David Garnett
Encyclopedia
David Garnett was a British
writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.
as the only child of Edward Garnett
and Russian translator Constance Garnett
. As a conscientious objector
in the First World War, he worked on fruit farms in Suffolk
and Sussex
with his lover, Duncan Grant
.
, Garnett received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox
, an allegorical
fantasy
, was awarded the 1922 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
for fiction. He ran a bookshop near the British Museum
with Francis Birrell during the 1920s. He also founded (with Francis Meynell
) the Nonesuch Press
. He wrote the novel Aspects of Love
(1955), on which the later Andrew Lloyd-Webber
musical was based.
. He and Ray, whose woodcuts appear in some of his books, had two sons, but she died relatively young of breast cancer.
Garnett was bisexual, as were several members of the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group
, and he had affairs with Francis Birrell and Duncan Grant
. He was present at the birth of Grant's daughter, Angelica
(by Vanessa Bell
, and accepted by her husband Clive Bell
), on 25 December 1918, and wrote to a friend shortly afterwards, "I think of marrying it. When she is 20, I shall be 46 – will it be scandalous?". When Angelica was in her early twenties, they did marry (on 8 May 1942), to the horror of her parents.
They had four daughters, in order, Amaryllis, Henrietta, and twins Nerissa and Frances; eventually the couple separated. Amaryllis Garnett (1943–1973) was an actress. Henrietta Garnett married Lytton Burgo Partridge, her father's nephew by his first wife Ray, but was left a widow with a newborn infant when she was 18; she oversees the legacies of both David Garnett and Duncan Grant. Nerissa Garnett (1946-2004) was an artist, ceramicist, and photographer. Fanny Garnett resides in France.
(near Cahors), where he died in 1981.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.
Early life
Garnett was born in BrightonBrighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
as the only child of Edward Garnett
Edward Garnett
Edward Garnett was an English writer, critic and a significant and personally generous literary editor, who was instrumental in getting D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers published. His father Richard Garnett was a writer and librarian at the British Museum...
and Russian translator Constance Garnett
Constance Garnett
Constance Clara Garnett was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature...
. As a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
in the First World War, he worked on fruit farms in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
and Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
with his lover, Duncan Grant
Duncan Grant
Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...
.
Work
A prominent member of the Bloomsbury GroupBloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
, Garnett received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox
Lady into Fox
Lady into Fox was David Garnett's first novel under his own name, published in 1922. This short and enigmatic work won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Hawthornden Prize a year later.-Plot summary:...
, an allegorical
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
, was awarded the 1922 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for fiction. He ran a bookshop near the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
with Francis Birrell during the 1920s. He also founded (with Francis Meynell
Francis Meynell
Sir Francis Meredith Wilfrid Meynell was a British poet and printer at The Nonesuch Press.He was son of the writer Alice Meynell, a suffragist and prominent Roman Catholic convert. Francis Meynell was brought in by George Lansbury to be business manager of the Daily Herald in 1913. He was...
) the Nonesuch Press
Nonesuch Press
Nonesuch Press was a private press founded in 1922 in London by Francis Meynell, his wife Vera Mendel, and David Garnett.-History:Nonesuch Press's first book, a volume of John Donne's Love Poems was issued in May 1923. In total, the press produced more than 140 books. The press was at its peak in...
. He wrote the novel Aspects of Love
Aspects of Love (novel)
Aspects of Love is a novel by author David Garnett centering on the loves of a young soldier named Alexis Golightly, his uncle George Dillingham, and the beautiful actress Rose Vibert from whom neither man could escape. It was originally published in 1955....
(1955), on which the later Andrew Lloyd-Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
musical was based.
Personal life
His first wife was illustrator Rachel "Ray" Marshall (1891–1940), sister of translator and diarist Frances PartridgeFrances Partridge
Frances Catherine Partridge CBE was a long-lived member of the Bloomsbury Group and a writer, probably best known for the publication of her diaries...
. He and Ray, whose woodcuts appear in some of his books, had two sons, but she died relatively young of breast cancer.
Garnett was bisexual, as were several members of the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
, and he had affairs with Francis Birrell and Duncan Grant
Duncan Grant
Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...
. He was present at the birth of Grant's daughter, Angelica
Angelica Garnett
Angelica Vanessa Garnett is a British writer and painter.-Early life:She was the illegitimate daughter of the painters Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf, and was a member of the Bloomsbury Group...
(by Vanessa Bell
Vanessa Bell
Vanessa Bell was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury group, and the sister of Virginia Woolf.- Biography and art :...
, and accepted by her husband Clive Bell
Clive Bell
Arthur Clive Heward Bell was an English Art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group.- Origins :Clive Bell was born in East Shefford, Berkshire, in 1881...
), on 25 December 1918, and wrote to a friend shortly afterwards, "I think of marrying it. When she is 20, I shall be 46 – will it be scandalous?". When Angelica was in her early twenties, they did marry (on 8 May 1942), to the horror of her parents.
They had four daughters, in order, Amaryllis, Henrietta, and twins Nerissa and Frances; eventually the couple separated. Amaryllis Garnett (1943–1973) was an actress. Henrietta Garnett married Lytton Burgo Partridge, her father's nephew by his first wife Ray, but was left a widow with a newborn infant when she was 18; she oversees the legacies of both David Garnett and Duncan Grant. Nerissa Garnett (1946-2004) was an artist, ceramicist, and photographer. Fanny Garnett resides in France.
Death
After his separation from Angelica, Garnett moved to France and lived at the Chateau de Charry, MontcuqMontcuq
Montcuq is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France.Lying 25 km outside of Cahors, its residents are known as Montcuqois.The town remains vibrant and a popular tourist destination...
(near Cahors), where he died in 1981.
Works
- Turgenev (1917)
- Dope Darling (1919) novel, as Leda Burke
- Lady into FoxLady into FoxLady into Fox was David Garnett's first novel under his own name, published in 1922. This short and enigmatic work won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Hawthornden Prize a year later.-Plot summary:...
(1922) novel - A Man in the Zoo (1924) novel
- The Sailor's ReturnThe Sailor's Return (novel)The Sailor's Return is a 1925 British novel by David Garnett. In Victorian England, a black woman marries a sailor and faces hostility from the local community in Dorset.-Adaptation:...
(1925) novel - Go She Must! (1927) novel
- The Old Dove Cote (1928) stories
- A Voyage to the Island of the Articoles by André Maurois (1928) translator
- Never Be a Bookseller (1929) memoirs
- No Love (1929) novel
- The Grasshoppers Come (1931)
- A Terrible Day (1932)
- A Rabbit in the Air. Notes from a diary kept while learning to handle an aeroplane (1932)
- Pocahontas (1933)
- Letters from John Galsworthy 1900-1932 (1934)
- Beany-Eye (1935)
- The Letters of T. E. Lawrence (1938) editor
- The Battle of Britain (1941)
- War in the Air (1941)
- The Campaign in Greece and Crete (1942)
- The Novels of Thomas Love Peacock (1948) editor
- The Golden Echo (1953) autobiography (i)
- The Flowers of the Forest (1955) autobiography (ii)
- Aspects of LoveAspects of Love (novel)Aspects of Love is a novel by author David Garnett centering on the loves of a young soldier named Alexis Golightly, his uncle George Dillingham, and the beautiful actress Rose Vibert from whom neither man could escape. It was originally published in 1955....
(1955) - A Shot in the Dark (1958)
- A Net for Venus (1959) novel
- The Familiar Faces (1962) autobiography (iii)
- Two by Two (1963) novel
- 338171 T. E. (Lawrence of Arabia) by Victoria OcampoVictoria OcampoVictoria Ocampo Aguirre was an Argentine writer and intellectual, described by Jorge Luis Borges as La mujer más argentina ....
(1963) translator - Ulterior Motives (1966) novel
- The White/Garnett Letters (1968) correspondence with T. H. WhiteT. H. WhiteTerence Hanbury White was an English author best known for his sequence of Arthurian novels, The Once and Future King, first published together in 1958.-Biography:...
- Carrington: Letters & Extracts From Her Diaries (1970)
- First 'Hippy' Revolution (1970)
- A Clean Slate (1971)
- The Sons of the Falcon (1972) novel
- Purl and Plain (1973) stories
- Plough Over the Bones (1973) novel
- The Master Cat (1974)
- Up She Rises (1977)
- Great Friends. Portraits of Seventeen Writers (1979)
- David Garnett. C.B.E. A Writer's Library (1983)
- The Secret History of PWE : The Political Warfare Executive, 1939-1945 (2002)