Harold Nicolson
Ernest Harold Pickering | |
---|---|
Succeeded by | Barnett Janner |
Personal details | |
Born | Harold George Nicolson 21 November 1886 (from 1947) |
Spouse | |
Children | Benedict Nicolson Nigel Nicolson |
Parent(s) | Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock Mary Hamilton |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Occupation |
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Sir Harold George Nicolson
Early life and education
Nicolson was born in
Diplomatic career
In 1909, Nicolson joined
A diplomatic career was honorable and prestigious in Edwardian Britain, but Sackville-West's parents were aristocrats who wanted their daughter to marry a fellow aristocrat from an old noble family and so gave only reluctant approval to the marriage.[2]
During the
Promoted to First Secretary in 1920, he was appointed private secretary to Sir
Nicolson himself was no stranger to homosexual affairs. Among others, he was involved in a long-term relationship with Raymond Mortimer, whom both he and Vita affectionately referred to as "Tray". Nicolson and Vita discussed their shared homosexual tendencies frankly with each other,[4] and they remained happy together. They were famously devoted to each other and wrote almost every day when they were separated because of Nicolson's long diplomatic postings abroad or Vita's insatiable wanderlust. Eventually, he gave up diplomacy, partly so that they could live together in England.
In 1925, he was promoted to
Reza Khan disliked British influence in Iran, and after being crowned Shah, he submitted a "categorical note" that demanded the "removal of Indian Savars [mounted guards] from Persia".[6] The Savars had been used to guard the British Legation in Tehran and various consulates across Persia, and Reza Khan felt having the troops of a foreign power riding through the streets of his capital was an infringement of his sovereignty. As chargé d'affairs, Nicolson was in charge of the British Legation in the summer of 1926 and upon receiving the Iranian note, he rushed down to the Iranian Foreign Ministry to object.[6] Nicolson writing in the third person stated he had a "Kipling inside him and something of an 'empire builder'" told the Persian officials that the note was "so categorical to be almost offensive" and wanted it withdrawn.[7] The Persians stated that the note had been written by Reza Khan and could not be withdrawn, but ultimately an annex was added to the note, which softened its threatening tone. However, much to the satisfaction of Reza Khan, the British had to abide by what Nicolson called a "frank and honest" note by withdrawing the Savars.[8]
In the summer of 1927, Nicolson was recalled to London and demoted to First Secretary for criticising the minister Sir
Political career
From 1930 to 1931, Nicolson edited the Londoner's Diary for the Evening Standard, but disliked writing about high-society gossip and quit within a year.
In 1931, he joined Sir
Nicolson entered the House of Commons as National Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester West in the 1935 election. In the latter half of the 1930s, he was one of the relatively few MPs to alert the country to the threat of fascism. More a follower of Anthony Eden in that regard than of Winston Churchill, Nicolson was still a friend of Churchill but not an intimate one. Nicolson often supported Churchill's efforts in the Commons to stiffen British resolve and support rearmament.
A Francophile, Nicolson was a close friend of Charles Corbin, the Anglophile and anti-appeasement French ambassador to the Court of St. James.[9]
In October 1938, Nicolson spoke out against the Munich Agreement in the House of Commons:
"I know that those of us who believe in the traditions of our policy, who believe that one great function of this country is to maintain moral standards in Europe, not to make friends with people whose conduct is demonstrably evil, but to set up some sort of standard by which smaller powers can test what is good in international conduct and what is not-I know that those who hold such beliefs are accused of possessing the Foreign Office mind. I thank God that I possess a Foreign Office mind".[10]
In June 1940, Nicolson met the French writer André Maurois at the time when France was on the verge of defeat, which led Nicolson to write in his diary:
"June 12, 1940. I saw André Maurois in the morning. He left Paris yesterday. He said that never before in his life had he experienced such agony as he did when he saw Paris basking under a lovely summer day and realised that he might never see it again. I do feel so deeply for the French. Paris is to them what our countryside is to us. If we were to feel the lanes of Devonshire, the rocks of Cornwall and our own unflaunting England were all concentrated in one spot and likely to be wiped out, we would feel all the pain in the world".[11]
He became
In 1944, during the
When Nicolson, a Francophile, visited France in March 1945 for the first time in five years, upon landing in France he kissed the earth.[15] When a Frenchman asked the prostrate Nicolson "Monsieur a laissé tomber quelque-chose?" ("Sir, have you dropped something?"), Nicolson replied, "Non, j'ai retrouvé quelque-chose" ("No, I have recovered something").[15] The exchange is little known in Britain but is well remembered in France.[15]
After losing his seat in the 1945 general election, he joined the Labour Party, much to the dismay of his family, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure a hereditary peerage from Clement Attlee; Nicolson stood in the 1948 Croydon North by-election but lost once again.
In 1960, at the Paris summit, Nicolson wrote about the behaviour of the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev implying that he was "a little mad" and the "exchange of insults is not the best method of conducting relations between sovereign states".[16]
Writer
Encouraged in his literary ambitions by his wife,[17] who was also a writer, Nicolson published a biography of French poet Paul Verlaine in 1921, which was followed by studies of other literary figures such as Tennyson, Byron, Swinburne, and Sainte-Beuve. In 1933, he wrote an account of the Paris Peace Conference Peacemaking 1919.
Nicolson noted that "although I loathe
Nicolson is also remembered for his 1932 novel Public Faces, which foreshadowed the
After Nicolson's last attempt to enter Parliament failed, he continued with an extensive social schedule and his programme of writing, which included books, book reviews, and a weekly column for The Spectator.
His diary is one of the pre-eminent 20th-century British diaries[22][23] and a noteworthy source on British political history from 1930 to the 1950s, particularly in regard to the period before the Second World War and the war itself. Nicolson was in positions high enough to write of the workings of the circles of power and of the day-to-day unfolding of great events. His fellow parliamentarian Robert Bernays characterized Nicolson as being "a national figure of the second degree".
Nicolson was variously an acquaintance, associate, friend or intimate to such political figures as Ramsay MacDonald, David Lloyd George, Duff Cooper, Charles de Gaulle, Anthony Eden and Winston Churchill, along with a host of literary and artistic figures, including C. E. M. Joad of the BBC's The Brains Trust.
Family
He and his wife had two sons, Benedict, an art historian, and Nigel, a politician and writer. Nigel later published works by and about his parents, including Portrait of a Marriage, their correspondence, and Nicolson's diary.
In 1930, Vita Sackville-West acquired
Honours
He was appointed
There is a blue plaque commemorating him and his wife on their house in Ebury Street, London SW1.
Works
Many of the books are online.[25]
- Paul Verlaine (Constable, 1921)
- Sweet Waters (Constable, 1921) novel; new ed. 2012 by Eland
- Tennyson: Aspects of His Life, Character and Poetry (Constable, 1923)
- Byron: The Last Journey (Constable, 1924)
- Swinburne (Macmillan, 1926)
- Some People (Constable, 1927)
- The Development of English Biography (The Hogarth Press, 1927) (Hogarth Lectures No. 4)
- Swinburne and Baudelaire: The Zaharoff Lecture (The Clarendon Press, 1930)
- Portrait of a Diplomatist: Being the Life of Sir Arthur Nicolson, First Lord Carnock, and a Study of the Origins of the Great War (Houghton Mifflin, 1930) online
- People and Things: Wireless Talks (Constable, 1931)
- Public Faces: A Novel (Constable, 1932) novel
- Peacemaking 1919 (Constable, 1933) re-set 1944 online
- Curzon: The Last Phase, 1919–1925: A Study in Post-War Diplomacy (Constable, 1934)
- Dwight Morrow (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935)
- Politics in the Train (Constable, 1936)
- Helen's Tower (Constable, 1937)
- Small Talk (Constable, 1937)
- Diplomacy (Thornton Butterworth, 1939) (Home University Library of Modern Knowledge)
- Marginal Comment (January 6 – August 4, 1939) (Constable, 1939)
- Why Britain is at War (Penguin Books, 1939) (Penguin Specials)
- The Desire to Please: The Story of Hamilton Rowan and the United Irishmen (Constable, 1943)
- The Poetry of Byron: The English Association Presidential Address, August 1943 (Oxford University Press, 1943)
- Friday Mornings 1941–1944 (Constable, 1944)
- England: An Anthology (Macmillan, 1944)
- Another World Than This: An Anthology (Michael Joseph, 1945) edited with Vita Sackville-West
- The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812–1822 (Constable, 1946)
- Comments 1944–1948 (Constable, 1948) – collected articles from the Spectator
- Benjamin Constant (Constable, 1949)
- King George V (Constable, 1952)[24]
- The Evolution of Diplomacy (Constable, 1954) – Chichele Lectures 1953
- The English Sense of Humour and other Essays (The Dropmore Press, 1946)
- Good Behaviour, being a Study of Certain Types of Civility (Constable, 1955)
- Sainte-Beuve (Constable, 1957)
- Journey to Java (London: Constable, 1957)
- The Age of Reason (1700–1789) (Constable, 1960)
- Tennyson: Aspects of his Life, Character and Poetry (Arrow, 1960) (Grey Arrow Books, no. 39)
- Monarchy (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962)
- Diaries and Letters 1930–39; Diaries and Letters 1939–45; Diaries and Letters 1945–62 (Collins, 1966–68) - edited by Nigel Nicolson
See also
References
- ^ a b Nicolson, Nigel, ed. (1966). Harold Nicolson: Diaries & Letters 1930–1939. Collins. p. 23.
- ^ a b Johnston, Georgia "Counterfeit Perversion: Vita Sackville-West's "Portrait of a Marriage"" pp. 124–137 from Journal of Modern Literature Volume 28, Issue # 1, Autumn 2004 p. 125.
- ^ "No. 31712". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1919. p. 5.
- ^ Bristow-Smith, Harold Nicolson pp. 164–165, 227, 249–250
- ^ Ghanī Sīrūs & Ghani, Cyrus Iran and the Rise of the Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power, London: B. Tauris, 2000 p. 394.
- ^ a b Milani, Abbas The Shah, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 p. 54.
- ^ Milani, Abbas The Shah, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 pp. 54–55.
- ^ Milani, Abbas The Shah, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 p. 55.
- ^ Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste France and the Nazi Threat: The Collapse of French Diplomacy 1932–1939, New York: Enigma, 2004 p. 222.
- ^ Young, Vernon "The Fine Art Of Name-Dropping: Harold Nicolson" pp. 737–744 from The Hudson Review, Volume 21, Issue #4, Winter 1968–1969 p. 739.
- ^ Young, Vernon "The Fine Art Of Name-Dropping: Harold Nicolson" pp. 737–744 from The Hudson Review, Volume 21, Issue #4, Winter 1968–1969 p. 742.
- ^ Ahmed Ali. Twilight in Delhi. Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 2. This is from the introduction to the book, in which its author tells of H.N.'s role in getting it published in 1940. There is no reference to H.N.'s work in this capacity in his published Diaries, presumably due to the Official Secrets Act.
- ^ Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization. Nicholson Baker, 2008
- ^ Young, Vernon "The Fine Art Of Name-Dropping: Harold Nicolson" pp. 737–744 from The Hudson Review, Volume 21, Issue #4, Winter 1968–1969 p. 737.
- ^ a b c Bell, P. M. H. France and Britain, 1940–1994: The Long Separation London: Routledge, 2014 p. 66.
- ^ Young, Vernon, "The Fine Art Of Name-Dropping: Harold Nicolson" pp. 737–744, from The Hudson Review, Volume 21, Issue #4, Winter 1968–1969 p. 741.
- ^ Bristow-Smith, Harold Nicolson pp. 169–170
- ^ Kushner, Tony. The Persistence of Prejudice: Antisemitism in British Society during the Second World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989, p. 2
- ^ Nicolson, Nigel, ed. (1966). Harold Nicolson: Diaries & Letters 1930–1939. Collins. p. 53.
- ^ Kushner, Tony. The Persistence of Prejudice: Antisemitism in British Society during the Second World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989, p. 98
- ^ Kushner, Tony. The Persistence of Prejudice: Antisemitism in British Society during the Second World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989, p. 110
- ^ Edel, Leon, "The Price of Peace Was War". Saturday Review, 3 December 1966, pp. 53, 54.
- ^ de-la-Noy, Michael, "Obituary: Nigel Nicolson". The Guardian, 23 September 2004.
- ^ OCLC 476173.
- ^ See Internet Archive
Further reading
- Bristow-Smith, Laurence. Harold Nicolson: Half-an-Eye on History. Letterworth Press, 2014. ISBN 978-2-9700654-5-6.
- ISBN 0-300-05981-7.
- Dawkins, Charlie. "Harold Nicolson, Ulysses, Reithianism: Censorship on BBC Radio, 1931". Review of English Studies 67.280 (2016): 558-578. online
- Drinkwater, Derek. Sir Harold Nicolson & International Relations, (ISBN 0-19-927385-5.
- Kershner, R. Brandon. "Harold Nicolson's Visit with Joyce". James Joyce Quarterly 39.2 (2002): 325-330. online
- ISBN 0-7011-2520-9; 1981, Vol. II (1930–1968), vol 2 online
- Rose, Norman. Harold Nicolson (ISBN 0-224-06218-2.
- Thirriard, Maryam. "Harold Nicolson the New Biographer". Les Grandes Figures historiques dans les lettres et les arts 6bis (2017) online.
- Young, John W. "Harold Nicolson and Appeasement", in Shaping British Foreign and Defence Policy in the Twentieth Century (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2014) pp. 136–158 online
Primary sources
- Rich, Margaret Sherry. "The Harold Nicolson Papers". Princeton University Library Chronicle 65.1 (2003): 105-109. online
- Nicolson, Nigel, (ed.) The Harold Nicolson Diaries 1907–1963 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004), ISBN 0-297-84764-3
- Nicolson, Nigel, (ed.) Vita and Harold. The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson 1910–1962 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1992), ISBN 0-297-81182-7.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Harold Nicolson
- Harold Nicolson at Find a Grave
- Newspaper clippings about Harold Nicolson in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- Harold Nicolson Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.