Brian Christian de Claiborne Howard (13 March 1905 – 15 January 1958) was an
English poet and later a writer for the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
''.
Biography
Howard was born to American parents in
Hascombe,
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...
, of Protestant descent, a descendant of Benjamin Franklin, and brought up in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
; his father, Francis Gassaway Howard, was the son of the writer
Frank Gassaway, and was an associate of
James Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...
.
He was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...
, where he was one of the ''Eton Arts Society'' group including
Robert Byron,
Harold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in C ...
,
Oliver Messel,
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.
Powell' ...
and
Henry Yorke. He entered
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...
in 1923, not without difficulty. He was prominent in the group later known as the
Oxford Wits. He was part of the
Hypocrites' Club that included
Harold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in C ...
,
Lord David Cecil,
L. P. Hartley
Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was a British novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his career was slow to take off. His best-known novels are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' ...
and
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
.
At Oxford, Howard was part of the Railway Club, which included:
Henry Yorke,
Roy Harrod,
Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath,
David Plunket Greene
David Plunket Greene (19 November 1904 – 24 February 1941), together with his brother Richard and sister Olivia, was part of the Bright Young Things who inspired the novel '' Vile Bodies'' to Evelyn Waugh, a family friend.
Biography
David Pl ...
,
,
Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse
Laurence Michael Harvey Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse, KBE (28 September 1906 – 5 July 1979) was an Anglo-Irish peer.
Early life and education
Parsons was the son of William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse, whom he succeeded in 1918, and ...
,
John Sutro
John Sutro (23 April 1903 – 18 June 1985) was a British film producer. He produced seven films between 1941 and 1951. He was a member of the jury at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.
Education
At Oxford Sutro conceived the Railw ...
,
Hugh Lygon,
Harold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in C ...
,
Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne,
Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross,
Mark Ogilvie-Grant, and
John Drury-Lowe.
It has been suggested that Howard was Waugh's model for Anthony Blanche in ''
Brideshead Revisited
''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles ...
''. But Waugh wrote, to Lord Baldwin, "There is an aesthetic bugger who sometimes turns up in my novels under various names—that was 2/3 Brian
owardand 1/3
Harold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in C ...
. People think it was all Harold, who is a much sweeter and saner man
han Howard"
At this time he had already been published as a poet, in
A. R. Orage
Alfred Richard Orage (22 January 1873 – 6 November 1934) was a British influential figure in socialist politics and modernist culture, now best known for editing the magazine ''The New Age'' before the First World War. While he was working as a ...
's ''The New Age'', and the final
Sitwell
Sitwell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* A member of the Sitwell literary family:
:* Edith Sitwell
:* Osbert Sitwell
:* Sacheverell Sitwell
* The Sitwell Baronets, holders of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British ...
''Wheels''
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically cate ...
. He used the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...
s "Jasper Proude" and "Charles Orange." His verse also was in ''Oxford Poetry 1924''. His poetry was admired and promoted by
Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...
in the late 1920s.
In the late 1920s, he was a key figure among London's "
Bright Young Things
__NOTOC__
The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of Bohemianism, Bohemian young Aristocracy (class), aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. They threw flamboyant costume party, f ...
"—a privileged, fashionable and bohemian set of relentless party-goers, satirised in such novels as Evelyn Waugh's 1930
Vile Bodies where the character of Miles Malpractice owes something to Howard. Apart from Waugh, Howard knew all this circle, including
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford (28 November 1904 – 30 June 1973), known as Nancy Mitford, was an English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "bright young things" on the London ...
,
Henry Yorke,
Harold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in C ...
, and especially
Allanah Harper
Allanah Harper (6 November 1904 – 3 November 1992) was an English writer. She is best known for founding the journal ''Echanges'' (Exchanges), and for her 1948 autobiography.
Biography
Harper came from a successful family and traveled extensi ...
[ and Nancy Cunard. He maintained contact with both throughout his life.
In 1929 he was famously involved in the "Bruno Hat" hoax when the fashionable Hon Mr. & Mrs. Bryan Guinness promoted a spoof London art exhibition by an apparently unknown German painter Bruno Hat (impersonated by the German-speaking Tom Mitford, brother of Nancy and Diana Mitford—the latter at the time Mrs. Guinness, a socialite, arts' patron and friend of Howard, ]Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of '' Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...
, Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
, Boris Anrep
Boris Vasilyevich Anrep (russian: Борис Васильевич Анреп; 27 September 1883 – 7 June 1969) was a Russian artist, active in Britain, who devoted himself to the art of mosaic. In Britain, he is known for his monumental mosai ...
, Dora Carrington, John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture ...
and other artistic and literary figures—before her second marriage to British fascist
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...
leader Sir Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...
). Bruno Hat's paintings were the work of Brian Howard.
Howard is credited with coining the phrase, ''"Anybody over the age of 30 seen in a bus has been a failure in life",'' often wrongly attributed to Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
. According to ''Daily Telegraph'' correspondent and historian, Hugo Vickers,
writing in November 2006
, the author was Brian Howard. The phrase came into wider use when used by Loelia, Duchess of Westminster
Loelia Mary, Lady Lindsay, formerly Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, (''née'' The Honourable Loelia Ponsonby (6 February 1902 – 1 November 1993), was a British socialite, needlewoman and magazine editor.
Family and first marriage
Lindsay ...
, in her memoir ''Grace and Favour'' (1961).
Subsequently, he led a very active social life, tried to come to terms with his homosexuality
Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...
, and published only one substantial poetry collection ''God Save the King'' (1930, Hours Press). He was active as a poet during the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
, but did not ultimately invest in his work with seriousness. He drank heavily and used drugs.
He had a long affair with Sandy Baird, whom he knew from Eton. Baird was killed in action in 1943 at 33-years-old.
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
Howard took part in the Dunkirk evacuation
The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allies of World War II, Allied soldiers during the World War II, Second World War from the bea ...
and later worked for MI5
The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
but was dismissed from the War Office in June 1942, after which he was conscripted to the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
and given a low-level clerk's job at Bomber Command, High Wycombe. Transferred to another posting, where he referred to his commanding officer as "Colonel Cutie" (an appellation Evelyn Waugh gave his rebellious rogue Basil Seal in the novel '' Put Out More Flags''), Howard was dismissed in December 1944, by which time he had formed a longstanding open relationship with Sam Langford, an Irishman serving in the Air Sea Rescue.
After the war, Howard drifted around Europe with Sam, continuing to write occasional articles and reviews for the ''New Statesman'', the BBC and others, fitfully working on an uncompleted biography of the gay English writer Norman Douglas (author of the novel ''South Wind'') and doing no substantial work. Because of drinking, drug use, and sexual indiscretions, they were expelled in turn from Monaco, France, Italy and Spain, the French authorities noting their "moralité douteuse" (dubious morality).
He suffered from bad health in the 1950s, and committed suicide by taking an overdose of sedatives after the accidental death of his lover, Sam Langford (1926–1958), who died suddenly but naturally in Howard's bath.Robert Adrich, Garry Wotherspoon - ''Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II''
/ref> They were buried alongside each other at Russian Orthodox Cemetery, Nice.
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...
wrote: "I used to know Brian Howard well—a dazzling young man to my innocent eyes. In later life he became very dangerous—constantly attacking people with his fists in public places—so I kept clear of him. He was consumptive but the immediate cause of his death was a broken heart."
Marie-Jaqueline Lancaster wrote a biography of Howard. His long time friend Allanah Harper
Allanah Harper (6 November 1904 – 3 November 1992) was an English writer. She is best known for founding the journal ''Echanges'' (Exchanges), and for her 1948 autobiography.
Biography
Harper came from a successful family and traveled extensi ...
contributed useful anecdotes, but she objected to his being called a "failure" and to the emphasis on his homosexuality.
References
* ''Portrait of a Failure'' (1968) Marie-Jacqueline Lancaster. Timewell Press.
* ''German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940'', by Martin Mauthner (London: 2007), .
* ''Children of the Sun: A Narrative of Decadence in England after 1918'', by Martin Green (Basic Book Inc. 1976, Constable & Company 1977, Pimlico 1992),
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Brian
1905 births
1958 suicides
English gay writers
British people of the Spanish Civil War
MI5 personnel
English people of American descent
English people of Jewish descent
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
English LGBT poets
20th-century English poets
Barbiturates-related deaths
English male poets
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
Royal Air Force airmen
1958 deaths
20th-century LGBT people
Drug-related deaths in France