Maurice Bowra was, according to one's point of view, either the most distinguished or the most notorious Oxford don of the early twentieth century. Classicist, poet, wit, raconteur extraordinary, and Warden of Wadham College for over thirty years, he met nearly everyone of consequence in the worlds of literature and politics and had stories to tell about them all, from Jean Cocteau to Virginia Woolf, from Adolf Hitler to the Kennedys, from Isaiah Berlin to Charlie Chaplin. By force of personality and intellectual range, he influenced the thinking of almost everyone with whom he came into contact. Above all, brought up in Edwardian England, he was able to chart the ways in which the values of his youth were tested by new democratic ideas. His experiences allowed him to develop and employ theories of education that were startling, and which would mould the thinking of a generation of English intellectuals. Based upon a wide range of interviews and previously unpublished manuscript material, this is the first ever biography of Bowra, and covers every aspect of his life, from soldier on the Western Front to Oxford classicist, from celebrated wit to frustrated poet manqué.
By:
Leslie Mitchell (University College Oxford)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 233mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 22mm
Weight: 611g
ISBN: 9780199589333
ISBN 10: 019958933X
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 11 November 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface Part I: Formation 1: From China to Cheltenham 2: War: 1914-1918 3: New College: 1919-1922 Part II: Fundamentals 4: Greece 5: Poetry 6: Sex and Sexuality Part III: Action 7: Oxford, 1922-1938 8: Bowra and the Wider World, 1922-1939 9: Germany and America 10: Warden of Wadham, 1938-1970 11: Bowra at Large, 1945-1970 Part IV: Reflection 12: The 1960s 13: Heaven or Hell Endnotes Select Bibliography Index
Leslie Mitchell was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and was for many years a fellow of University College. He is a specialist on the history of England and France in the eighteenth century and has written a number of acclaimed biographies, including lives of Charles James Fox, Lord Melbourne, and Bulwer Lytton.
Reviews for Maurice Bowra: A Life
it is appropriate that Leslie Mitchell ... should have undertaken his biography. He has done it with a wit and perception worthy of his subject, ruthlessly stripping away the defences and disguises of Bowra's suprisingly vulnerable ego. * Jeremy Catto, English Historical Review * Mitchell's book draws on much new material, and he does a creditable job of depicting a curious and influential mentor. * Lindsay Bagshaw, The Chap * This beautifully written book conveys a vivid portrait of the man and his time. * Network Review * This balanced, widely researched, objective and well written biography...gives readers an insight into a not unimportant part of twentieth centiry English life. * A.C.T, Contemporary Review. *
