches (1901)
Source: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History, from Antiquity to WWII, Routledge, London, 2001- et alii
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