Rex Warner (9 March 1905 – 24 June 1986) was an English classicist, writer, and translator. He is now probably best remembered for ''The Aerodrome'' (1941).Chris Hopkins, ''English Fiction in the 1930s: Language, Genre, History'' Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007 (pp. 138–57). Warner was described by

V. S. Pritchett Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and literary critic. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. His non-fiction works incl ...

as "the only outstanding novelist of ideas whom the decade of ideas produced"."Rex Warner, 81, Dies; Author and Translator". ''The New York Times'', 17 July 1986

Biographical sketch

He was born Reginald Ernest Warner in Birmingham, England, and brought up mainly in Gloucestershire, where his father was a clergyman."Rex Warner(Obituary)". ''The Times''. 27 June 1986. He was educated at St. George's School in

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,240 in the 2011 census, whilst the population of the civil parish was 29,448. Har ...

, and at Wadham College, Oxford, where he associated with W. H. Auden,

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...

, and Stephen Spender, Michael Moorcock, "Introduction" to ''The Aerodrome'', Vintage Classics, 2007. (p. ix–xx) and published in '' Oxford Poetry''. He obtained a 1st in Classical Moderations in 1925 and later graduated with a 3rd in English in 1928. He then spent time teaching, some of it in Egypt. Warner's debut story, "Holiday", appeared in the '' New Statesman'' in 1930. His first collection, ''Poems'', appeared in 1937. His poem, "Arms in Spain", a satire on German and Italian support for the Spanish Nationalists, has often been reprinted. He was also a contributor to '' Left Review''. Warner was a great admirer of Franz Kafka and his fiction was "profoundly influenced" by Kafka's work. Warner's first three novels all reflect his

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

beliefs; ''The Wild Goose Chase'' is in part a

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

n fantasy about the overthrow of a tyrannical government in a heroic revolution.Janet Montefiore. ''Men and Women writers of the 1930s: The Dangerous Flood of History''. Routledge, 1996. (pp. 16, 170, 201). His second novel, ''The Professor'', published around the time of the Nazi Anschluss, is the story of a liberal academic whose compromises with a repressive government lead eventually to his arrest, imprisonment and murder "while attempting to escape". Contemporary reviewers saw parallels with the Austrian leaders Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg. Although Warner was initially sympathetic to the Soviet Union, "the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact left him disillusioned with Communism". ''The Aerodrome'' is an allegorical novel whose young hero is faced with the disintegration of his certainties about his loved ones, and with a choice between the earthy, animalistic life of his home village and the pure, efficient, emotionally detached life of an airman. ''The Times'' described ''The Aerodrome'' as Warner's "most perfectly accomplished novel". ''Why Was I Killed?'' (1943) is an afterlife fantasy with an anti-war theme. Warner then abandoned contemporary allegory in favour of historical novels about Ancient Greece and Rome, including ''Imperial Caesar'', for which he was awarded the 1960 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. ''Imperial Caesar'' was praised by John Davenport as "delightfully perceptive and funny", and by

Storm Jameson Margaret Ethel Storm Jameson (8 January 1891 – 30 September 1986) was an English journalist and author, known for her novels and reviews and for her work as President of English PEN between 1938 and 1944. Life and career Jameson was born in W ...

as "brilliant, intelligent, continuously interesting. It has everything." ''The Converts'', a novel about Saint Augustine, reflected Warner's own increasing devotion to Christianity. He dedicated it to the Greek poet and diplomat

George Seferis Giorgos or George Seferis (; gr, Γιώργος Σεφέρης ), the pen name of Georgios Seferiades (Γεώργιος Σεφεριάδης; March 13 – September 20, 1971), was a Greek poet and diplomat. He was one of the most important ...

. Warner served in the Home Guard during the Second World War and also worked as a Latin teacher at a Grammar School in Morden as there was a shortage of teachers. From 1945 to 1947 he was in Athens as Director of the British Institute. At that time he became involved in numerous translations of classical Greek and Latin authors. His translation of Thucydides' ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' for Penguin Classics sold over a million copies. He also translated ''Poems of George Seferis'' (1960). Warner's time in Greece coincided with the early stages of the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...

, which ended with the Greek Communists defeated and suppressed. This formed the background to his book ''"Men of Stones: A Melodrama"'' (1949), depicting imprisoned leftists presenting '' King Lear'' in their prison camp. In 1961 Warner was appointed Tallman Professor of Classics at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

and from 1962 to 1973 he was a professor at the University of Connecticut. While he was in the United States he was interviewed for the book ''Authors Take Sides on Vietnam'' (1967) and argued for withdrawal from Indochina.

Cecil Woolf Cecil James Sidney Woolf (1927–2019) was an English author and publisher. He was a nephew of the Woolfs of the Bloomsbury Group and lived in Hammersmith and Mornington Crescent. During the Second World War, he joined the Royal Tank Regim ...

and John Bagguley (editors),''Authors Take Sides on Vietnam'', Peter Owen, 1967,(p.47). Rex Warner retired to England in 1973 and died in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

Personal life

Warner was married three times, but to only two women. His first marriage was to Frances Chamier Grove, in 1929. Their marriage ended in divorce and in 1949 Warner married Barbara, Lady Rothschild, formerly the wife of Baron Victor Rothschild. After his second divorce, in 1966, he remarried his first wife. Warner and his wife Frances had three children. He had further children including a daughter Anne, who wrote about the relationship between Warner and her mother (when he was not married) in the book 'The Blind Horse of Corfu'.

Works

Novels

*''The Wild Goose Chase'' (1937) *''The Professor'' (1938) *''The Aerodrome'' (1941) *''Why Was I Killed?'' (1943) (US title: ''Return of the Traveller'' (1944)) *''Men of Stones; A melodrama'' (1949) *''Escapade'' (1953) *''Young Caesar'' (1958) *''Imperial Caesar'' (1960) *''Pericles the Athenian'' (1963) *''The Converts'' (1967)

Collections of Poems

*''Poems'' (1937) *''Poems and Contradictions'' (1945) *''New Poems 1954'' (with

Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilogy ...

and Christopher Hassall) (1954)

Non-fiction

*''The Kite'' (1936) *''We're Not Going To Do Nothing: A Reply to Mr Aldous Huxley's Pamphlet "What Are You Going to Do About It?"'' (1936); (with

) *''English Public Schools'' (1945) *''The Cult of Power'' (1946) *''John Milton'' (1949) *''E. M. Forster'' (1950, 2nd edition 1960) (with John Morris) *''Men and Gods'' (1950) *''Greeks and Trojans'' (1951) *''Views of Attica'' (1951) *''Ashes to Ashes: A Post-Mortem on the 1940–51 Tests'' (1951) (with Lyle Blair); *''Eternal Greece'' (1953) with Martin Hürlimann *''Athens'' (1956) with Martin Hürlimann *''The Greek Philosophers'' (1958) *''Look at Birds'' (1962) *''The Stories of the Greeks'' (1967) *''Athens at War'' (1970) a "retelling" of Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War *''Men of Athens: The Story of Fifth-Century Athens'' (vt. ''The Story of Fifth-Century Athens'') (1972) (with photographs by Dimitrios Harissiadis)

Translations from Ancient Greek

* Aeschylus, '' Prometheus Bound'' (1947) * Thucydides, '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' (1954) * Xenophon, '' A History of My Time'' and '' The Persian Expedition'' * Plutarch, ''

Parallel Lives Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', commonly called ''Parallel Lives'' or ''Plutarch's Lives'', is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably writt ...

'' (as ''The Fall of the Roman Republic'') and '' Moral Essays'' * Euripides, '' Medea'' (1944) * Euripides, '' Helen'' (1958) * Euripides, '' Hippolytus'' (1958)

Translations from Latin

*''War Commentaries of Caesar'' (1960) Gallic & Civil Wars *''The Confessions of

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...

'' (1963)

Translation from Modern Greek

*''On the Greek Style: Selected Essays in Poetry and Hellenism'' by George Seferis, translated by Rex Warner and T. D. Frangopoulos, with an introduction by Rex Warner. (1967)

As editor

*'' The Pilgrim's Progress'' by John Bunyan, (1951) *''Look Up at the Skies: Poems and Prose Chosen by Rex Warner'' (a selection of verse by

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...

, illustrated by

Yvonne Skargon Yvonne Skargon (1931-2010), was a British wood engraver, watercolorist, and typographer who was best known for her work related to botanical and culinary subjects. Career Yvonne Skargon was born in 1931. She attended the Colchester School of A ...

) (1972)

Film and TV adaptations

In 1983 the BBC screened an adaptation of ''The Aerodrome''. It was written by Robin Chapman and directed by Giles Foster. The cast included Peter Firth as Roy, the protagonist, Richard Briers as the Rector and Jill Bennett as Eustasia.

References

External links

*
"Forgotten Authors No 59: Rex Warner"
by Christopher Fowler, ''The Independent'', 14 November 2010
Review of ''The Aerodrome''
at TrashFiction.co.uk
Papers Pertaining to Rex Warner
MSS 6251; 20th Century Western and Mormon Americana; L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Rex 1905 births 1986 deaths People from Birmingham, West Midlands People from Gloucestershire Bowdoin College faculty English historical novelists English science fiction writers English Christians James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients English anti-fascists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity