Sir Charles Otto Desmond MacCarthy

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(20 May 1877 – 7 June 1952) was a British writer and the foremost

literary Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

and dramatic critic of his day. He was a member of the

Cambridge Apostles The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...

, the intellectual secret society, from 1896.

Early life and education

The son of Charles Desmond MacCarthy, M.A., and a descendant of the last

MacCarthy MacCarthy ( ga, Mac Cárthaigh), also spelled Macarthy, McCarthy or McCarty, is an Irish clan originating from Munster, an area they ruled during the Middle Ages. It was divided into several great branches; the MacCarthy Reagh, MacCarthy of Mu ...

Chief of the Name The Chief of the Name, or in older English usage Captain of his Nation, is the recognised head of a family or clan (''fine'' in Irish and Scottish Gaelic). The term has sometimes been used as a title in Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland In Eliza ...

and King of Desmond, MacCarthy was born on 20 May 1877 in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, and educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. At Cambridge he got to know

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 ...

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

and

G. E. Moore George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the founders of analytic philosophy. He and Russell led the turn from ideal ...

Career

A member of the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

, MacCarthy also had a wider circle of friends, including

Logan Pearsall Smith Logan Pearsall Smith (18 October 1865 – 2 March 1946) was an American-born British essayist and critic. Harvard and Oxford educated, he was known for his aphorisms and epigrams, and was an expert on 17th Century divines. His ''Words and Idioms' ...

. In 1903 he became a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, with moderate success. For part of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he worked in Naval Intelligence. In 1917 he joined 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 ...

'' as drama critic, and in 1920 became its literary editor. He wrote a weekly column under the pen-name "The Affable Hawk". During this time he recruited

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote '' Enemies of Promise'' (1938), which combin ...

to the paper. By 1928 he was losing interest in the ''New Statesman'', and became the first editor of ''

Life and Letters ''Life and Letters'' was an English literary journal first published between June 1928 and April 1935. The magazine was edited from first publication by Desmond MacCarthy after he lost interest in the ''New Statesman''. It had financial backin ...

''.Jeremy Lewis ''Cyril Connolly: A Life'' Jonathan Cape 1997 Other periodicals he was associated with were ''New Quarterly'' and ''Eye Witness''. MacCarthy became a literary critic for the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', and several volumes of his collected criticism were published. He was author of the short ghost story "Pargiton and Harby", reprinted in the ''Fourth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories''. He was knighted in the 1951 New Year's Honours.

Personal life

In 1906 MacCarthy married

Mollie Molly, Mollie or mollies may refer to: Animals * ''Poecilia'', a genus of fishes ** ''Poecilia sphenops'', a fish species * A female mule (horse–donkey hybrid) People * Molly (name) or Mollie, a female given name, including a list of persons ...

, the daughter of

Francis Warre Warre-Cornish Francis Warre Warre-Cornish (8 May 1839 – 28 August 1916) was a British schoolmaster, scholar and writer. Life He was the son of Hubert Kestell Cornish, vicar of Bakewell, and his wife Louisa Warre, daughter of Francis Warre (1775–1854), and ...

. She was a respected literary figure in her own right. Her sister Cecilia married

William Wordsworth Fisher Admiral Sir William Wordsworth Fisher (26 March 1875 – 24 June 1937) was a Royal Navy officer who captained a battleship at the Battle of Jutland and became Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Arthur Marder wrote that he was "the ...

. They had two sons, Michael and Dermod, and a daughter, Rachel, who married the literary historian

Lord David Cecil Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, CH (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) was a British biographer, historian, and scholar. He held the style of "Lord" by courtesy, as a younger son of a marquess. Early life and studies David Cecil was ...

; their son was the actor

Jonathan Cecil Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil (22 February 1939 – 22 September 2011), known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English theatre, film, and television actor. Early life Cecil was born in London, England, the son of Lord David Cecil and the grandso ...

. He is buried with his wife at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.

Works

*'' The Court Theatre'' (1907) *''Portraits'' (1931) *''Drama'' (1940) *''Memories'' (1953) *''Humanities'' (1953) *''Theatre'' (1955)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maccarthy, Desmond 1877 births 1952 deaths British male journalists British critics Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at Eton College Writers from Plymouth, Devon Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Knights Bachelor New Statesman people Bloomsbury Group Presidents of the English Centre of PEN