Peter Quennell

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Peter Quennell. Courtesy LibraryThing.

Sir Peter Courtney Quennell CBE (9 March 1905 - 27 October 1993) was an English poet, biographer, literary historian, editor, essayist, and critic.

Life

Youth and education

Quennell was born in Bickley, Kent, the son of architect C.H.B. Quennell, and his wife, Marjorie Quennell (who wrote extensively on social history).

He attended Berkhamsted Grammar School, where Graham Greene was a classmate. He began writing poetry as a teenager. While he was 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.

at Balliol College, Oxford

Career

After leaving school, he practiced journalism in London.

In 1922 he published his debut collection, Masques and Poems. This was followed by many other volumes, particularly his Four Portraits of 1945 (studies of Boswell, Gibbon, Sterne, and Wilkes).

He wrote biographies of Baudelaire (1929), Byron (1934–35), Pope (1949), Ruskin (1949), Hogarth (1955), Shakespeare (1963), Proust (1971) and Dr. Johnson (1972).

In 1930 he taught at the University of Tokyo.

From 1944 to 1951, he was editor of the Cornhill Magazine and from 1951 to 1979 co-editor (with Alan Hodge) of History Today.

He published 2 volumes of autobiography, The Marble Foot (1976) and The Wanton Chase (1980). He was married 5 times, and had 2 children: a daughter Sarah, from his third marriage; and a son, Alexander, from his 5th. He died in London.

Recognition

Quennell was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1973.

He was knighted in 1992.

Publications

Poetry

• Masques & Poems. Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire, UK: Golden Cockerel Press, 1922.
• Poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1926.
• Inscription on a Fountainhead. London: Faber, 1929.

Novel

• The Phoenix-Kind. London: Chatto & Windus, 1931; New York: Viking, 1931.

Short fiction

• Sympathy, and other stories. London: Faber, 1933.

Non-fiction

• Baudelaire And The Symbolists: Five essays. London: Chatto & Windus, 1929; Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1970.
• A Superficial Journey Through Tokyo and Peking. London: Faber, 1932; New York & Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• A Letter to Mrs. Virginia Woolf. London: Hogarth Press, 1932.
• Byron. London: Duckworth, 1934.
• Byron: The years of fame. London: Faber, 1935; New York: Viking, 1935.
• Somerset (with C.H.B. Quennell). London: Architectural Press, 1936.
• Victorian Panorama: A survey of life and fashion from contemporary photographs. New York: Scribner / London: B.T. Batsford, 1937.
• "To Lord Byron": Feminine profiles based upon unpublished letters, 1807-1824 (with George Paston). London: John Murray, 1939; New York: Scribner, 1939.
• Caroline of England: An Augustan portrait. London: Collins, 1939; New York: Viking, 1940.
• Byron In Italy. London: Collins, 1941; New York: Viking, 1941.
• Four Portraits: Studies of the eighteenth century (on James Boswell, Edward Gibbon, Laurence Sterne, John Wilkes). London: Collins, 1945
  • published in U.S. as The Profane Virtues: Four studies of the eighteenth century. New York: Viking, 1945.
• John Ruskin: The portrait of a prophet. London: Collins, 1949; New York: Viking, 1949.
• The Pleasures Of Pope. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1949; New York: Pantheon, 1950.
• The Singular Preference: Portraits and essays. London: Collins, 1952; New York: Viking, 1953.
• Spring In Sicily (illustrated by Joan Rayner et al). London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1952.
• Diversions of History. London: Allan Wingate, 1954.
• Hogarth's Progress. London: Collins, 1955; New York: Viking, 1955.
• John Ruskin. London: Published for the British Council and the National Book League by Longmans, Green 1956.
• The Past We Share: An illustrated history of the British and American peoples (with Alan Hodge). London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1960; New York: Prometheus Press, 1960.
• The Sign of the Fish (essays). London: Collins, 1960; New York: Viking, 1960.
• Shakespeare: A biography. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1963; Cleveland, OH: World, 1963; New York: Avon, 1963
  • also published as Shakespeare: The poet and his background. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1963; London: Penguin, 1963,
• Alexander Pope: The education of genius, 1688-1728. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1968; New York: Stein & Day, 1968.
• Romantic England: Writing and painting, 1771-1851. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1970; New York: Macmillan, 1970.
• The Colosseum: A history of Rome from the time of Nero. London: Reader's Digest, 1971; New York: Newsweek, 1971.
• Casanova in London, and other essays. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1971; New York: Stein & Day, 1971.
• Samuel Johnson: His friends and enemies. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1972; New York: American Heritage Press, 1973.
• Who's Who in Shakespeare (with Hamish Johnson). London: Chancellor, 1973; London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1973; New York: Morrow, 1973
  • also published as Routledge Who's Who in Shakespeare. London: Routledge, 1994.
• A History of English Literature. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1973; Springfield, MA: Merriam, 1973.
• The Marble Foot: An autobiography, 1905-1938. London: Collins, 1976; New York: Viking, 1976.
• The Day Before Yesterday: A photographic album of daily life in Victorian and Edwardian Britain (with Thelma Shumsky). London: J.M. Dent, 1978; New York: Scribner, 1978.
• The Wanton Chase: An autobiography from 1939. London: Collins, 1980; New York: Atheneum, 1980.
• Customs and characters: Contemporary portraits. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1982; Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.
• The Last Edwardians: An Illustrated History of Violet Trefusis and Alice Keppel ( with John Phillips and Lorna Sage). 1985.
• The Pursuit of Happiness. London: Constable, 1988; Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.

Translated

• Comet de Gramont, Memoirs (translated with Anthony Hamilton). London: Routledge, 1930; New York: Dutton, 1930.
• Samivel, Here is the Story of Brown the Bear (translated with Katharine Busvine). London: John Murray / New York: F. Warne, 1940.

Edited

• Oxford Poetry, 1924 (edited with Harold Acton). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1924.
• Aspects of Seventeenth-Century Verse. London: Cape, 1933.
• The Private Letters of Princess Lieven to Prince Metternich, 1820–1826. London: John Murray, 1937; New York: Dutton, 1938.
• Lord Byron, Selections from poetry letters and journals. London: Nonesuch Press, 1949.
• Charles Baudelaire, My Heart Laid Bare, and other prose writings (translated by Norman Cameron). London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1950; New York: Vanguard, 1951.
• Lord Byron, Byron: A self-portrait: Letters and diaries, 1798 to 1824, with hitherto unpublished letters. (2 volumes), London: John Murray, 1950; New York: Scribner, 1950.
• Henry Mayhew, London's Underworld: Being selections from "Those that will not work," the fourth volume of "London labour and the London poor". London: William Kimber, 1950.
• Henry Mayhew, Mayhew’s London: Being selections from 'London labour and the London poor'. London: William Kimber, 1951.
• Henry Mayhew, Mayhew's Characters: Sselected from "London labour and the London poor.". London: William Kimber, 1951.
• John Ruskin, Selected Writings. London: Falcon Press, 1952.
• Lord Byron, Selected Verse and Prose Works: Including letters and extracts from Lord Byron's journal and diaries. London: Collins, 1959.
• Lord Byron, Byronic Thoughts: Maxims, reflections, portraits from the prose and verse of Lord Byron. London: John Murray, 1960; New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1961.
• Henry de Montherlant, Selected Essays (translated by John Weightman). London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1960; new York: Macmillan, 1961.
• William Hickey, The Prodigal Rake: Memoirs. New York: Dutton, 1962.
• Thomas Moore, The Journal of Thomas Moore, 1818-1841. London: B.T. Batsford, 1964; New York: Macmillan, 1964.
• Henry de Monthelant, The Girls, A Tetralogy of Novels: The Girls, Pity for Women, The Hippograf & The Lepers (translated by Terence Kilmartin). (2 volumes), Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1968; New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
• Marcel Proust, 1871-1922: A centennial volume. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1971; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971.
• Vladimir Nabokov: A tribute. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1979; New York: Morrow, 1980.
• Genius in the Drawing Room: The literary salon in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1980
  • published in U.S. as Affairs of the Mind: The salon in Europe and America from the 18th to the 20th century. Washington, DC: New Republic Books, 1980.
• James Pope Hennessy, A Lonely Business: A self-portrait of James Pope-Hennessy. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1981
• Cyril Connolly, Selected Essays. New York: Persea, 1983.
• An Illustrated Companion to World Literature (with Tore Zetterholm). London: Orbis, 1986; New York: Excalibur, 1986.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

External links

Poems

• Peter Quennell in Georgian Poetry, 1920-22 (4 poems)

Books

• Peter Quennell at Amazon.com

About

• Sir Peter Quennell in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Peter Quennell 1905-1993 at the Poetry Foundation
• "Peter Quennell, a Man of Letters And Man About Town, Dies at 88" obituary at the New York Times
• "A mere disquiet in the grass: the poetry of Peter Quennell" at Mere Disquiet weblog