Michael Holroyd
Encyclopedia
Sir Michael De Courcy Fraser Holroyd, FRHS, FRSL (born 27 August 1935) is an English
biographer
.
and educated at Eton College
, though he has often claimed Maidenhead Public Library as his alma mater
.
In 1964 he published his first book, a biography of writer Hugh Kingsmill
, but his reputation was consolidated in 1967-68 with the publication of his life of Lytton Strachey
(which playwright Christopher Hampton
later used extensively when writing the screenplay for the 1995 film Carrington
). Holroyd has also written biographies of Augustus John
and, in four volumes, of George Bernard Shaw
.
Holroyd acted as Chairman of the Society of Authors
, 1973–83, and from 1985 to 1988 was president of the English branch of PEN
. His awards include the 2001 Heywood Hill Literary Prize
and the 2005 David Cohen Prize
for literature. He was also President of the Royal Society of Literature
from 2003 to 2008 and was knighted in the 2007 New Years' Honours
List. His latest book, A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers (2010), focuses on the Villa Cimbrone on the Gulf of Salerno and the Edwardian literary and society figures who lived there.
Holroyd is a Patron of Dignity in Dying
.
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...
biographer
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
.
Life
Holroyd was born in LondonLondon
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 educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, though he has often claimed Maidenhead Public Library as his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
.
In 1964 he published his first book, a biography of writer Hugh Kingsmill
Hugh Kingsmill
Hugh Kingsmill Lunn , who dropped his last name for professional purposes, was a versatile British writer and journalist. Writers Arnold Lunn and Brian Lunn were his brothers.-Life:...
, but his reputation was consolidated in 1967-68 with the publication of his life of Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
(which playwright Christopher Hampton
Christopher Hampton
Christopher James Hampton CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of...
later used extensively when writing the screenplay for the 1995 film Carrington
Carrington (film)
Carrington is a biographical film written and directed by Christopher Hampton about the life of the English painter Dora Carrington , who was known simply as "Carrington"...
). Holroyd has also written biographies of Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
and, in four volumes, of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
.
Holroyd acted as Chairman of the Society of Authors
Society of Authors
The Society of Authors is a trade union for professional writers that was founded in 1884 to protect the rights of writers and fight to retain those rights .It has counted amongst its members and presidents numerous notable writers and poets including Tennyson The Society of Authors (UK) is a...
, 1973–83, and from 1985 to 1988 was president of the English branch of PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
. His awards include the 2001 Heywood Hill Literary Prize
Heywood Hill Literary Prize
The Heywood Hill Literary Prize was awarded yearly to a writer, editor, reviewer, collector or publisher for a lifelong contribution to the enjoyment of books. Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire sponsored the award, which included a prize worth £15,000, until his death in 2004. Since then,...
and the 2005 David Cohen Prize
David Cohen Prize
The David Cohen Prize for Literature is a biennial British literary award given to a writer, novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist or dramatist in recognition of an entire body of work, written in the English language. The prize is funded by the John S. Cohen Foundation and administered by...
for literature. He was also President of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
from 2003 to 2008 and was knighted in the 2007 New Years' Honours
New Year Honours 2007
The New Year Honours 2007 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 30 December 2006, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2007....
List. His latest book, A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers (2010), focuses on the Villa Cimbrone on the Gulf of Salerno and the Edwardian literary and society figures who lived there.
Holroyd is a Patron of Dignity in Dying
Dignity in Dying
Dignity in Dying is a United Kingdom nationwide campaigning organisation. It is funded by voluntary contributions from members of the public, and as of December 2010, it claimed to have 25,000 actively subscribing supporters...
.
Works
- Hugh Kingsmill: A Critical Biography, Unicorn Press, 1964
- Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography, volume 1: The Unknown Years (1880-1910), Heinemann, 1967
- Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography, volume 2: The Years of Achievement (1910-1932), Heinemann, 1968
- A Dog's Life, Henry Holt (US only), 1969
- The Best of Hugh Kingsmill: Selections from his Writings (editor), Gollancz, 1970
- Lytton Strachey by Himself: A Self-Portrait (editor), Heinemann, 1971
- Unreceived Opinions, Heinemann, 1973
- Augustus John: A Biography, volume 1: The Years of Innocence, Heinemann, 1974
- The Art of Augustus John (with Malcolm Easton), Secker & Warburg, 1974
- Augustus John: A Biography, volume 2: The Years of Experience, Heinemann, 1975
- The Genius of Shaw: A Symposium (editor), Hodder & Stoughton, 1979
- The Shorter Strachey (editor with Paul Levy), Oxford University Press, 1980
- William Gerhardie: God's Fifth Column: A Biography of the Age: 1890-1940 (editor with Robert Skidelsky), Hodder & Stoughton, 1981
- Essays by Divers Hands, (editor), Boydell Press, 1982
- Peterley Harvest: The Private Diary of David Peterley (introduction), Secker & Warburg, 1985
- Bernard Shaw, volume 1: 1856-1898: The Search for Love, Chatto & Windus, 1988
- Bernard Shaw, volume 2: 1898-1918: The Pursuit of Power, Chatto & Windus, 1989
- Bernard Shaw, volume 3: 1918-1950: The Lure of Fantasy, Chatto & Windus, 1991
- Bernard Shaw, volume 4: 1950-1991: The Last Laugh, Chatto & Windus, 1992
- The Shaw Companion, Chatto & Windus, 1992
- Lytton Strachey: The New Biography, Chatto & Windus, 1994
- Augustus John: The New Biography, Chatto & Windus, 1996
- Bernard Shaw (one-volume revised edition), Chatto & Windus, 1997
- Basil Street Blues, Little, Brown, 1999
- The Whispering Gallery: Leaves from a Diplomat's Diary by Hesketh Pearson, (introduction), Phoenix Press, 2000
- Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography, Little, Brown, 2002
- Swedish Reflections: From Beowulf to Bergman (preface), Arcadia Books, 2003
- Mosiac, Little, Brown, 2004
- A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families, Chatto & Windus, 2008
- A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers, Chatto & Windus, 2010
Awards
- 1968—Yorkshire PostYorkshire PostThe Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
Book Award (Book of the Year): Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography - 1988—Irish Life Arts Award
- 1989—CBECBECBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
- 1995—Prix du Meilleur Livre EtrangerPrix du Meilleur Livre ÉtrangerThe Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger is a French literary prize created in 1948. It is awarded yearly in two categories: Novel and Essay for books translated in to French.- Prix du Meilleur livre étranger — Novel :* 2010: Gonçalo M...
(France) - 2001—Heywood Hill Literary PrizeHeywood Hill Literary PrizeThe Heywood Hill Literary Prize was awarded yearly to a writer, editor, reviewer, collector or publisher for a lifelong contribution to the enjoyment of books. Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire sponsored the award, which included a prize worth £15,000, until his death in 2004. Since then,...
- 2005—David Cohen British Literature PrizeDavid Cohen PrizeThe David Cohen Prize for Literature is a biennial British literary award given to a writer, novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist or dramatist in recognition of an entire body of work, written in the English language. The prize is funded by the John S. Cohen Foundation and administered by...
- 2007—Knighted for services to English LiteratureEnglish literatureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
See also
- Hugh KingsmillHugh KingsmillHugh Kingsmill Lunn , who dropped his last name for professional purposes, was a versatile British writer and journalist. Writers Arnold Lunn and Brian Lunn were his brothers.-Life:...
- Lytton StracheyLytton StracheyGiles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
- James StracheyJames StracheyJames Beaumont Strachey was a British psychoanalyst, and, with his wife Alix, a translator of Sigmund Freud into English...
- Augustus JohnAugustus JohnAugustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
- George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
- Paul Levy
- Philippa PullarPhilippa PullarPhilippa Pullar was a British author and jet set personality best remembered for her exhaustively-researched 1975 biography of Irish-American author Frank Harris...
External links
- "Portrait of a portrait painter": an essay by Michael Holroyd about having his portrait painted from TLS, 1 April 2009