John Edward Courtenay Bodley (6 June 1853 – 28 May 1925) was an English civil servant, known for his writings on

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Life

He was the son of the pottery owner

Edward Fisher Bodley Edward Fisher Bodley (1815–1881) was an English businessman, owner of a Staffordshire pottery. It operated on several sites in what is now Stoke-on-Trent. He had been a Congregationalist minister, and retained religious interests. Early life I ...

(1815–1881), and his wife Mary Ridgway Bodley, and brother of the pottery owner Edwin James Drew Bodley. He was educated at

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History A committee of Nonconformist me ...

and studied at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, from 1873 to 1876. An active

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, he approached

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

, then also an undergraduate, and introduced him to a Masonic Lodge in Oxford.

Richard Ellmann Richard David Ellmann, FBA (March 15, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for ''James ...

attributes to Bodley a long, spiteful ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' article that appeared on Wilde, on 21 January 1882. "Bodelino" was a member of

James McNeill 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 ...

's circle in Paris. He was secretary to

Charles Dilke Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC (4 September 1843 – 26 January 1911) was an English Liberal Party (UK), Liberal and Radical politician. A republicanism, republican in the early 1870s, ...

, from 1880. Initially Dilke thought him frivolous, but he came to play a major part in Dilke's official work and private life. He was a witness in the divorce case that broke Dilke's career. He subsequently believed that Dilke's downfall was caused by

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Cons ...

. A personal friend of Cardinal Manning ("almost certainly his most intimate non-Catholic friend", and Manning's preferred choice as biographer), he was his biographer only in a short work.

Political writing

Bodley's political writings are in the general tradition of

Hippolyte Taine Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practition ...

, whom Bodley knew. When

Émile Boutmy Émile Boutmy (13 April 1835 – 25 January 1906) was a French political scientist and sociologist who was a native of Paris. He studied law in Paris, and from 1867 to 1870 gave lectures on the history and culture of civilizations as it pertaine ...

, a follower of Taine, had his work on England in the same vein translated into English, Bodley wrote an introduction.

Shane Leslie Sir John Randolph Leslie, 3rd Baronet (Irish: ''Sir Seaghán Leslaigh''; 24 September 1885 – 14 August 1971), commonly known as Sir Shane Leslie, was an Irish-born diplomat and writer. He was a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill. In 1908 ...

, a friend, described him as "one of the last cultured Europeans". A 1928 work by

Charles Maurras Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras (; ; 20 April 1868 – 16 November 1952) was a French author, politician, poet, and critic. He was an organizer and principal philosopher of ''Action Française'', a political movement that is monarchist, anti-parl ...

about him was entitled ''L'anglais qui a connu la France''; Maurras had already studied Bodley in 1902, in ''Deux témoins de la France''.

Works

''France''
(1898, two volumes) * ''L'Anglomanie et les Traditions Françaises'' (1899) *''The Coronation of Edward the Seventh: A Chapter of European and Imperial History'' (1903). The official account. *''The Church In France'' (1906) *''Cardinal Manning; The decay of idealism in France; The Institute of France'' (1912) *''L'Age Mécanique et le Déclin de l'idéalisme en France'' (1913) *''The Romance of the Battle-Line in France'' (1920)

Family

He was a descendant of

Sir Thomas Bodley Sir Thomas Bodley (2 March 1545 – 28 January 1613) was an English diplomat and scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Origins Thomas Bodley was born on 2 March 1545, in the second-to-last year of the reign of King Henry VIII, ...

, founder of the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

. He married Evelyn Frances Bell but they divorced in 1908. His sons were Ronald Victor Courtenay Bodley and the artist

Josselin Reginald Courtenay Bodley Josselin (; ) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. History St Meriadek is said to have founded a chapel there during the 4th century. Much later Josselin became a stronghold of the House of Rohan. An ...

(1893-1974), who were also the joint dedicatees of ''France''. His daughter Ava married

Ralph Wigram Ralph Follett Wigram CMG (; 23 October 1890 – 31 December 1936) was a British government official in the Foreign Office. He helped raise the alarm about German rearmament under Hitler during the period prior to World War II. In part, he did ...

in 1925, and

John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, (8 July 1882 – 4 January 1958) was a Scottish civil servant and politician who is best known for his service in the War Cabinet during the Second World War, for which he was nicknamed the "Home Front Pri ...

, in 1941.''Burke's Landed Gentry of Scotland''

References

(1930), ''Memoir of John Edward Courtenay Bodley''

Notes

External links

Portrait by Gilbert Baldry, Balliol Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodley, John Edward Courtenay 1853 births 1925 deaths People educated at Mill Hill School English male writers Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England John Edward Courtenay