Harold Acton
CBE (1965) knighted (1974) | |
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Relatives | John Dalberg-Acton |
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton
He was born near
After serving as an RAF liaison officer in the Mediterranean, he returned to Florence, restoring his childhood home, Villa La Pietra, to its earlier glory. Acton was knighted in 1974 and died in Florence, leaving La Pietra to New York University.
Early years
Background
Acton was born to a prominent Anglo-Italian-American family of baronets, later raised to the peerage as Barons Acton of Aldenham at Villa La Pietra, his parents' house one mile outside the walls of Florence, Italy. He claimed that his great-great-grandfather was Commodore Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet (1736–1811), who married his niece, Mary Anne Acton, and who was prime minister of Naples under Ferdinand IV and grandfather of the Roman Catholic historian Lord Acton. This relationship has been disproven; Harold Acton in fact descends from Sir John Acton's brother, General Joseph Edward Acton (1737–1830).[1] Both of these brothers served in Italy, and are from the Shropshire family of Actons.
His father was the successful art collector and dealer
Career and education
His early schooling was at Miss Penrose's private school in Florence. In 1913, his parents sent him to
Oxford years
In October 1923, Acton went up to Oxford to read Modern Greats at Christ Church. It was from the balcony of his rooms in Meadow Buildings that he declaimed passages from The Waste Land through a megaphone (an episode recounted in Brideshead Revisited, through the character Anthony Blanche). While at Oxford, he co-founded the avant garde magazine The Oxford Broom, and published his first book of poems, Aquarium (1923). Acton was regarded as a leading figure of his day and would often receive more attention in memoirs of the period than men who were much more successful in later life; for example, the Welsh playwright Emlyn Williams described this encounter with Acton in his autobiography George (1961):
"Bowing with the courtesy of another age and clime, he spoke, an English flawlessly italianated [sic]. 'I do most dreadfully beg your pardons this inclement night – though I have been resident a year, I find it too idiotically difficult to find my way about, I have been round Tom like a tee-toe-tum, too too madd-ening – where does our dear Dean hang out?' He thanked me profusely, raised the bowler with a dazzling smile, and propelled himself Deanward, an Oriental diplomat off to leave a jewelled carte de visite. 'Jesus,' said Evvers, 'what's that?' 'He's the Oxford aesthete,' I informed him, 'a Victorian, his rooms in Meadow are in lemon yellow and he stands on his balcony and reads his poems through a megaphone to people passing, and he belongs to the Hypocrites' Club with Brian Howard and Robert Byron and Evelyn Waugh and all that set, they call themselves the Post-War Generation and wear Hearts on their lapels as opposed to the pre-war Rupert Brooke lot who called themselves Souls. They're supposed to eat new-born babies cooked in wine.'"[10]: 260f
Williams also described Acton's review of The Picture of Dorian Gray in the Oxford student newspaper Cherwell: "a charming boy's book, we would suggest a cheap edition to fit comfortably into the pocket of a school blazer"; and summarised Acton's modernist approach to literature: "But if one finds the words, my dears, there is beauty in a black-pudding."[10]: 314
At Oxford Acton dominated the Railway Club, which included:
Influence on Waugh
General strike and after
In 1926 Acton acted as a special constable during the general strike, apolitical as he was, and took his degree. In October he took an apartment in Paris, at 29 Quai de Bourbon, and had his portrait painted by Pavel Tchelitcheff.[14] Moving between Paris and London in the next few years, Acton sought to find his voice as a writer. In 1927 he began work on a novel, and a third book of poems, Five Saints and an Appendix, came out early the following year. This was followed by a prose fable, Cornelian, in March. In July Acton acted as Best Man at the wedding of Evelyn Waugh to the Honourable Evelyn Gardner. Waugh's Decline and Fall bore a dedication to Acton 'in Homage and Affection', but when Acton's own novel – disastrously entitled Humdrum – appeared in October 1928, it was slated in comparison with Decline and Fall by critics such as Cyril Connolly.
In the later 1920s Harold frequented the London salon of
One close observer, Alan Pryce-Jones, felt that life in Florence weighed upon Acton with its triviality, for, like his father, he was a hard worker and a careful scholar. The East was an escape.
The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, but Acton did not leave until 1939, when he returned to England and joined the Royal Air Force as a liaison officer. He served in India and what was then Ceylon, and then after the Liberation in Paris. When the war was over, he returned to Florence. La Pietra had been occupied by German soldiers, but he expeditiously restored it to its proper glory.[18]
Literary works
Acton's non-historical works include four volumes of poetry, three novels, two novellas, two volumes of short stories, two volumes of autobiography and a memoir of his friend Nancy Mitford, who was his exact contemporary. His historical works include The Last Medici, a study of the later Medici Grand Dukes, and two large volumes on the House of Bourbon, rulers of the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th and earlier 19th century, which together may be said to constitute his magnum opus.
Awards and honours
Acton was made a
Personal life
Acton was Catholic;[21]: 151f [22] his cultural and historical commitment to the Church remained unchanged throughout his life. Acton's name was first on a petition submitted to Rome in 1971 by British cultural élite, requesting that the traditional Latin rite of the Mass not be abrogated in England.[21]: 359 [22] His mother, the heiress Hortense Lenore Mitchell, a dominating personality in his life who lived on until the age of 90, did not make life easy for him but he still remained the devoted and admiring son.[16]
Acton was a prominent member of the
After Acton's death, in reply to a magazine article that speculated both about the probable suicide of Acton's brother and about Acton's homosexuality, author A. N. Wilson remarked, "To call him homosexual would be to misunderstand the whole essence of his being" and that "He was more asexual than anything else".[24] The article, by American writer David Plante, described Acton's time at Oxford as a "virile aesthete-dandy," but noted that while in China during the 1930s Acton's predilection for boys led to a classified government document describing him as a "scandalous debauchee," and prevented the possibility of his serving in the intelligence services there, when war broke out. Plante also described the young men whom Acton welcomed to La Pietra, including Alexander Zielcke, a German photographer and artist who was Acton's lover for the last twenty-five years of his life.[24]
When Acton died he left Villa La Pietra to New York University.[25] In leaving his family's property and collection to New York University, Acton expressed his desire that the estate be used as a meeting place for students, faculty, and guests who might study, teach, write and do research, and as a centre for international programs.[25] Following his death, DNA testing confirmed the existence of a half-sister born out of wedlock, whose heirs have gone to court to challenge Acton's $500 million bequest to New York University.[26]
Acton was buried beside his parents and brother in the Roman Catholic section of the
(Italy).Publications
- Aquarium, London, Duckworth, 1923
- An Indian Ass, London, Duckworth, 1925.
- Five Saints and an Appendix, London, Holden, 1927.
- Cornelian, London, The Westminster Press, 1928.
- Humdrum, London, The Westminster Press, 1928.
- The Last of the Medici, Florence, G. Orioli, 1930.
- This Chaos, Paris, Hours Press, 1930.
- The Last Medici, London, Faber & Faner, 1932.
- Modern Chinese Poetry (with Ch'en Shih-Hsiang), Duckworth, 1936.
- Famous Chinese Plays (with L.C. Arlington), Peiping, Henri Vetch, 1937.
- Glue and Lacquer: Four Cautionary Tales (with Lee Yi-Hsieh), London, The Golden Cockerel Press, 1941.
- Peonies and Ponies, London, Chatto & Windus, 1941; rpr. Hong Kong; New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
- Memoirs of an Aesthete, London, Methuen, 1948; reprinted London, Methuen, 1970.
- Prince Isidore, London, Methuen, 1950.
- The Bourbons of Naples (1734–1825), London, Methuen, 1956.
- Ferdinando Galiani, Rome, Edizioni di Storia e di Letteratura, 1960.
- Florence (with Martin Huerlimann), London, Thames & Hudson, 1960.
- The Last Bourbons of Naples (1825–1861), London, Methuen, 1961.
- Old Lamps for New, London, Methuen, 1965.
- More Memoirs of an Aesthete, London, Methuen, 1970.
- Tit for Tat, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1972.
- Tuscan Villas, London, Thames & Hudson, 1973; reprinted as The Villas of Tuscany, London, Thames & Hudson, 1984.
- Nancy Mitford: a Memoir, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1975.
- The Peach Blossom Fan (with Ch'en Shih-Hsiang), Berkeley, University of California Press, 1976.
- The Pazzi Conspiracy, London, Thames & Hudson, 1979.
- The Soul's Gymnasium, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1982.
- Three Extraordinary Ambassadors, London, Thames & Hudson, 1984.
- Florence: a Travellers' Companion (introduction; texts ed Edward Chaney), London, Constable, 1986.
References
- ^ Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1999, 106th edition, ed. Charles Mosley, vol. 1, p. 28
- ^ Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat Armour, A. C. Fox-Davies, T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1910, p. 6
- better source needed]
- ^ ARTIC, 1908, "Catalog of the Twenty-First Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, October 20 to November 29, 1908," p. iii, Chicago, IL, US:The Art Institute of Chicago, see [2], accessed 11 July 2015.
- ISBN 009461430X, see [5], both accessed 11 July 2015.
- ^ Charlotte Eagar, 2011, "The house of secrets and lies," The Sunday Times (magazine, online), 3 July 2011, see [6], accessed 11 July 2015. Subtitle: "The art dealer Arthur Acton's love affair with an Italian beauty led to an illegitimate child, two exhumed bodies and a long-running, vicious feud."
- ^ "Private William Hamilton Mitchell Acton". Christ Church. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
- ISBN 0413503704, see [7], accessed 11 July 2015. "Page numbers given inline."
- ISBN 978-1931160506.
- ^ a b Williams, Emlyn (1965) [1961]. George: An Early Autobiography. London, LND, GBN: New English Library (Four Square). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
Page numbers given inline.
- ISBN 9781857252118. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- ISBN 1857992458.
Page numbers given inline.
- ISBN 0472107844. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
wrongly identified with Harold Acton.
- ^ Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948.
- ^ Andrew Gumbel, 1996, "Shadow of the Last Aesthete," The Independent (online), 14 April 1996, see [8], accessed 11 July 2015. [Subtitle: "In his Tuscan palazzo, Sir Harold Acton created what he hoped would be an enduring idyll. Two years after his death, the dream has turned sour."]
- ^ a b Alan Pryce-Jones, 1994, "Obituary: Sir Harold Acton," The Independent (online), 28 February 1994, see [9], accessed 11 July 2015.
- ^ John C. Jamieson, Cyril Birch & Yuen Ren Chao, 1974, "Shih-Hsiang Chen, Oriental Languages, Berkeley (1912–1971), Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature," at University of California, In memoriam, 1974 (online), pp. 20–22, Berkeley CA, US: Academic Senate, Berkeley Division, p. 5, accessed 11 July 2015.
- ^ Sir Harold Acton Is Dead At 89; Prototypic Esthete Of The 1920s John Darnton, New York Times 1 March 1994
- ^ Crown Office, 1974, "State Intelligence, Honours and Awards… Harold Mario Mitchell Acton, Esquire, C.B.E.," London Gazette (online, 21 February 1974), Issue 46214, p. 2311, see [10], accessed 11 July 2015.
- ^ "Harold Acton Library". British Institute of Florence. British Institute of Florence. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
- ^ ISBN 1586171593, see [11], accessed 11 July 2015.
- ^ a b David Kubiak, Memories of an Aesthete Archived 28 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine Modern Age Vol 51 Nos 3-4 (Summer-Fall 2009)
- ISBN 978-0374116835.
- ^ a b Andrew Gumbel, Shadow of the Last Aesthete Independent 13 April 1996
- ^ a b "About". NYU Florence, Villa La Pietra. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- ^ Haden-Guest, Anthony (10 November 2014). "In Tussle Over Will, Mistress's Family Takes a Bite Out of NYU". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
Further reading
Substantial secondary sources
- Martin Green, 2008 [1977], Children of the Sun: A Narrative of "Decadence" in England After 1918, Mount Jackson, VA, US: Axios Press, , accessed 11 July 2015. [A book in which Acton features very prominently. For his relationship to villa La Pietra, see pp. 1–8, 94–117, 220, 393–395, and 425f. For his early education, see pp. 11, 79, 103, and 115f. For his time at Eton, see pp. 98f, 127–182, and 256. For his time at Oxford, see pp. 2ff, 11, 20, 82, 117, 155, 163–195, 201, 227, 305, and 464. For his experiences in World War II, see pp. 333–355, and 367. For his parents Arthur and Hortense, see pp. 6, 102–114, 338, and 385f.]
- Charlotte Eagar, 2011, "The house of secrets and lies," The Sunday Times (magazine, online), 3 July 2011, see [14], accessed 11 July 2015. Subtitle: "The art dealer Arthur Acton's love affair with an Italian beauty led to an illegitimate child, two exhumed bodies and a long-running, vicious feud."
- Alan Pryce-Jones, 1994, "Obituary: Sir Harold Acton," The Independent (online), 28 February 1994, see [15], accessed 11 July 2015.
- D. J. Taylor, 2007, Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London's Jazz Age, New York, NY, US: Macmillan-FSG, ISBN 0374116830, [16], accessed 11 July 2015. [See pp. 21–31, 68, 74–77, 83–88, 127, 140ff, 150, 163–166, 171–179, 189–205, 216–218, 231, 257, 279–288, 311–315.]
- Luca Baratta, (2020), «Evoking the Atmosphere of a Vanished Society»: la Firenze fantasmatica di Sir Harold Acton in The Soul's Gymnasium (1982)', Mediazioni. Rivista online di Studi Interdisciplinari su Lingue e Culture, 27, pp. A139-A165.
Archival resources
- Harold Acton Papers, 1904–1994 (3.83 linear feet) are housed at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
- Harold Acton Correspondence with Ruth Page and Thomas H. Fisher, 1948–1952 Archived 7 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine are housed at the New York Public Library.
- Harold Mario Mitchell Acton Autograph Letter Signed: Florence, to Herbert Cahoon, 1961 June 18 (1 item (4 pages)) is housed at the Pierpont Morgan Library.
- Robin McDouall Papers, circa 1933–1980 (0.21 linear ft.) are housed at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Miscellaneous further sources
- Edward Chaney, "Sir Harold Acton", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.[full citation needed]
- Edward Chaney and Neil Ritchie, Oxford, China and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton, Florence-London, 1984.[full citation needed]
- fr:Jean-Marie Thiébaud, "Une famille bisontine d'origine anglaise : les Acton", Procès-verbaux et Mémoires de l'Académie de Besançon et de Franche-Comté, Besançon, 1987.[full citation needed]
- Christopher Hollis, Oxford in the Twenties (1976).[full citation needed]
External links
- Works by Harold Acton at Project Gutenberg
- [17] and [18], images of the 1896 Chicago ITSB building, whose Italianate design included contributions from Acton's father.
- Harold Acton at the Gay/Bi/Lesbian Encyclopedia
- Wafted onto the Antimacassars – memories of Acton at Oxford by Emlyn Williams
- Harold Acton Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.