Jump to content

John Davenport (critic)

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Lancelot Agard Bramhall Davenport(10 May 1908 – 27 June 1966) was an English critic and book reviewer who wrote for, amongst other publications,The ObserverandThe Spectator.He was a mentor to the criticNora Sayre.[1]

Life

[edit]

The son of Robert Davenport (known as "Robin" or "Arthur" ),[2]a self-described "dramatic author", writer and illustrator of children's stories, and writer of lyrics for popular songs (including as a collaborator withH. G. Pelissieron an adaptation ofThe Follies) and the actressMuriel George(who later married the actorErnest Butcher), Davenport was primarily raised atBarons Courtby his grandmother, and subsequently educated atSt Paul'sandCorpus Christi College, Cambridge,at which latter he opted to study rather than taking up a history scholarship he had won toHertford College, Oxford.He would later compare his childhood to the story ofCompton Mackenzie'sSinister Street.[2]Davenport's great-grandfather was the composer and musicologist SirGeorge Macfarren;Macfarren's daughter had marriedFrancis ( "Frank" ) William Davenport,a professor at theGuildhall School of MusicandRoyal Academy of Music,who was a collaborator, formerly pupil, of MacFarren.[3][4][5][6]The Davenports were mainly clergymen, originally from Cheshire, and kinsmen of the Davenports ofBramall Hall,atBramhall,Greater Manchester (historically Cheshire).[7][8]

After coming down from Cambridge, Davenport worked forMGMas a screenwriter withF. Scott Fitzgerald;it was at this time he became acquainted with Nora Sayre's family. He taught atStowe Schoolin the 1940s, and worked for theBBCat Bush House as Head of the Belgian Section (he spoke fluent French, having lived there for some time)[9]

He was a close friend ofDylan Thomas,with whom, in 1941, he wroteThe Death of the King's Canary,a satirical detective novel (it remained unpublished until 1976). Up at Cambridge as a contemporary ofWilliam Empson,Davenport was entrusted in 1947 with the only manuscript copy of Empson'sThe Face of the Buddha,which he subsequently misplaced whilst drunk. Although Davenport finally admitted to Empson in 1952 that he thought he had left the manuscript in a taxi, in fact he had given it to the Tamil poet,Tambimuttu,and it eventually made its way to publication many years later.[10]Davenport was also a friend of the novelistMalcolm Lowry,since their Cambridge days.[11]

Davenport was renowned for his physical strength and willingness to employ that strength as a countermeasure to what he considered "impertinence" in others; he had been an all-in wrestler, as well as a noted boxer whilst at Cambridge, making a living for a time as a fairground boxer.[12]One anecdote (related slightly differently byPaul Johnsonand Nora Sayre)[13][1]has him, whilst at either theSavage Clubor theSavile Club,hoisting a man (per Johnson,Lord Maugham,theLord Chancellorand brother of the authorSomerset Maugham;per Sayre, a bishop) six feet into the air and depositing him upon a mantelpiece, from which descent proved complicated. Davenport was duly expelled from the club. In contrast to this bellicose approach, Davenport was considered "one of the most remarkable and talented men of his generation", with an "appreciation of literature... equalled only by his insight into the wearisome condition of humanity" and "exhilarating" wit.[9]

In 1934, Davenport married Clemency (known as "Clement" ) Hale, a painter and set designer, daughter ofSwinburne Hale,an American lawyer, and his wifeBeatrice,née Forbes-Robertson, the niece of the actor SirJohnston Forbes-Robertson.Following their divorce, Davenport married Marjorie Morrison.[11]He had children from both marriages, including a son, Roger, an author.[14]In the 1960s, following difficulties with alcoholism, Davenport retired to the country where his mother lived, and died shortly afterwards.[15]

References

[edit]
  1. ^abSayre, Nora (10 April 1977)."John Davenport Remembered".The New York Times.p. 6.
  2. ^abThe New Review,vol. 3, issue 31, 1976, pg 69
  3. ^A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450–1880),George Grove, Macmillan, 1889, pg 608
  4. ^Symphonies,Alice Mary Smith, ed. Ian Graham-Jones, A-R Editions Inc., 2003, pg xi
  5. ^Historical Dictionary of English Music: ca. 1400–1958,Charles Edward McGuire and Steven E. Plank, Scarecrow Press Inc., 2011, pg 310
  6. ^British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century,Laura Seddon, Routledge, 2016, pg 25
  7. ^"John Davenport (1908–1966), critic and pugilist".16 September 2017.
  8. ^"RootsWeb: DAVENPORT-L [DAVENPORT] Re: English [DAVENPORTS]".archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.
  9. ^ab"John Davenport" 1 Jul 1966 "The Spectator Archive".
  10. ^Piepenbring, Dan (2 March 2016)."I Left Your Manuscript in a Cab, and Other News".
  11. ^abPursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry,Gordon Bowker,pg 1
  12. ^Brief Lives,Paul Johnson, Random House, 2010, pg 88
  13. ^Brief Lives,Paul Johnson, Random House, 2010, pg 89
  14. ^"Chiswick's Local Web site".chiswickw4.
  15. ^Brief Lives,Paul Johnson, Random House, 2010, pg 90
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Davenport_(critic)&oldid=1155875379"