Frank Ernest Halliday (10 February 1903 – 26 March 1982) was an English academic, author and amateur painter. He wrote on a wide range of subjects, though he was best known for his books on
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
.
Biography
F. E. Halliday — he preferred use of his initials for his books and public life — was born in
Bradford, Yorkshire, and educated at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...
, where he earned his M.A. in 1928.
Halliday taught English and history at
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school opened in 1841 as a Church of England foundation and is known for its outstanding linguis ...
, and served as head of the English Department there, from 1929 to 1948. After his retirement from teaching, he and his family moved to
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives (, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times, it was comm ...
, where Halliday pursued a second career as a professional author. He produced a modern edition of
Richard Carew's ''The Survey of Cornwall'' in 1953. He wrote or edited more than 20 books in his lifetime, including a volume of poetry, ''Meditation at Bolerium'' (1963). His compendium ''A Shakespeare Companion'' was a basic reference work for a generation of readers. First published in 1950, the book went through a major revision and updating for a new edition in 1964, the quatercentenary of Shakespeare's birth.
Halliday was active in civic life in St Ives. He was a member of
Penwith Society of Arts, was a governor of the local secondary school, and joined
Barbara Hepworth in opposing plans to turn the Island, St Ives' headland, into a
car park.
When he turned 70 in 1973, the ''
St Ives Times & Echo'' said he had done "as much as, if not more than, any native Cornishman towards protecting, preserving and improving" the town.
His 1936 portrait of
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...
is in the collection of the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to:
* National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra
* National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred
*National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C.
*National Portrait Gallery, London
...
.
He married Nancibel Beth Gaunt in 1927; they had one child, a son, Michael.
Selected written works by F. E. Halliday
* ''Shakespeare and His Critics'' (1949)
* ''The Enjoyment of Shakespeare'' (1952)
* ''Shakespeare in his Age'' (1956)
* ''The Cult of Shakespeare'' (1957)
* ''A History of Cornwall'' (1959)
* ''Indifferent Honest'' (1960), an autobiography
* ''The Life of Shakespeare'' (1961)
* ''Unfamiliar Shakespeare'' (1962)
* ''England, a Concise History'' (1964), revised 1980 (and posthumously, 1989, 1995)
* ''The Poetry of Shakespeare's Plays'' (1964)
* ''An Illustrated Cultural History of England'' (1967), revised up to 1981
* ''Chaucer and His World'' (1968)
* ''Doctor Johnson and His World'' (1968)
* ''Wordsworth and His World'' (1970)
* ''Thomas Hardy: His Life and Work'' (1972)
* ''The Excellency of the English Tongue'' (1975)
* ''Robert Browning: His Life and Work'' (1975)
References
* Magill, Frank Northen, ed. ''Cyclopedia of World Authors.'' Pasadena, CA, Salem, 1974.
* Obituary, ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', 29 March 1982.
1903 births
1982 deaths
English literary critics
Historians of Cornwall
Shakespearean scholars
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Schoolteachers from Gloucestershire
20th-century English historians
20th-century English poets
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