Philip Toynbee
Encyclopedia
Theodore Philip Toynbee was a British writer and communist. He wrote experimental novels, and distinctive verse novel
s, one of which was an epic called Pantaloon, a work in several volumes, only some of which are published. He also wrote memoirs of the 1930s, and reviews and literary criticism, the latter mainly via his employment with The Observer
newspaper.
He was born in Oxford
; his father was the historian Arnold J. Toynbee
, and his maternal grandfather was Gilbert Murray
. He was educated at Rugby School
, where he became rebellious, reacting against the public school system. Inspired by the example of Esmond Romilly
, later a friend, he ran away, returned shortly and was expelled. He later wrote a memoir of Romilly, and Jasper Ridley (1913–1944), entitled Friends Apart. Through Romilly, Toynbee met Jessica Mitford, who became a close friend after Esmond died in WWII. He was also influenced by bookshop owner and would be encourager of the young radical element David Archer, whom he met through David Gascoyne
.
At Christ Church, Oxford
in the late 1930s he became the first communist president of the Oxford Union, at the height of its success and social acceptability. He visited Spain
at the end of 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War
, in a student delegation. He was said to have been beaten up by Mosley's Blackshirts at a fascist meeting. In 1938–39 he edited the Birmingham Town Crier.
He married twice: in 1939, Anne Powell and in 1950, Sally Smith. In the early 1940s Philip and Anne lived a bohemian
life in London's Fitzrovia
, and Philip was drinking heavily. At that time they knew Lucian Freud
, Donald Maclean
and Robert Kee
, Henrietta Moraes
and others from David Tennant's Gargoyle Club in Soho
. Toynbee was later to found, with Benedict Nicholson and Philip Vansittart, a club made up of raffish writers, artists and journalists, which still meets today. In 1945 they moved to the Isle of Wight
, for a fresh start. They had two children, the second being the journalist Polly Toynbee
. Anne later married Richard Wollheim
shortly after divorcing Philip in 1950. As a foreign correspondent with The Observer, Philip then traveled to Tel Aviv, where he met Sally, who was a secretary for the American Embassy there.
During the 1950s he continued to work for The Observer
, and was one of the more prominent intellectual
figures in British life (perhaps to be compared with Edmund Wilson
in the United States, for example). In an article written for The Observer in 1961, he notoriously proclaimed the irrelevancy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings
, just prior to its paperback publication in America and subsequent blossoming into a cultural phenomenon:
In the early to mid-1970s, Toynbee underwent a personal crisis, slowly entering into a period of deep depression. He had become increasingly concerned about ecological matters and this, along with his own ideological temperament, took him into the controversial decision to initiate a self-sufficient farming community. His family and friends thought this decision to be close to insane, considering as they did his privacy and routine-loving nature. The community quickly became a commune when Toynbee, Sally and their youngest daughter moved out, into a large cottage nearby. Nonetheless Toynbee and Sally continued to have a great deal of contact with the communards, and along with both spouses' active alcoholism, it frequently caused considerable tension in their marriage.
Toynbee's depression was sometimes immobilising and prevented him from enjoying his day-to-day life and work, and the regularity of his book reviews was sometimes interrupted as he struggled with the depression and the treatment he insisted on receiving for it – against the advice of his GP and consultant – namely, ECT (electro-convulsive therapy). He finally got the go-ahead for the treatment, which he received in Bristol in the summer of 1977.
The two books which followed the ECT consisted of the journal writings which Toynbee decided to edit and send off for publication. These largely revolved around his search for some kind of spiritual meaning. It could be said that this arose out of his wish to find some purpose for the deep misery of his worst depression. He was strongly urged to stop drinking alcohol and occasionally managed short periods of abstinence. Yet he never really wanted long-term abstinence enough to make any real success of this. He was as a whole capable of great self-discipline, but needed to want his objectives with intense singular-mindedness in order to achieve them.
The two journal books were entitled Part of a Journey (covering 1977 to 1979) and End of a Journey (1979 to 1981). They were very well thought of by a number of readers, some of whom were already interested in matters spiritual, self-searching and vaguely Christian. For them and others, his best writing style shone throughout those pages, with its ready humility and gentle self-mockery.
He died of cancer at his home in St Briavels
, Gloucestershire
, with most of his family (he had five children altogether) at his bedside.
Verse novel
A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. Either simple or complex stanzaic verse-forms may be used, but there will usually be a large cast, multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and action in a...
s, one of which was an epic called Pantaloon, a work in several volumes, only some of which are published. He also wrote memoirs of the 1930s, and reviews and literary criticism, the latter mainly via his employment with The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspaper.
He was born in 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...
; his father was the historian Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global...
, and his maternal grandfather was Gilbert Murray
Gilbert Murray
George Gilbert Aimé Murray, OM was an Australian born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century...
. He was educated at Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
, where he became rebellious, reacting against the public school system. Inspired by the example of Esmond Romilly
Esmond Romilly
Esmond Marcus David Romilly was a British socialist and anti-fascist, now remembered mainly for his marriage to Jessica Mitford, one of the Mitford sisters...
, later a friend, he ran away, returned shortly and was expelled. He later wrote a memoir of Romilly, and Jasper Ridley (1913–1944), entitled Friends Apart. Through Romilly, Toynbee met Jessica Mitford, who became a close friend after Esmond died in WWII. He was also influenced by bookshop owner and would be encourager of the young radical element David Archer, whom he met through David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement.-Early life and Surrealism:...
.
At Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
in the late 1930s he became the first communist president of the Oxford Union, at the height of its success and social acceptability. He visited 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...
at the end of 1936, at the start of 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...
, in a student delegation. He was said to have been beaten up by Mosley's Blackshirts at a fascist meeting. In 1938–39 he edited the Birmingham Town Crier.
He married twice: in 1939, Anne Powell and in 1950, Sally Smith. In the early 1940s Philip and Anne lived a bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
life in London's Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia is a neighbourhood in central London, near London's West End lying partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the City of Westminster ; and situated between Marylebone and Bloomsbury and north of Soho. It is characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail,...
, and Philip was drinking heavily. At that time they knew Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...
, Donald Maclean
Donald Duart Maclean
Donald Duart Maclean was a British diplomat and member of the Cambridge Five who were members of MI5, MI6 or the diplomatic service who acted as spies for the Soviet Union in the Second World War and beyond. He was recruited as a "straight penetration agent" while an undergraduate at Cambridge by...
and Robert Kee
Robert Kee
Robert Kee CBE is a British broadcaster, journalist and writer, known for his historical works on World War II and Ireland....
, Henrietta Moraes
Henrietta Moraes
Henrietta Moraes was a British artists' model, bohémienne, and memoirist. During the 1950s and '60s, she was the muse and inspiration for many artists of the Soho subculture, like Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, and known for her marriages and love affairs.A femme fatale and a bon vivant, she was...
and others from David Tennant's Gargoyle Club in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
. Toynbee was later to found, with Benedict Nicholson and Philip Vansittart, a club made up of raffish writers, artists and journalists, which still meets today. In 1945 they moved to the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, for a fresh start. They had two children, the second being the journalist Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing...
. Anne later married Richard Wollheim
Richard Wollheim
Richard Arthur Wollheim was a British philosopher noted for original work on mind and emotions, especially as related to the visual arts, specifically, painting...
shortly after divorcing Philip in 1950. As a foreign correspondent with The Observer, Philip then traveled to Tel Aviv, where he met Sally, who was a secretary for the American Embassy there.
During the 1950s he continued to work for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, and was one of the more prominent intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
figures in British life (perhaps to be compared with Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...
in the United States, for example). In an article written for The Observer in 1961, he notoriously proclaimed the irrelevancy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, just prior to its paperback publication in America and subsequent blossoming into a cultural phenomenon:
"There was a time when the Hobbit fantasies of Professor Tolkien were being taken very seriously indeed by a great many distinguished literary figures. Mr. AudenW. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
is even reported to have claimed that these books were as good as "War and Peace"War and PeaceWar and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...
; Edwin MuirEdwin MuirEdwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He was remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations....
and many others were almost equally enthusiastic. I had a sense that one side or the other must be mad, for it seemed to me that these books were dull, ill-written, whimsical and childish. And for me this had a reassuring outcome, for most of his more ardent supporters were soon beginning to sell out their shares in Professor Tolkien, and today those books have passed into a merciful oblivion."
In the early to mid-1970s, Toynbee underwent a personal crisis, slowly entering into a period of deep depression. He had become increasingly concerned about ecological matters and this, along with his own ideological temperament, took him into the controversial decision to initiate a self-sufficient farming community. His family and friends thought this decision to be close to insane, considering as they did his privacy and routine-loving nature. The community quickly became a commune when Toynbee, Sally and their youngest daughter moved out, into a large cottage nearby. Nonetheless Toynbee and Sally continued to have a great deal of contact with the communards, and along with both spouses' active alcoholism, it frequently caused considerable tension in their marriage.
Toynbee's depression was sometimes immobilising and prevented him from enjoying his day-to-day life and work, and the regularity of his book reviews was sometimes interrupted as he struggled with the depression and the treatment he insisted on receiving for it – against the advice of his GP and consultant – namely, ECT (electro-convulsive therapy). He finally got the go-ahead for the treatment, which he received in Bristol in the summer of 1977.
The two books which followed the ECT consisted of the journal writings which Toynbee decided to edit and send off for publication. These largely revolved around his search for some kind of spiritual meaning. It could be said that this arose out of his wish to find some purpose for the deep misery of his worst depression. He was strongly urged to stop drinking alcohol and occasionally managed short periods of abstinence. Yet he never really wanted long-term abstinence enough to make any real success of this. He was as a whole capable of great self-discipline, but needed to want his objectives with intense singular-mindedness in order to achieve them.
The two journal books were entitled Part of a Journey (covering 1977 to 1979) and End of a Journey (1979 to 1981). They were very well thought of by a number of readers, some of whom were already interested in matters spiritual, self-searching and vaguely Christian. For them and others, his best writing style shone throughout those pages, with its ready humility and gentle self-mockery.
He died of cancer at his home in St Briavels
St Briavels
St Briavels is a medium sized village and civil parish in the Royal Forest of Dean in west Gloucestershire, England; close to the England-Wales border, and south of Coleford. It stands almost above sea level on the edge of a limestone plateau above the valley of the River Wye, above an ancient...
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, with most of his family (he had five children altogether) at his bedside.
Toynbee geneology
The Toynbees have been prominent in British intellectual society for several generations (note that this diagram is not a comprehensive Toynbee family tree):Works
- A school in private (1941)
- The Barricades (1943)
- Prothalamium: A Cycle Of The Holy Graal (1947)
- Tea with Mrs. Goodman (1947)
- The Garden to the Sea (1953)
- Friends Apart, A Memoir of Esmond RomillyEsmond RomillyEsmond Marcus David Romilly was a British socialist and anti-fascist, now remembered mainly for his marriage to Jessica Mitford, one of the Mitford sisters...
& Jasper RidleyJasper RidleyJasper Godwin Ridley was a British writer, known for historical biographies. He received the 1970 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography Lord Palmerston....
in the Thirties (1954) re-published in (1980) - The Fearful Choice: a debate on nuclear policy (1958)
- Pantaloon or the Valediction (1961) verse novel
- Underdogs: Anguish and Anxiety, Eighteen Men and Women Write Their Own Case-Histories (1962) editor
- Comparing Notes: A Dialogue Across a Generation (1963) with Arnold J. ToynbeeArnold J. ToynbeeArnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global...
- Thanatos, a Modern Symposium at which Nine Characters Argue at Quarles (1963) with Maurice Richardson
- Two Brothers: the fifth day of the Valediction of Pantaloon (1964) Pantaloon verse novel
- A Learned City: the sixth day of the valediction of pantaloon (1966) Pantaloon verse novel
- Views from a Lake: the seventh day of the Valediction of Pantaloon (1968) Pantaloon verse novel
- Age of the Spirit: Religion as Experience (1973)
- Distant Drum: Reflections on the Spanish Civil War (1976) editor
- Part of a Journey: An Autobiographical Journal, 1977-79 (1981)
- End of a Journey An Autobiographical Journal 1979-81 (1982)
- Towards the Holy Spirit: A Tract for the Times (1982)