Sir Peter Courtney Quennell; James Stephens

Sir Peter Courtney Quennell (9 March 1905 – 27 October 1993) was an English biographer, literary historian, editor, essayist, poet, and critic. He wrote extensively on social history.

Life

Born in

Bickley Bickley is a district and a local government electoral ward in South East London, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is located 10.4 miles (16.7 km) south east of Charing Cross, bordering Elmstead, London, Elmstead to the north, Chis ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, the son of architect C. H. B. Quennell and Marjorie Quennell, he was educated at

Berkhamsted Grammar School Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new to ...

and 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 ...

. While still at school some of his poems were selected by Richard Hughes for the anthology ''Public School Verse'', which brought him to the attention of writers such as

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

. In 1922 he published his first book, ''Masques and Poems''. This was followed by many other volumes, particularly his ''Four Portraits'' of 1945 (studies of Boswell,

Gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India ...

, Sterne, and Wilkes), books on London and works on

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

(1929),

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

(1934–35),

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

(1949), Ruskin (1949), Hogarth (1955),

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

(1963),

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

(1971) and

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

(1972). He first practised journalism in London. In 1930 he taught at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

. In 1944–51, he was editor of ''

The Cornhill Magazine ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictiona ...

'' and from 1951 to 1979 founder-editor of ''

History Today ''History Today'' is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and pub ...

''. Quennell published two volumes of autobiography, ''The Marble Foot'' (1976) and ''Wanton Chase'' (1980). He was appointed a Commander 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 ...

(CBE), and was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed in the 1992 New Year Honours. He married five times, and had two children, a daughter Sarah from his third marriage and Alexander from his fifth. He died in London. Quennell's first cousin – daughter of his father's brother Walter – was

Joan Quennell Joan Mary Quennell (23 December 1923 – 2 July 2006) was a British Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Petersfield from 1960 to 1974. Early life The daughter of Walter Quennell, a builder and developer, Quenn ...

, a Conservative MP.''Dod's Parliamentary Companion'', ed. C. R. Dod and R. P. Dod, Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd., 1967, pg 461

Works

*''Masques & Poems'' (1922) *''Oxford Poetry'' (1924), editor with

Harold Acton Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in Ch ...

*''Poems'' (1926) *''Inscription on a Fountainhead'' (1929), poetry pamphlet *''Baudelaire And The Symbolists: Five Essays'' (1929) *''Memoirs of the Comte de Gramont'' (1930), with Anthony Hamilton *''The Phoenix Kind'' (1931), novel *''A Superficial Journey Through Tokyo and Peking'' (1932), travel memoir *''A Letter to Mrs.

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 ...

'' (

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...

1932) *''Aspects of Seventeenth Century Verse'' (1933), editor *''Byron'' (1934) *''Byron: the Years of Fame'' (1935) *''Somerset'' (1936), Shell Guide with C. H. B. Quennell *''The Private Letters of Princess Lieven to Prince Metternich 1820–1826'' (1937), editor *''Victorian Panorama: a survey of life & fashion from contemporary photographs'' (1937) *''Sympathy'' (1938), stories *''To Lord Byron: Feminine Profiles – based upon unpublished letters 1807–1824'' (1939) with George Paston *''Caroline of England: An Augustan Portrait'' (1940) *''Brown the Bear: Who scared the villagers out of their wits'' (circa 1940), translator Katharine Busvine *''Byron In Italy'' (1941) *''Four Portraits: Studies of the Eighteenth Century – James Boswell, Edward Gibbon, Laurence Sterne, John Wilkes'' (1945) *''Time Exposure'' (1946) with

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theat ...

*''John Ruskin: The Portrait of a Prophet'' (1949) *''The Pleasures Of Pope'' (1949) *''Mayhew's London'' (1949) *''My Heart Laid Bare and Other Prose Writings by

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

'' (1950), editor, translator Norman Cameron *''Byron: A Self-Portrait – Letters and Diaries 1798–1824'' (2 Volumes) (1950), editor *''London's Underworld by Henry Mayhew'' (1951), editor *''Mayhew's Characters (1951) *''The Singular Preference'' (1952) *''Spring In Sicily'' (1952), travel book *''Selected writings of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

'' (1952), editor *''Diversions of History'' (1954) *''Hogarth's Progress'' (1955) *''Selected Verse and Prose Works Including Letters and Extracts from

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

's Journal and Diaries'', 1959 *''The Past We Share. An Illustrated History of the British and American Peoples'' (1960), with Alan Hodge *''The Sign of the Fish'' (1960) *''Byronic Thoughts: Maxims Reflections Portraits From the Prose and Verse of Lord Byron'' (1961) *''Selected Essays of

Henry de Montherlant Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant (; 20 April 1895 – 21 September 1972) was a French essayist, novelist, and dramatist. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960. Biography Born in Paris, a descendant o ...

'' (1961), editor, John Weightman translator *''The Prodigal Rake – memoirs of William Hickey'' (1962), editor *''

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

in Southern Italy: Journals of a Landscape Painter in southern

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

'' (1964), introduction *''

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

: The education of genius 1688–1728'' (1968) *''Henry de Montherlant'', with translator

Terence Kilmartin Terence Kevin Kilmartin CBE (10 January 1922 – 17 August 1991) was an Irish-born translator who served as the literary editor of ''The Observer'' between 1952 and 1986. He is best known for his 1981 revision of the Scott Moncrieff translati ...

*''The Girls, A Tetralogy of Novels : The Girls, Pity for Women, The Hippograf & The Lepers'' *''The Colosseum – a History of Rome from the Time of Nero'' (1971) *''Shakespeare, a biography'' (1963) *''The Journal of Thomas Moore'' (1964) editor *''Who's Who in Shakespeare'' (1971) *''Casanova in London'' (1971), essays *''

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

, 1871–1922: A Centennial Volume'' (1971) *''

– his friends and enemies'' (1973) *''Romantic England Writing And Painting 1717–1851'' (1970) *''A History of English Literature'' (1973) *
The Marble Foot: An Autobiography, 1905–1938
' (1977) *''The Day Before Yesterday'' (1978) *''

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...

: a Tribute'' (1979) editor *''Customs and characters: Contemporary portraits'' (1982) *''Wanton Chase: An Autobiography from 1939'' (1980) *''Genius in the Drawing Room (UK)/Affairs of the Mind: the Salon in Europe and America'' (1980), editor *''A Lonely Business: A Self-Portrait of

James Pope-Hennessy James Pope Hennessy CVO (20 November 1916 – 25 January 1974) was a British biographer and travel writer. Early life Richard James Arthur Pope-Hennessy was born in London on 20 November 1916, the younger son of Ladislaus Herbert Richard Pope ...

'' (1981) editor *''The Selected Essays of

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 ...

'' (1984) editor *''The Last Edwardians: An Illustrated History of

Violet Trefusis Violet Trefusis (''née'' Keppel; 6 June 1894 – 29 February 1972) was an English socialite and author. She is chiefly remembered for her lengthy affair with the writer Vita Sackville-West that both women continued after their respective marria ...

and

Alice Keppel Alice Frederica Keppel (''née'' Edmonstone; 29 April 1868 – 11 September 1947) was an aristocrat, british society hostess and a long-time mistress of King Edward VII. Keppel grew up at Duntreath Castle, the family seat of the Edmonstone baro ...

'' (1985) with John Phillips and

Lorna Sage Lorna Sage (13 January 1943 – 11 January 2001) was an English academic, literary critic and author, remembered especially for contributing to consideration of women's writing and for a memoir of her early life, '' Bad Blood'' (2000).ODNB entry ...

*''An Illustrated Companion to World Literature'' (1986) editor, original

Tore Zetterholm Tore Ulf Axel Zetterholm (1915–2001) was a Swedish novelist, playwright and journalist. He made his literary debut in 1940 with the novel ''Stora Hoparegränd och himmelriket''. He chaired the Writers' Guild of Sweden from 1957 to 1972. He ...

*''The Pursuit of Happiness'' (1988)

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quennell, Peter 1905 births 1993 deaths English autobiographers English biographers English editors English historians English literary critics People educated at Berkhamsted School People from Bickley Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor 20th-century English poets English male poets 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers University of Tokyo faculty

Life

Works

See also

Notes

External links