John Langdon-Davies
Encyclopedia
John Eric Langdon-Davies (1897–1971) was a British
author and journalist
. He was a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War
and the Russo-Finnish
war. As a result of his experiences in Spain
, he founded the Foster Parents' Scheme for refugee children in Spain, now called Plan International
. He was awarded the MBE
for services to the Home Guard. Author of books on military, scientific, historical and Spanish (including Catalan) subjects.
, Zululand
(South Africa
) on 18 March 1897, he came to England
at the age of six and attended Yardley Park Prep school and Tonbridge School
. His first published work was an article entitled "The Hermit Crab", which appeared on the young people's page of The Lady
in 1910. In 1917 he published The Dream Splendid, a book of poetry inspired by the beauty of nature. According to one critic, it showed "all the young poet's faults"; to another, "Mr Langdon-Davies's verse owes nothing to the transient excitements of the hour", referring to the fact that it was not influenced by war fever. The Times Literary Supplement
said it was "the outcome of a brooding imagination intensely affected by open-air influences....and expressing itself with a real sense of style". When called up in 1917 he refused to wear uniform. This resulted in a short term in prison before being given a medical discharge. He intended to continue his academic career at St John's College
, Oxford
, but one of his three scholarships was removed as a result of his military record. Another, tenable only to single men, was removed when he married Constance Scott in 1918. The resulting economic situation forced him to abandon his university career, which ended with a diploma in anthropology and history.
He also made his first visit to Catalonia
, after which, in 1921, he and Connie, with their two small sons, settled for more than two years in the Pyrenean
village of Ripoll
, where he met groups of left-wing intellectuals and nationalists
. Here, reading a lot of poetry and much influenced by Arthur Waley's
translations of A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, he wrote a small book of verse, Man on Mountain, which was printed in Ripoll and published by Birrell and Garnett
in 1922. Since the letter "w" is more widely used in English than in Catalan, the local printer was obliged to send to Barcelona for extra supplies. The new "w"s, however, turned out to be marginally larger than the originals, so that a slight discrepancy appears on most pages, making the book a collectors' item. He returned to London
and spent another period travelling extensively, this time between England, the United States
and Catalonia. The Daily News
sent him to Barcelona
in 1923 to report on the coup by Miguel Primo de Rivera
, which he evaluated as comparable to the Irish question
.
In 1924 he began a series of lecture tours in the USA, speaking to women's associations and universities on history, literature and his own work. He also spent a year living in New York
between 1925 and 1926, during which time he wrote The New Age of Faith, published by the Viking Press
, N.Y. 1925, second ed. January '26. In it he heartily attacks the pseudo-scientists whose books were so popular in the USA at the time, provoking a number of counter-attacks which pointed out that Langdon-Davies himself was not a professional scientist. But the majority of the 60 or more published reviewers were in agreement with John Bakeless, who wrote, "....rarely has popular science been written with such spicy impertinence, such gay insouciance, or with so much intelligence and such scrupulous regard for facts....". He then moved to Sant Feliu de Guíxols
, on the Catalan coast, where he stayed from 1926 to 1928 and wrote Dancing Catalans, a study of the significance of the so-called 'Catalan national dance', the sardana
. Twenty years later the Catalan writer Josep Pla
said that it was the best book ever published on the sardana: "With the exception of the poetry of Joan Maragall
, there is nothing in our language comparable with this essay". A Short History of Women, published in New York, had also appeared in 1927. In it Langdon-Davies traces the development of the idea of Woman from the primitive taboo, the Christian fear, worship of fertility, etc., which
was now to be reshaped by the new knowledge. Virginia Woolf
comments on some of the author's ideas in A Room of One's Own
. In 1929 he settled in Devon
shire (England), but three years later (1932) he moved back to the USA. He returned to England again in 1935 and lived at Clapham Common
.
celebrations in Madrid
for the News Chronicle
, who sent him out again in August that same year to cover the Civil War. On this second trip he travelled by motorbike with his sixteen-year-old son Robin, whom he left with the "Revolutionary Committee" in Puigcerdà
for safe keeping. The following year he wrote Behind the Spanish Barricades, which has recently been re-published (2007), for the first time since 1936, by Reportage Press. Part of the profits from the book will go to Plan International, the child sponsorship charity which Langdon-Davis founded. He was strongly criticised by George Orwell
for his coverage of the Barcelona May action in Homage to Catalonia
.
. Titles include:
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...
author and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. He was a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
and the Russo-Finnish
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
war. As a result of his experiences in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, he founded the Foster Parents' Scheme for refugee children in Spain, now called Plan International
Plan (aid organisation)
Plan is a global children’s charity which operates in 48 countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas. It is made up of 21 national organisations responsible for raising funds and awareness in their respective countries...
. He was awarded the MBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
for services to the Home Guard. Author of books on military, scientific, historical and Spanish (including Catalan) subjects.
Early life
Born in EshoweEshowe, KwaZulu-Natal
Eshowe, is the oldest town of European settlement in Zululand. Eshowe's name is said to be inspired by the sound of wind blowing through the more than 4 km² of the indigenous Dhlinza Forest, the most important and striking feature of the town...
, Zululand
Zulu Kingdom
The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or, rather imprecisely, Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north....
(South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
) on 18 March 1897, he came to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
at the age of six and attended Yardley Park Prep school and Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School is a British boys' independent school for both boarding and day pupils in Tonbridge, Kent, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judd . It is a member of the Eton Group, and has close links with the Worshipful Company of Skinners, one of the oldest London livery companies...
. His first published work was an article entitled "The Hermit Crab", which appeared on the young people's page of The Lady
The Lady (magazine)
The Lady is Britain's oldest weekly women's magazine. It has been in continuous publication since 1885 and is based in London. It is particularly notable for its classified advertisements for domestic service and child care; it also has extensive listings of holiday properties.The magazine was...
in 1910. In 1917 he published The Dream Splendid, a book of poetry inspired by the beauty of nature. According to one critic, it showed "all the young poet's faults"; to another, "Mr Langdon-Davies's verse owes nothing to the transient excitements of the hour", referring to the fact that it was not influenced by war fever. The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
said it was "the outcome of a brooding imagination intensely affected by open-air influences....and expressing itself with a real sense of style". When called up in 1917 he refused to wear uniform. This resulted in a short term in prison before being given a medical discharge. He intended to continue his academic career at St John's College
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, but one of his three scholarships was removed as a result of his military record. Another, tenable only to single men, was removed when he married Constance Scott in 1918. The resulting economic situation forced him to abandon his university career, which ended with a diploma in anthropology and history.
1918-1936
In 1919 Langdon-Davies wrote Militarism in Education, published by Headley Brothers, a study of the effect of the militaristic and nationalistic content of various educational systems. He stresses the importance of environment and early influences in the education of the young, compared with heredity. During this period he was moving between London, Oxford, Berkshire, Southampton, and Ireland, where he got to know leading figures in the political world.He also made his first visit to Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, after which, in 1921, he and Connie, with their two small sons, settled for more than two years in the Pyrenean
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
village of Ripoll
Ripoll
Ripoll is the capital of the comarca of Ripollès, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It is located on confluence of the Ter River and its tributary Freser, next to the Pyrenees near the French border...
, where he met groups of left-wing intellectuals and nationalists
Catalan nationalism
Catalan nationalism or Catalanism , is a political movement advocating for either further political autonomy or full independence of Catalonia....
. Here, reading a lot of poetry and much influenced by Arthur Waley's
Arthur Waley
Arthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
translations of A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, he wrote a small book of verse, Man on Mountain, which was printed in Ripoll and published by Birrell and Garnett
David Garnett
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.-Early life:...
in 1922. Since the letter "w" is more widely used in English than in Catalan, the local printer was obliged to send to Barcelona for extra supplies. The new "w"s, however, turned out to be marginally larger than the originals, so that a slight discrepancy appears on most pages, making the book a collectors' item. He returned to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and spent another period travelling extensively, this time between England, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Catalonia. The Daily News
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
sent him to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in 1923 to report on the coup by Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte, Knight of Calatrava was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating...
, which he evaluated as comparable to the Irish question
Irish question
The Irish Question was a phrase used mainly by members of the British ruling classes from the early 19th century until the 1920s. It was used to describe Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence....
.
In 1924 he began a series of lecture tours in the USA, speaking to women's associations and universities on history, literature and his own work. He also spent a year living in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
between 1925 and 1926, during which time he wrote The New Age of Faith, published by the Viking Press
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
, N.Y. 1925, second ed. January '26. In it he heartily attacks the pseudo-scientists whose books were so popular in the USA at the time, provoking a number of counter-attacks which pointed out that Langdon-Davies himself was not a professional scientist. But the majority of the 60 or more published reviewers were in agreement with John Bakeless, who wrote, "....rarely has popular science been written with such spicy impertinence, such gay insouciance, or with so much intelligence and such scrupulous regard for facts....". He then moved to Sant Feliu de Guíxols
Sant Feliu de Guíxols
Sant Feliu de Guíxols is a municipality in the comarca of the Baix Empordà inCatalonia, Spain. It is situated on the Costa Brava and is an important port and tourist centre. The district abuts to the north, the upmarket s'Agaró resort built round the Sant Pol Beach. In addition to tourism and the...
, on the Catalan coast, where he stayed from 1926 to 1928 and wrote Dancing Catalans, a study of the significance of the so-called 'Catalan national dance', the sardana
Sardana
The sardana is a type of circle dance typical of Catalonia, Spain. The dance was originally from the Empordà region, but started gaining popularity throughout Catalonia during the 20th century....
. Twenty years later the Catalan writer Josep Pla
Josep Pla
Josep Pla i Casadevall was a Catalan Spanish journalist and a popular author. As a journalist he worked in France, Italy, England, Germany and Russia, from where he wrote political and cultural chronicles in Catalan.His figure is somewhat controversial for present day Catalans...
said that it was the best book ever published on the sardana: "With the exception of the poetry of Joan Maragall
Joan Maragall
Joan Maragall i Gorina was a Catalan poet, journalist and translator, the foremost member of the modernisme movement in literature.-Life:...
, there is nothing in our language comparable with this essay". A Short History of Women, published in New York, had also appeared in 1927. In it Langdon-Davies traces the development of the idea of Woman from the primitive taboo, the Christian fear, worship of fertility, etc., which
was now to be reshaped by the new knowledge. Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
comments on some of the author's ideas in A Room of One's Own
A Room of One's Own
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on 24 October 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928...
. In 1929 he settled in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
shire (England), but three years later (1932) he moved back to the USA. He returned to England again in 1935 and lived at Clapham Common
Clapham Common
Clapham Common is an 89 hectare triangular area of grassland situated in south London, England. It was historically common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, but was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878.43 hectares of the common are within the...
.
Spanish Civil War
In May 1936 he went to Spain to report on the May DayMay Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
celebrations in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
for the News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
, who sent him out again in August that same year to cover the Civil War. On this second trip he travelled by motorbike with his sixteen-year-old son Robin, whom he left with the "Revolutionary Committee" in Puigcerdà
Puigcerdà
Puigcerdà is the capital of the Catalan comarca of Cerdanya, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, northern Spain, near the river Segre and the border with France .- History :...
for safe keeping. The following year he wrote Behind the Spanish Barricades, which has recently been re-published (2007), for the first time since 1936, by Reportage Press. Part of the profits from the book will go to Plan International, the child sponsorship charity which Langdon-Davis founded. He was strongly criticised by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
for his coverage of the Barcelona May action in Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia is political journalist and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. The first edition was published in 1938. The book was not published in the United States until February 1952. The American edition had a preface...
.
Books
- The Dream Splendid (1917)
- Militarism in Education (1919)
- Man on Mountain (1922)
- The New Age of Faith (1925)
- A Short History of Women (1927)
- The Future of Nakedness (1928)
- Dancing Catalans (1929)
- Man and his Universe (1930)
- Science and Common Sense (1931)
- Inside the atom (1933)
- Radio. The Story of the Capture and Use of Radio Waves (1935)
- Then a Soldier (1934)
- A Short History of the Future (1936)
- Behind the Spanish Barricades (1936)
- The Spanish Church and Politics (1937)
- The Case for the Government (1938)
- Air Raid (1938)
- Parachutes over Britain (1940)
- Fifth Column (1940)
- Finland. The First Total War (1940)
- Nerves versus Nazis (1940)
- Invasion in the Snow (1941)
- The Home Guard Training Manual (1940)
- Home Guard Warfare (1941)
- The Home Guard Fieldcraft Manual (1942)
- A Trifling Reminiscence from less troubled Times (1941)
- How to Stalk. A Practical Manual for Home Guards (1941)
- American Close-Up (1943)
- Life Blood (1945)
- British Achievement in the Art of Healing (1946)
- Conquer Fear (1948)
- Russia Puts the Clock Back (1949)
- NPL: Jubilee Book of the National Physical Laboratory (1951)
- Westminster Hospital (1952)
- Gatherings from Catalonia (1953)
- Sex, Sin and Sanctity (1954)
- The Ethics of Atomic Research (1954)
- The Unknown, Is It Nearer? (With E.J. Dingwall) (1956)
- Seeds of Life (1957)
- Man, The Known and the Unknown (1960)
- The cato Street Conspiracy (as John Stanhope) (1962)
- Carlos, the Bewitched (as John Nada) (1962)
- The Facts of Sex (1969)
- Spain (1971)
Articles
- "The truth about Madrid", News Chronicle (1936)
- "Bombs over Barcelona", The Listener nº 496 (1938)
"Jackdaws"
In the early 1960s John Langdon-Davies created the "Jackdaw" series of history learning aids for school children, published by Jonathan CapeJonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
. Titles include:
- The Battle of Trafalgar
- The Plague and Fire of London
- Magna Carta
- The Gunpowder Plot
- The Slave Trade and its Abolition
External links
- corpus literari (Catalan website on foreign authors who have written about Catalonia).
- Harper's Magazine
- Your Own "Supernatural" Experiences by Eric Dingwall and John Langdon-Davies
- John Langdon-Davies Author Page at Reportage Press