Hesketh Pearson
Edward Hesketh Gibbons Pearson (20 February 1887 – 9 April 1964) was a British actor, theatre director and writer. He is known mainly for his popular biographies; they made him the leading British biographer of his time, in terms of commercial success.
Early life
Pearson was born in
Conservative by temperament, he was a passionate reader of
Wartime and first writing
At the outbreak of the
After the war, Pearson returned to the stage and, in 1921, met Hugh Kingsmill, an encounter that, thanks to Kingsmill's charismatic friendship and influence, changed his life.[3] He began to write as a journalist, and published some short stories and essays. In 1926 the anonymously published Whispering Gallery, purporting to be diary pages from leading political figures, caused him to be prosecuted for attempted fraud. He won the case, partly because (according to Michael Holroyd) of his "engaging candour appealed to the jury".[1]
Author
During the 1930s and 1940s Pearson was perhaps the most successful biographer in Britain from a commercial perspective. He started with Erasmus Darwin (a maternal ancestor) in 1930. The Smith of Smiths (1934) was a life of the Revd. Sydney Smith which retained its popularity. The four authors of what he called his 'revelations' - Wilde, Bernard Shaw, Shakespeare and Tree - were also the subjects of biographies, as were Thomas Paine, William Hazlitt, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Walter Scott. The last to be written at the height of his powers was Johnson and Boswell (1958).[1]
Later life
Pearson was a close friend and collaborator of
With his first wife Gladys he had one son, who died in 1939. She died in 1951 and he married again, to Dorothy Joyce Ryder (1912-1976) later that year. He died on 9 April 1964 at his home, 14 Priory Road, West Hampstead, London. He wrote two autobiographies: Thinking it Over (1938) and Hesketh Pearson by Himself (1965), which was published posthumously a year after his death.[1]
Works
- Modern Men and Mummers (1921), which describes encounters with Francis Galton (whose great-great-great nephew he was)
- A Persian Critic (1923)
- The Whispering Gallery: Leaves from a Diplomat's Diary (1926) fictional diary, published as an anonymous hoax
- Iron Rations (1928) stories
- Doctor Darwin (1930) on Erasmus Darwin
- Ventilations: Being Biographical Asides (1930)
- The Fool of Love. A Life of William Hazlitt (1934)
- The Smith of Smiths: Being the Life, Wit and Humour of Sydney Smith (1934)
- Common Misquotations (1934) editor
- Gilbert and Sullivan: A Biography (1935)
- The Swan of Lichfield: being a selection from the correspondence of Anna Seward (1936) editor
- Labby: The Life and Character of Henry Labouchere(1936)
- Tom Paine. Friend of Mankind: A Biography (1937)
- Thinking It Over (1938)
- Skye High: The Record of a Tour through Scotland in the Wake of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell (1938) with Hugh Kingsmill
- The Hero of Delhi (1939) on John Nicholson
- This Blessed Plot (1942) with Hugh Kingsmill
- A Life of Shakespeare: With An Anthology of Shakespeare's Poetry (1942)
- Bernard Shaw: His Life and Personality (1942) also G.B.S. A Full Length Portrait (US)
- Conan Doyle: His Life and Art (1943)
- Oscar Wilde, His Life and Wit (1946)
- Talking of Dick Whittington(1947) with Hugh Kingsmill
- Dickens: His Character, Comedy, and Career (1949)
- G.B.S. A Postscript (1950)
- The Last Actor-Managers (1950)
- Essays of Oscar Wilde (1950) editor
- About Kingsmill (co-author with Malcolm Muggeridge – regarding Hugh Kingsmill)
- Dizzy: The Life and Personality of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1951)
- The Man Whistler (1952)- (James McNeill Whistler)
- Walter Scott: His Life and Personality (1954)
- Beerbohm Tree: His Life & Laughter (1956)
- Gilbert: His Life and Strife (1957) - (W.S. Gilbert)
- Johnson and Boswell: The Story of Their Lives (1958)
- Charles II: His Life and Likeness (1960) also Merry Monarch, the Life and Likeness of Charles II (US)
- The Pilgrim Daughters (1961) also The Marrying Americans (US)
- Lives of the Wits (1962)
- Henry of Navarre(1963)
- Hesketh Pearson, By Himself (1965) autobiography
- Extraordinary People (1965) biographical essays
References
- ^ a b c d e Holroyd, Michael. 'Pearson, (Edward) Hesketh Gibbons', in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2011)
- ^ "No. 29998". The London Gazette. 23 March 1917. p. 2958.
- ^ Richard Ingrams, God's Apology,1977 chapter 3
Citations
- Ingrams, Richard (1977) God's Apology: A Chronicle of Three Friends
- Hunter, Ian (1987) Nothing to Repent: The Life of Hesketh Pearson
External links
- Hesketh Pearson at Library of Congress, with 88 library catalogue records
- Hesketh Pearson Papers at the Harry Ransom Center