Edward Hesketh Gibbons Pearson (20 February 1887 – 9 April 1964) was a British actor, theatre director and writer. He is known mainly for his popular biographies; they made him the leading British biographer of his time, in terms of commercial success.

Early life

Pearson was born in

Hawford Hawford is a hamlet in Worcestershire, England. It falls within two parishes; North Claines and Ombersley and Doverdale in the outer suburbs of Worcester about 3 miles from the city centre. It is bisected by the River Salwarpe, the Droitwich - W ...

Claines Claines is a small village just to the north of Worcester, England, on the east bank of the River Severn. Claines is situated in the heart of Worcestershire on the A449 between Worcester and Kidderminster. It has a church which dates from the 10t ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, to a family with a large number of members in Holy Orders. His parents were Thomas Henry Gibbons Pearson, a farmer, and the former Amy Mary Constance Biggs. He was a great-great-great nephew of the statistician and polymath

Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, Anthropology, anthropologist, tropical Exploration, explorer, geographer, Inventio ...

, whom he described in ''Modern Men and Mummers''. After the family moved to

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

in 1896, he was educated there at Orkney House Preparatory School for five years, a period he later described as the only unhappy episode in his life, for the compulsive flogging beloved of its headmaster. At 14, he was sent to

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English ind ...

, where he proved an indifferent student. Rebelling against his father's desire for him to study Classics to prepare himself for a career in Holy Orders, on graduation, he entered commerce but happily accepted his dismissal as a troublemaker when he inherited £1,000 from a deceased aunt. He employed the funds to travel widely, and on his return joined his brother's car business. Conservative by temperament, he was a passionate reader of

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 ...

's plays and a frequent theatre-goer. When his brother's business faced bankruptcy, he applied for a job with

Herbert Beerbohm Tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager. Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progra ...

and began acting with that theatrical entrepreneur's company in 1911. A year later, he married Gladys Gardner, one of the company's actresses.

Wartime and first writing

At the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Pearson enlisted immediately in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

but was soon invalided out when it was discovered that he suffered from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...

. He volunteered for the Army Service Corps and was sent to

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

, where the climate was conducive to treatment for tuberculosis. He recovered from that malady there but contracted several other diseases, septic sores, dysentery and malaria and was close to death on three occasions. He attributed his survival to his practice of reciting long passages of Shakespeare while he was critically ill. He distinguished himself under fire and, on one occasion, received a severe head wound from shrapnel. He was subsequently awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

. After the war, Pearson returned to the stage and, in 1921, met Hugh Kingsmill, an encounter that, thanks to Kingsmill's charismatic friendship and influence, changed his life.Richard Ingrams, ''God's Apology'',1977 chapter 3 He began to write as a journalist, and published some short stories and essays. In 1926 the anonymously published ''Whispering Gallery'', purporting to be diary pages from leading political figures, caused him to be prosecuted for attempted

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

. He won the case, partly because (according to Michael Holroyd) of his "engaging candour appealed to the jury".

Author

During the 1930s and 1940s Pearson was perhaps the most successful biographer in Britain from a commercial perspective. He started with

Erasmus Darwin Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor, and poet. His poems ...

(a maternal ancestor) in 1930. ''The Smith of Smiths'' (1934) was a life of the Revd.

Sydney Smith Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English wit, writer, and Anglican cleric. Early life and education Born in Woodford, Essex, England, Smith was the son of merchant Robert Smith (1739–1827) and Maria Olier (1750–1801) ...

which retained its popularity. The four authors of what he called his 'revelations' - Wilde, Bernard Shaw, Shakespeare and Tree - were also the subjects of biographies, as were

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

, William Hazlitt, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

. The last to be written at the height of his powers was ''Johnson and Boswell'' (1958).

Later life

Pearson was a close friend and collaborator of

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, in Essex). In ...

. Richard Ingrams's later biography of Muggeridge 'Muggeridge: The Biography'' claimed that Pearson had an affair with Kitty Muggeridge in the early the 1940s, while her husband, Malcolm, was in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. With his first wife Gladys he had one son, who died in 1939. She died in 1951 and he married again, to Dorothy Joyce Ryder (1912-1976) later that year. He died on 9 April 1964 at his home, 14 Priory Road, Hampstead, London. He wrote two autobiographies: ''Thinking it Over'' (1938) and ''Hesketh Pearson by Himself'' (1965), which was published posthumously a year after his death.Holroyd, Michael. 'Pearson, (Edward) Hesketh Gibbons', in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2011)

Works

*''Modern Men and Mummers'' (1921), which describes encounters with

(whose great-great-great nephew he was) *''A Persian Critic'' (1923) *''The Whispering Gallery: Leaves from a Diplomat's Diary'' (1926) fictional diary, published as an anonymous hoax *''Iron Rations'' (1928) stories *''Doctor Darwin'' (1930) on

*''Ventilations: Being Biographical Asides'' (1930) *''The Fool of Love. A Life of William Hazlitt'' (1934) *''The Smith of Smiths: Being the Life, Wit and Humour of

'' (1934) *''Common Misquotations'' (1934) editor *''

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

: A Biography'' (1935) *''The Swan of

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

: being a selection from the correspondence of Anna Seward'' (1936) editor *''Labby: The Life and Character of Henry Labouchere'' (1936) *'' Tom Paine. Friend of Mankind: A Biography'' (1937) *''Thinking It Over'' (1938) *''Skye High: The Record of a Tour through

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

in the Wake of

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 ...

and

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer ...

'' (1938) with Hugh Kingsmill *''The Hero of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

'' (1939) on John Nicholson *''This Blessed Plot'' (1942) with Hugh Kingsmill *''A Life of

: With An Anthology of Shakespeare's Poetry'' (1942) *'' Bernard Shaw: His Life and Personality'' (1942) also ''G.B.S. A Full Length Portrait'' (US) *'' Conan Doyle: His Life and Art'' (1943) *''

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 ...

, His Life and Wit'' (1946) *''Talking of

Dick Whittington Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423) of the parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, was an English merchant and a politician of the late medieval period. He is also the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale '' Dic ...

'' (1947) with Hugh Kingsmill *'' Dickens: His Character, Comedy, and Career'' (1949) *''G.B.S. A Postscript'' (1950) *''The Last Actor-Managers'' (1950) *''Essays of

'' (1950) editor *''About Kingsmill'' (Co-author with

– regarding Hugh Kingsmill) *''Dizzy: The Life and Personality of

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation ...

, Earl of Beaconsfield'' (1951) *''The Man Whistler'' (1952)- (

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 ...

) *''

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

: His Life and Personality'' (1954) *'' Beerbohm Tree: His Life & Laughter'' (1956) *''Gilbert: His Life and Strife'' (1957) - (

W.S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

) *''Johnson and Boswell: The Story of Their Lives'' (1958) *'' Charles II: His Life and Likeness'' (1960) also ''Merry Monarch, the Life and Likeness of Charles II'' (US) *''The Pilgrim Daughters'' (1961) also ''The Marrying Americans'' (US) *''Lives of the Wits'' (1962) *'' Henry of Navarre'' (1963) *''Hesketh Pearson, By Himself'' (1965) autobiography *''Extraordinary People'' (1965) biographical essays

References

Citations * Ingrams, Richard (1977) ''God's Apology: A Chronicle of Three Friends'' *Hunter, Ian (1987) ''Nothing to Repent: The Life of Hesketh Pearson''

External links

*
Hesketh Pearson Papers
at the Harry Ransom Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Hesketh English biographers 1887 births 1964 deaths People educated at Bedford School People from Bedford Recipients of the Military Cross British Army personnel of World War I Royal Army Service Corps officers Military personnel from Bedfordshire