Baron Avro Manhattan (April 6, 1914 – November 27, 1990) was an Italian

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poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

. A born aristocrat who wrote about various political topics throughout his career, Manhattan is perhaps best remembered as the author of several works discussing the Vatican's role in world politics and global affairs. Manhattan attended both the Sorbonne and the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

Life and career

Born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy, on April 6, 1914, to American and Swiss/Dutch parents of Jewish extraction, Manhattan was originally known as''Teofilo Lucifero Gardini'' in his early days in Italy. Before his exile, Manhattan was known to spend his summers at the home of the artist, Paolo Troubetzkoy, in

Verbania Verbania (, , ) is the most populous ''comune'' (municipality) and the capital city of the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. It is situated on the shore of Lake Maggiore, about north-west of Milan and ab ...

. Manhattan, himself a painter, exhibited a number of his works at local Italian museums. The last of these exhibitions was at the Museo del Paesaggio, in Verbania, where two of his paintings remain to this day. Manhattan was exiled to England from Italy during the

Second Italo-Ethiopian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Fascist Italy, Italy against Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is oft ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he operated a radio station called "Radio Freedom" broadcasting to nations occupied by the

Axis Powers The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...

. Manhattan officially changed residence to the United Kingdom in 1945 for "political reasons," but not until 1953 did Manhattan legally change his name, relinquishing the names "Teofilo Angelo Mario Gardini" and "Teophile Lucifer Gardini." At the time, he lived in Wimbledon, London. In 1961, Manhattan met his future wife, Anne Manhattan ''née'' Cunningham Brown, in London, and two years later, they moved into a house on Henry Nelson Street in

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...

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. He is buried with his wife at Shotley Bridge in Benfieldside Cemetery,

Consett Consett is a town in the County Durham (district), County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of County Durham, Durham, England, about south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 27,394 in 2001 and an estimate of 25,812 in ...

, County Durham, England. Their gravestone reads: His friends included

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

, scientist

Marie Stopes Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (15 October 1880 – 2 October 1958) was a British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for Eugenic feminism, eugenics and women's rights. She made significant contributions to plant palaeontology and co ...

and the Rev. Ian Paisley.Patrick Marrinan (1973). ''Paisley. Man of Wrath'' (Tralee, Anvil), p. 229

Works

The following is a list of Avro Manhattan's most notable books, ordered chronologically: *''The Rumbling of the Apocalypse'' (1934)
''Towards the New Italy''
(Preface by

, 1943)
''Latin America and the Vatican''
(1946)
''The Catholic Church Against the Twentieth Century''
(1947; 2nd ed. 1950) *''The Vatican in Asia'' (1948) *''Religion in Russia'' (1949)
''The Vatican in World Politics''
(1949)
''Catholic Imperialism and World Freedom''
(1952; 2nd ed. 1959)
''Terror Over Yugoslavia: The Threat to Europe''
(1953) *
The Dollar and the Vatican
' (1956)

(1965)
''Catholic Terror Today''
(1969)
''Religious Terror in Ireland''
(1974)
''Catholic Power Today''
(1967)
''The Vatican-Moscow-Washington Alliance''
(1982)
''The Vatican Billions''
(1983)
''Vietnam... Why Did We Go? The Shocking Story of the Catholic "Church's" Role in Starting the Vietnam War''
(1984)
''Murder in the Vatican: American, Russian, and Papal Plots''
(1985)
''The Vatican’s Holocaust''
(1986)
''The Dollar and the Vatican''
(1988) *''Catholic Terror in Ireland '' (1988)

References

External links

Avro Manhattan
at

Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...

*
''Secrets & Lies: The Life of Baron Avro Manhattan''
(Documentary). 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Manhattan, Avro 1914 births 1990 deaths Italian male writers Alumni of the London School of Economics University of Paris alumni Italian people of American descent Writers from Milan Critics of the Catholic Church Italian people of Dutch-Jewish descent Italian people of Swiss-Jewish descent Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Shotley Bridge

Life and career

Works

See also

References

External links