Maurice Baring (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was an English

man of letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During World War I, Baring served in the Intelligence Corps and

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) and ...

Life

Baring was the eighth child, and fifth son, of Edward Charles Baring, first

Baron Revelstoke Baron Revelstoke, of Membland in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 30 June 1885 for the businessman Edward Baring, head of the family firm of Barings Bank and a member of the Baring family ...

, of the Baring banking family, and his wife Louisa Emily Charlotte Bulteel, granddaughter of the second Earl Grey. Born in Mayfair, he was 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 ...

. After an abortive start of a diplomatic career, he travelled widely, particularly in Russia, where he lived in 1905–06. He reported as an eye-witness of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

for the London ''

Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...

''. On returning to London he lived at North Cottage, 6 North Street, Westminster. At the start of

World War I 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 joined the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

, where he served as assistant to David Henderson and

Hugh Trenchard Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the ...

in France. Throughout the war he corresponded with Lady Juliet Duff, the widow of Sir Robin Duff, 2nd Baronet of Vaynol, who was killed on 16 October 1914 near Oostnieuwekirke while serving with the 2nd Life Guards. These letters were later published under the title of Dear Animated Bust: Letters to Lady Juliet Duff. In 1918, Baring served as a staff officer in the

and was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the 1918 Birthday Honours. In 1925 Baring received an honorary commission as a

wing commander Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...

in the Reserve of Air Force Officers. After his death, Trenchard wrote, "He was the most unselfish man I have ever met or am likely to meet. The Flying Corps owed to this man much more than they know or think."

Read, Piers Paul Piers Paul Read FRSL (born 7 March 1941) is a British novelist, historian and biographer. He was first noted in 1974 for a book of reportage, '' Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors'', later adapted as a feature film and a documentary. Rea ...

(2007)
"What's become of Baring?"
''The Spectator'', 10 October 2007. Reprinted i
''Chesterton Review'', Spring-Summer 2008
pp. 309–311. As an author, Baring wrote poetical dramas earlier in his career (for instance ''The Black Prince and Other Poems'', 1902), then a series of books on Russia (such as ''Landmarks in Russian Literature'', 1910, and ''The Mainsprings of Russia'', 1914). After the war he turned to full time writing and began to write novels. These included ''C'' (1924), ''Cat's Cradle'' (1925), ''The Coat Without Seams'' (1929), ''Robert Peckham'' (1930) and ''The Lonely Lady of Dulwich'' (1934). An autobiography, ''The Puppet Show of Memory'', came out in 1922, focused on his childhood and youth. His last full-scale work was the anthology with commentary ''Have You Anything to Declare'' (1936). He suffered from chronic illness during the last years of his life; for his final 15 years he was debilitated by

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. He was widely known socially, to some 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 ...

, to

The Coterie The Coterie was a fashionable and famous set of English aristocrats and intellectuals of the 1910s, widely quoted and profiled in magazines and newspapers of the period. They also called themselves the "Corrupt Coterie". Members Its members in ...

, and to the literary group associating with G. K. Chesterton and

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...

in particular. He enjoyed close friendships with

Dame Ethel Smyth Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended t ...

(who produced a biography of him in 1938) and

Enid Bagnold Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, (27 October 1889 – 31 March 1981) was a British writer and playwright known for the 1935 story ''National Velvet''. Early life Enid Algerine Bagnold was born on 27 October 1889 in Rochester, Kent, daughte ...

.Letley, Emma. ''Maurice Baring: A Citizen of Europe'' (1991). He was staunch in his

anti-intellectualism Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically ...

with respect to the arts, and a convinced practical joker. Previously an agnostic, he converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

in 1909, "the only action in my life which I am quite certain I have never regretted." Speaking from personal experience, however, he once advised Belloc to "never, never, never talk theology or discuss the Church with those outside it. People simply do not understand what you are talking about and they merely (a) get angry and (b) come to the conclusion that one doesn't believe in the thing oneself and that one is simply doing it to annoy."

Legacy

Baring is remembered in verse in ''Belloc's Cautionary Verses:'' ''Like many of the upper class''
''He liked the sound of broken glass*''
''* A line I stole with subtle daring''
''From Wing-Commander Maurice Baring'' He once gave

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

a copy of his book ''C''. She was not impressed, writing in her diary: "Second-rate art i.e. C., by Maurice Baring. Within its limits, it is not second rate, or there is nothing markedly so, at first go off. The limits are the proof of its non-existence. He can only do one thing; himself to wit; charming, clean, modest, sensitive Englishman. Outside that radius and it does not carry far nor illumine much, all is—as-it-should be—light, sure, proportioned, affecting even; told in so well-bred a manner that nothing is exaggerated, all related, proportioned. I could read this for ever, I said. L. said one would soon be sick to death of it". The character Horne Fisher, the protagonist of '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'', a collection of detective stories by G. K. Chesterton, "is generally thought to be based on Chesterton's good friend, Maurice Baring". Although, while "Fisher fits Baring's physical description, he is a respected member of the upper class, and he seems to know everybody and everything", the similarity ends there, Chesterton scholar

Dale Ahlquist Dale Ahlquist (born June 14, 1958) is an American author and advocate of the thought of G. K. Chesterton. Ahlquist is the president and co-founder of the American Chesterton Society and the publisher of its magazine, ''Gilbert''. He is also th ...

notes: "By all accounts, the real Baring was a charming, affable gentleman who knew how to laugh and had no fear of making a fool of himself," while "Horne Fisher is distinctly lacking in both the charm and humour departments."

Works

*''The Black Prince and Other Poems'' (1903)
''With the Russians in Manchuria.''
(1905) London: Methuen
OCLC 811786
*''Forget-me-Not and Lily of the Valley'' (1905) Humphreys *''Sonnets and Short Poems'' (1906) *''Thoughts on Art and Life'' (1906)
''Russian Essays and Stories.''
(1908) London: Methuen. *''Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories'' (1909) short stories *''Dead Letters'' (1910) satirical collection *''The Glass Mender and Other Stories'' (1910)
''Landmarks in Russian Literature''
1910) London: Methuen.
''The Russian People''
(1911) *''Letters from the Near East'' (1913)
''Lost Diaries''
(1913) fictional extracts from diaries of notable people
''The Mainsprings of Russia''
(1914)
''Round the World in any Number of Days''
(1919)
''Flying Corps Headquarters 1914-1918''
(1920)
''Passing By''
(1921) novel
''The Puppet Show of Memory''
(1922) autobiography *''Overlooked'' (1922) short story *''Poems 1914–1919'' (1923) *''C'' (1924) novel *''Punch and Judy and Other Essays'' (1924) *''Half a Minute's Silence and Other Stories'' (1925) *''Cat's Cradle'' (1925) novel *''Daphne Adeane'' (1926) novel *''Tinker's Leave'' (1927) novel *''Comfortless Memory'' (1928) novel *''The Coat Without Seam'' (1929) novel *''Robert Peckham'' (1930) historical novel *''In My End is My Beginning'' (1931)

biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fict ...

about Mary Stuart *''Friday's Business'' (1932) novel *''Lost Lectures'' (1932) imaginary lectures *''Unreliable History'' (1934) omnibus collection of works *''The Lonely Lady of Dulwich'' (1934) novella *''Darby and Joan'' (1935) novel *''Have You Anything to Declare?'' (1936) collection of notes and quotes *''Collected Poems'' (1937) poetry *''Maurice Baring: A Postscript by Laura Lovat with Some Letters and Verse'' (1947) *''Maurice Baring Restored: Selections from His Work'' (1970) chosen and edited by

Paul Horgan Paul George Vincent O'Shaughnessy Horgan (August 1, 1903 – March 8, 1995) was an American writer of historical fiction and non-fiction who mainly wrote about the Southwestern United States. He was the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes for Histo ...

*''Dear Animated Bust: Letters to Lady Juliet Duff, France 1915-1918'' (1981) *''Letters'' (2007) selected and edited by Jocelyn Hillgarth and Julian Jeffs *Baring also edited ''The Oxford Book Of Russian Verse'' published by Clarendon (1924)

References

External links

Portraits of Maurice Baring
in the National Portrait Gallery (London). * Maurice Baring Collection. General Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Libraries

Maurice Baring Collection
at the

Harry Ransom 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 ...

Maurice Baring Collection
at

Houghton Library Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of ...

Maurice Baring Collection
at the John J. Burns Library
Maurice Baring material
at the

UK National Archives , type = Non-ministerial department , seal = , nativename = , logo = Logo_of_The_National_Archives_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg , logo_width = 150px , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , juris ...

Electronic editions

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baring, Maurice 1874 births 1945 deaths 20th-century British translators 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century essayists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British Army personnel of World War I British male dramatists and playwrights British male essayists Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism Deaths from Parkinson's disease English Catholic poets English dramatists and playwrights English essayists English male non-fiction writers English male novelists English male poets English Roman Catholics English translators English travel writers Intelligence Corps officers Neurological disease deaths in Scotland Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Eton College People from Mayfair Roman Catholic writers Royal Air Force personnel of World War I Royal Air Force wing commanders Royal Flying Corps officers War correspondents of the Balkan Wars War correspondents of the Russo-Japanese War Younger sons of barons

Maurice Maurice may refer to: People * Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr * Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...