John Francis Bloxam (1873–1928), also known as Jack Bloxam, was an English author and clergyman associated with the Uranian movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While studying as an undergraduate at Exeter College, Oxford, Bloxam established himself in the literary underground by editing the short-lived undergraduate periodical The Chameleon: a Bazaar of Dangerous and Smiling Chances.
The sole issue of The Chameleon published Bloxam's most famous and controversial story, "The Priest and the Acolyte." The narrative depicted a tragic love affair between a young Anglican priest and a fourteen-year-old boy, culminating in a mutual suicide pact after their relationship is discovered. Alongside Lord Alfred Douglas's poem "Two Loves," the contents of Bloxam's journal—particularly "The Priest and the Acolyte"—were later used as evidence of moral corruption against Oscar Wilde during his infamous 1895 trials.
Beyond his editorial work, Bloxam contributed to other contemporary publications, including the poem "A Summer Hour," which featured similar pederastic themes and appeared in The Artist. Despite the controversy surrounding his early literary output, Bloxam was a convert to Anglo-Catholicism and eventually pursued a career in the church, serving as an ordained priest.
