J. R. Ackerley
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Joe Randolph "J. R." Ackerley (4 November 1896 – 4 June 1967) was a British writer and editor. Starting with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
the year after its founding in 1927, he was promoted to
literary editor A literary editor is an editor in a newspaper, magazine or similar publication who deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews.
of '' The Listener,'' its weekly magazine, where he served for more than two decades. He published many emerging poets and writers who became influential in Great Britain. He was openly homosexual, a rarity in his time when homosexual activity was forbidden by law and socially ostracised. Ackerley's extramarital half-sister was Sally Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster.


Family and education

Ackerley's memoir ''My Father and Myself'' begins: "I was born in 1896 and my parents were married in 1919." Registered at birth as Joe Ackerley, he later took the middle name Randolph after his uncle, Randolph Payne, first husband of his mother's sister Bunny. As an adult, he published under his first two initials and surname. His father, Roger Ackerley, was a successful fruit merchant known as the "Banana King" of London. Roger Ackerley was first married to a young Swiss woman of wealthy parentage named (Charlotte) Louise Burckhardt (1862-1892) who died probably of
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
, before they had children. Louise was the subject of John Singer Sargent's painting, '' Lady with the Rose''. His mother was Janetta Aylward (known as Netta), an actress whom Roger met in Paris; the two returned to London together. They had an intermittent relationship, and three years later, in 1895, she gave birth to a son, Peter, then Joe a year later, and Nancy in 1899. According to Joe's maternal Aunt Bunny, Peter's birth, and likely all of them, were "accidents." She told him, "Your father happened to have run out of French letters that day," (when Peter was conceived). His father set up a household with his mother starting in 1903, after which the children saw him more regularly.W.H. Auden, Review: "Papa Was a Wise Old Sly-Boots"
Review of Ackerley's ''My Father and Myself,'' ''New York Review of Books,'' 27 March 1969, Retrieved 4 April 2012
His business did very well, and the family had a "butler, a gardener, and, evidently, a very good table." Ackerley was educated at
Rossall School Rossall School is a public school (English independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania ...
, a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...
and preparatory school in Fleetwood, Lancashire. During this time, he discovered he was attracted to other boys. His striking good looks earned him the nickname "Girlie," but he was not very sexually active as a schoolboy. He described himself as
"a chaste, puritanical, priggish, rather
narcissistic Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism exists on a co ...
little boy, more repelled than attracted to sex, which seemed to me a furtive, guilty, soiling thing, exciting, yes, but nothing whatever to do with those feelings which I had not yet experienced but about which I was already writing a lot of dreadful sentimental verse, called romance and love."
His father gave him a generous allowance and never insisted that he follow him into the business. Failing his entrance examinations for
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
, Ackerley applied for a commission in the Army and went off to the First World War. After the war, he attended Cambridge, though he never wrote much about it. In October 1929, his father, Roger Ackerley died of tertiary syphilis. Shortly afterward Ackerley found a sealed note from his father addressed to him, which concluded:
"I am not going to make any excuses, old man. I have done my duty towards everybody as far as my nature would allow and I hope people generally will be kind to my memory. All my men pals know of my second family and of their mother, so you won't find it difficult to get on their track."
Ackerley thus discovered that his father had had a second family for more than 20 years. Roger used to visit his daughters three or four times a year when he was supposedly travelling on business, and sometimes when out to walk his first family's dog. His mistress, Muriel Perry, served as a nurse during the First World War and was busy with her career; she seldom saw their three daughters:
Sally Sally may refer to: People *Sally (name), a list of notable people with the name Military * Sally (military), an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force; see sally port *Sally, the Allied reporting na ...
and Elizabeth, twins born in 1909, and Diana, born in 1912; all were cared for by a Miss Coutts. The birth of the youngest was never registered; but they were all given their mother's surname. Ackerley described the lives of his half-sisters in his 1968 memoir: "They had no parental care, no family life, no friends." For years the girls thought that their father was "Uncle Bodger", who occasionally brought them gifts and money. Ackerley looked after his father's second family without telling his mother, who died in 1946. For years Ackerley was obsessed with his relationship with his father, both because of the tension of his covert homosexuality and what he described as his father's domineering personality. In his memoir, ''My Father and Myself ''(1969), which one reviewer termed the "mystery" of the son on the track of his father, Ackerley speculated that his father had had some homosexual experiences as a young Guardsman. In trying to understand his father's life he grappled with his own. In 1975 Diana Perry, then Diana Petre, published a memoir, ''The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley.'' The term "secret orchard" was Roger's for his second family, used in one of his final notes to his son.


First World War

After 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 ...
broke out in August 1914, Ackerley was commissioned as a second lieutenant in September 1914. He was assigned to the 8th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, part of the 18th Division, then stationed in East Anglia. In June 1915, he was sent to
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. On 1 July 1916, he was wounded at the Battle of the Somme. He was shot in the arm and suffered shards of a whisky bottle becoming imbedded in his side from an explosion. After lying wounded in a shell-hole for six hours, he was rescued and sent home for sick-leave. He soon volunteered to go back to the front. He was promoted to captain, when his elder brother Peter, also an officer in the East Surrey Regiment, arrived in France in December 1916. At the time, Ackerley was his superior officer. He later wrote that the cheerful Peter saluted his brother "gladly and conscientiously." In February 1917, Peter was wounded in action on a dangerous assignment. Though Peter got back to the British lines, Ackerley never saw him again, as he was killed on 7 August 1918, two months before the end of the war. Peter's death haunted Ackerley all his life; he suffered from
survivor's guilt Survivor guilt (or survivor's guilt; also called survivor syndrome or survivor's syndrome and survivor disorder or survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumati ...
. In May 1917, Ackerley led an attack in the Arras region where he was wounded, this time in the buttock and thigh. While he was waiting for help, the Germans arrived and took him prisoner. As an officer, he was assigned to an internment camp in neutral Switzerland, which was relatively comfortable. Here he began his play, ''The Prisoners of War,'' which expresses the cabin fever of captivity and his frustrated longings for another English prisoner. Ackerley was not repatriated to England until after the war ended. Temporary Captain Ackerley relinquished his commission on completion of service, 24 April 1919.


Career

From the autumn of 1919, Ackerley attended Magdalene College, Cambridge. After graduation, he moved to London, where he enjoyed the cosmopolitan capital and continued to write. In 1923 his play ''The Prisoners of War'' was included in a collection of young British writers, so he began to receive some recognition. He met
E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...
and other literary bright lights, but was lonely, despite numerous sexual partners. With his play having trouble finding a producer and feeling generally adrift and distant from his family, Ackerley turned to Forster for guidance. Forster, whom he knew from ''
A Passage to India ''A Passage to India'' is a 1924 novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of 20th century English liter ...
'', arranged a position as secretary to the
Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...
of Chhatarpur. Ackerley spent about five months in India, which was still under British rule. He developed a strong distaste for the several
Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford English ...
s (British people living in India) he met. Ackerley's comic memoir '' Hindoo Holiday'' explores some of his experiences. The Maharaja was homosexual, and His Majesty's obsessions and dalliances, along with Ackerley's observations about Anglo-Indians, account for much of the humour of the work. In England, ''Prisoners of War'' was finally produced in 1925, to some acclaim. Its run began at The Three Hundred Club on 5 July 1925, then transferred to the
Playhouse Theatre The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square, central London. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt i ...
on 31 August. Ackerley enjoyed his success, returning to London to carouse with its theatrical crowd. Through Cambridge friends, he met
John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Brit ...
and other rising stars of the stage. In 1928 Ackerley joined the staff of the
British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
(BBC). He worked in the Talks Department, which arranged radio lectures by prominent scholars and public figures. He helped to create the new department, which had an extensive influence on British literary and cultural life. In 1935 Ackerley was appointed Literary Editor of the BBC's magazine '' The Listener''. He served in this position until 1959, discovering and promoting many younger writers, including
W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
, Christopher Isherwood,
Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...
, and
Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...
. Ackerley was one of Francis King's two mentors (the other being C. H. B. Kitchin).


Later life and death

From 1943, Ackerley lived in a small flat at
Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...
overlooking the Thames. Almost all his significant work was produced during this period. He had a stable job at the BBC and ended the unsatisfying promiscuity of his younger years. What remained was his search for what he called an "Ideal Friend". Ackerley took financial responsibility for his sister Nancy, who was unstable, and his aging Aunt Bunny. In 1946 (the year his mother died), he acquired an
Alsatian dog The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for ...
named Queenie. The dog became his primary companion for the next 15 years. During this time, he was most productive. He revised ''Hindoo Holiday'' (1952), completed ''My Dog Tulip'' (1956) and ''We Think the World of You'' (1960), and worked on drafts of ''My Father and Myself''. Ackerley left the BBC in 1959. He visited Japan in 1960 to see his friend Francis King; he was very taken with the beauty of the scenery and even more with Japanese men. On 30 October 1961 Queenie died. Ackerley, who had lost a brother and both parents, described it as "the saddest day of my life." He said: "I would have immolated myself as a ''
suttee Sati or suttee is a Hindu practice, now largely historical, in which a widow sacrifices herself by sitting atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre. Quote: Between 1943 and 1987, some thirty women in Rajasthan (twenty-eight, according to offic ...
'' when Queenie died. For no human would I ever have done such a thing, but by my love for Queenie I would have been irresistibly compelled." In 1962, ''We Think the World of You'' won the W. H. Smith Literary Award, which came with a substantial cash prize, but this did little to stir him from his grief. (He thought Richard Hughes should have won, and also thought little of the award's previous recipients.) In the years after Queenie's death Ackerley worked on his memoir about his father and drank too much. His sister Nancy found him dead in his bed on the morning of 4 June 1967. Ackerley's biographer
Peter Parker Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August ...
gives the cause of death as
coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...
. Toward the end of his life Ackerley sold 1,075 letters from Forster, dating from 1922 onwards, for which he received £6,000. He said that it was "a sum of money which will enable Nancy and me to drink ourselves carelessly into our graves". Ackerley did not live long enough to enjoy the money, but, together with the royalties from his existing works and posthumous works, it allowed Nancy to live in relative comfort until her death in 1979.


Sexuality

Ackerley was openly homosexual after his parents' deaths, having realised his homosexuality while he was interned in Switzerland during the First World War. Ackerley plumbed his sexuality in his writings. He belonged to a circle of notable literary homosexuals. They flouted convention, specifically the homophobia that kept gay men in the closet or exposed openly gay men to legal prosecution. While he never found the "Ideal Friend" he wrote of so often (at least in human form), he had many long-term relationships. Ackerley was a "twank", a term used by sailors and guardsmen to describe a man who paid for their sexual services. He described the ritual of picking up and entertaining a young guardsman, sailor or labourer. Forster warned him, "Joe, you ''must'' give up looking for gold in coal mines." His memoir serves as a guide to the sexuality of a gay man of Ackerley's generation.
W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
, in his review of ''My Father and Myself'', speculates that Ackerley enjoyed the "brotherly" sexual act of
mutual masturbation Non-penetrative sex or outercourse is sexual activity that usually does not include sexual penetration. It generally excludes the penetrative aspects of vaginal, anal, or oral sexual activity, but includes various forms of sexual and non-sex ...
rather than penetration. Ackerley described himself as "quite impenetrable". He encouraged Harry Daley to publish ''This Small Cloud'', his account of his experiences as a gay police constable on the Bloomsbury beat (Daley was painted in his uniform by
Duncan Grant Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major i ...
).


Works

* ''The Prisoners of War'' (first performed 5 July 1925), a play about Captain Conrad's comfortable captivity in Switzerland during the First World War. Conrad suffers most from his longing for the attractive young Lieutenant Grayle. Ackerley claimed to prefer the title ''The Interned'' to ''The Prisoners of War''.''The Ackerley Letters'', ed. Neville Braybrooke, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975, p. 112 * ''Escapers All'' (1932), 15 first-person accounts by men who had escaped from prisoner-of-war camps during the First World War, edited and introduced by Ackerley (published by The Bodley Head). * ''Hindoo Holiday'' (1932, revised and expanded 1952), a memoir of Ackerley's brief engagement as secretary to an Indian Maharaja in the city of Chhatarpur, which he calls Chhokrapur (meaning "City of Boys") in the book. * ''My Dog Tulip'' (1956), an account of living with his dog Queenie. Her companionship enabled him to give up seeking casual sex. The dog's name was changed to Tulip in the title when the editors of ''Commentary,'' who had purchased an excerpt, became concerned that using the name Queenie might encourage jokes about Ackerley's sexuality. The book was adapted as an
animated feature These lists of animated feature films compiles animated feature films from around the world and is organized alphabetically under the year of release (the year the completed film was first released to the public). Theatrical releases as well as ...
released in 2009 and starring
Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...
,
Lynn Redgrave Lynn Rachel Redgrave (8 March 1943 – 2 May 2010) was an English actress. She won two Golden Globe Awards throughout her career. A member of the Redgrave family of actors, Lynn trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962. B ...
and
Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...
. * ''We Think the World of You'' (1960), Ackerley's only novel; it explores a middle-class intellectual man (based closely on himself) and his working-class London family. It includes a fictionalised account of Ackerley's experience with his dog Queenie (called "Evie" in the book). It explores the frustrations of the relationship between the homosexual narrator and Evie's former owner, who was (mostly) heterosexual. The novel was adapted as a motion picture of the same title, which starred Alan Bates and
Gary Oldman Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy ...
, and was released in 1988. Works published posthumously: * ''My Father and Myself'' (1968), a memoir of Ackerley's life and relationship with his father. Together with a 1975 memoir by his half-sister Diana Petre, it was the basis of the 1979 TV movie ''
Secret Orchards ''Secret Orchards'' is a 1979 TV movie directed by Richard Loncraine Richard Loncraine (born 20 October 1946) is a British film and television director. Loncraine was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Loncraine received early trainin ...
,'' about their father's two sets of children. *''
E.M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stor ...
: A Portrait'' (1970), short biography of the writer. *''Micheldever and Other Poems'' (1972), poetry volume. *''The Ackerley Letters'' (1975), edited by Neville Braybrooke. * ''My Sister and Myself'' (1982), selections from Ackerley's diary, edited by Francis King. Most material refers to Ackerley's relationship with his sister Nancy West (née Ackerley). *In the United States Ackerley's books have been reissued and are published solely by New York Review of Books Classics.


Legacy

In 1980 the BBC series '' Omnibus'' profiled Ackerley in a dramatised biography starring
Benjamin Whitrow Benjamin John Whitrow (17 February 1937 – 28 September 2017) was an English actor. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his role as Mr Bennet in the 1995 BBC version of ''Pride and Prejudice'', and voiced the role of Fo ...
. Entitled ''We Think The World of You'', it was not an adaptation of the novel as such, although included elements of it. Written by
Tristram Powell Tristram Roger Dymoke Powell'Powell of The Chantry' pedigree, Burke's Peerage website (born 25 April 1940) is an English television and film director, producer and screenwriter. His credits include ''American Friends'', episodes of series Foyle's ...
and Paul Bailey, and directed by Powell, it won a BAFTA award in 1981. Ackerley's sister Nancy endowed the annual J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography, which was awarded beginning in 1982.


Quotations

* "If you look like a wild beast, you are expected to behave like one." (''My Dog Tulip'') * "To speak the truth, I think that people ''ought'' to be upset, and if I had a paper I would upset them all the time; I think that life is so important and, in its workings, so upsetting that nobody should be spared." (Letter to
Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...
, December 1955.) * "If there is good to be said of me, others must report that." (Notebook for ''My Father and Myself'') * "'The fair sex? And which sex is that?'" (Captain Conrad to Mme. Louis in ''The Prisoners of War'')


Notes


Sources

* Petre, Diana. ''The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley''. London, Hamish Hamilton, 1975 * Miller, Neil (1995). ''Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present''. New York, Vintage Books. . * Murray, Stephen O. "Ackerley, Joseph Randolph"
''Encyclopedia of Homosexuality''.
Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. p. 9 * Parker, Peter, ''Ackerley: The Life of J. R. Ackerley''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1989. *


Further reading

* Peter Parker: ''Ackerley: A Life of J. R. Ackerley'', London: Constable, 1989,


Archival resources

*J. R. (Joe Randolph) Ackerley Collection, 1924-1983 (187 items) is housed at the
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
of the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
. *W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman Collection, 1929-1976 is housed at the
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
of the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
. *Peter Burton papers, circa 1960-2008 are housed at the Cornell University Library.
Sir John Collings Squire Papers, 1910-1958
(15.5 linear ft.) are housed at the Charles E. Young Research Library at the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
. *Roy Broadbent Fuller Poetry manuscripts, 1965-1969 (ca. 50 items) are housed at the
Columbia University Libraries Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University and one of the largest academic library systems in North America. With 15.0 million volumes and over 160,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources ...
. *E. M. Forster Collection, 1908-1971 is housed at the
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
of the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
.


External links


J. R. Ackerley
on glbtq.com
''My Dog Tulip'' IMDb pageNew York Review of Books Classics''Secret Orchards'' IMDb page''We Think the World of You'' IMDb page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ackerley, J. R. 1896 births 1967 deaths British Army personnel of World War I British World War I prisoners of war East Surrey Regiment officers English male journalists English memoirists Gay memoirists Gay poets Gay novelists People educated at Rossall School 20th-century English novelists British literary editors English LGBT poets English LGBT novelists English male poets English male novelists 20th-century English poets Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge 20th-century English male writers World War I prisoners of war held by Germany 20th-century LGBT people