The biographer, cultural historian and critic Jeremy Treglown (born 24 May 1946) is an Emeritus Professor at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

. He was editor of ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'' through the 1980s and Chair of the

Arvon Foundation The Arvon Foundation is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom that promotes creative writing. Arvon is one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations. Andrew Kidd is the Chief Executive Officer, Patricia Cumper is Ch ...

, 2017-22.

Biography

Educated at

Bristol Grammar School Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 mixed, independent day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowed by wealthy Bristol merchants Robert and Nicholas Thorn ...

and St Peter's and

Hertford College Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, Treglown was a lecturer in English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford 1973–76 and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

1976–79. In the 1970s he wrote regularly 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 ...

'' on fiction and for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' and ''

Plays and Players Hansom Books was a British publisher founded in 1950 by Philip Dosse to produce the magazine ''Dance and Dancers''. Magazines in a similar format were then founded to cover other arts, so forming the Seven Arts Group. The other titles were '' Ar ...

'' on theatre, and he has published since in many newspapers and magazines including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

''. He joined ''

'' in 1979 as arts editor, becoming editor from 1981 to 1990.''International Who's Who'', 2004.
/ref> After a semester as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton, Treglown spent twenty years as a professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

, where he began the Warwick Writing Programme with the poet David Morley. His biography of

Henry Green Henry Green was the pen name of Henry Vincent Yorke (29 October 1905 – 13 December 1973), an English writer best remembered for the novels ''Party Going'', ''Living'' and '' Loving''. He published a total of nine novels between 1926 and 1952 ...

won the

Dictionary of Literary Biography The ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' is a specialist biographical dictionary dedicated to literature. Published by Gale, the 375-volume setRogers, 106. covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods, and genres, with a focus on American an ...

Award (2000) and ''V. S Pritchett: A Working Life'' was shortlisted for the 2004

Whitbread Award The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

for biography and for the

Duff Cooper Prize The Duff Cooper Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or occasionally poetry, published in English or French. The prize was established in honour of Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, C ...

. ''Franco's Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory since 1936'' (2013), published in Spanish by Ariel in 2015, was described by

Antonio Muñoz Molina Antonio Muñoz Molina (born 10 January 1956) is a Spanish writer and, since 8 June 1995, a full member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He received the 1991 Premio Planeta, the 2013 Jerusalem Prize, and the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for lit ...

as "A book that must be read, in Spain and abroad, by anyone who wants to understand the country" and by

Stanley Payne Stanley George Payne (born September 9, 1934) is an American historian of modern Spain and European Fascism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He retired from full-time teaching in 2004 and is currently Professor Emeritus at its Department ...

in ''The Wall Street Journal'' as "the best, and most objective, brief introduction to Spain's memory wars to be found in any language." His most recent book is ''Mr Straight Arrow: the Career of

John Hersey John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...

, author of '

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

' ''(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2019). ''The American Scholar'' said of it, "This admirable book about an admirable man… belongs to that elegant, reticent, wholly non-sleazy, and sadly disappearing genre known as literary biography, and for anyone interested in how a writer’s life is really lived as opposed to its incidental moments of glamour, Jeremy Treglown’s account of Hersey’s career—its constraints and opportunities, the worries and satisfactions, and the nature of the actual work—is deeply satisfying." Treglown also wrote the first full biography of

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

, and initiated and, with Deborah McVea, co-edited the online index of previously anonymous contributors to the ''TLS''. A Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature 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 ...

, he has been a member of the Society's Council and has served as chair of the judges of the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

Whitbread Whitbread plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest division ...

(now

Costa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge of th ...

)

Award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An awar ...

and other prizes. Among various research posts, he has been a Visiting Fellow of All Souls and Fellow of the New York Library's Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, and of the Rockefeller Center, Bellagio. He is currently researching the history of the Arvon Foundation. In 1970 he married Rona Bower (they met in an

OUDS The Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England. Not all student productions at Oxford University a ...

production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' in which she was Juliet, he Mercutio). They were divorced in 1982. In 1984 he married Holly Eley (née Urquhart), an assistant editor at the ''TLS'', who died in 2010.Obituary, ''The Independent'', 23 September 2010; htmlhttp://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/obituaries/holly-eley-literary-editor-and-gamekeeper-1.1058043 Obituary, ''Herald Scotland'', 29 September 2010.
/ref> In 2013 he married Maria Alvarez, a philosopher at King's College, London. He has a son, three daughters and seven grandchildren.

Works

*''Mr. Straight Arrow: The Career of John Hersey, Author of Hiroshima'' / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019, *''Franco's Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory Since 1936 /'' Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013, , Chatto and Windus, 2014, . **Spanish translation ''La cripta de Franco: Viaje por la memoria y la cultura del franquismo'', Ariel, 2014, *''V. S. Pritchett: A Working Life'', Chatto & Windus / Random House USA, 2004, *''Romancing: The Life and Work of Henry Green'', Faber and Faber / Random House USA, 2000, *''Roald Dahl: A Biography'', Faber and Faber / Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994,

As editor

*''Roald Dahl: Collected Stories /'' Everyman’s Library, 2006. *''Essential Stories'' by V. S. Pritchett / Modern Library Classics, 2005. *(with Bridget Bennett) ''Grub Street and the Ivory Tower: Literary Journalism and Literary Scholarship from Fielding to the Internet /'' OUP, 1998. *''The Lantern-Bearers: Essays by Robert Louis Stevenson'', Chatto & Windus / Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1988. (Reprinted by Cooper Square Press, NY, 1999.) *''Spirit of Wit: Reconsiderations of Rochester'' / Basil Blackwell, 1982. *''The Letters of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester'' / Basil Blackwell / Chicago University Press, 1980.

References

External links

British Council: Contemporary Writers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Treglown, Jeremy British biographers British male journalists British literary critics Academics of the University of Warwick Academics of University College London Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Alumni of St Peter's College, Oxford People educated at Bristol Grammar School Living people 1946 births Male biographers

Biography

Works

As editor

See also

References

External links