George Raffalovich

George Raffalovich (10 December 1880 – 17 May 1958) was a journalist, novelist, and academic. He was born in France and moved to the UK in about 1906. He was associated with the occultist Aleister Crowley for several years before World War I. He became a supporter of Ukrainian independence, and published several articles on the topic, but left the UK for America when his support for Ukraine led to him being suspected of treasonous sympathies with the Central Powers. He became an academic in the US, lecturing at Dartmouth College and Emory University, eventually settling in New Orleans where he died in 1958.

Early life

Raffalovich was born on 10 December 1880 in Cannes, France. He was raised as a Catholic and was French via his mother, Nadine Chaptal; according to one account, his mother was a countess, descended from one of Napoleon's ministers.Crowley (1989), pp. 633-635. His father was Gregor Raffalovich;Salah (2015), p. 85. his ancestors on this side were Ukrainian Jews, but he considered it debatable whether he could call himself Jewish.Kravchenyuk (September 1963), pp. 113–117. His relatives included Sophie Raffalovich, his cousin, and her brother Marc-André Raffalovich. Gregor died in 1881, in Paris.

He studied at Nancy-Université and obtained a bachelor of arts degree. He inherited a good deal of money when he came of age, but spent extravagantly, buying a traveling circus at one point. His family put aside some money for him and eventually persuaded him to get control of his spending. He was drafted into the French army, and brought a lawsuit to try to escape the obligation.

Dealings with Aleister Crowley

He moved to the UK in about 1906, and became a British citizen that year. He met Aleister Crowley, the English occultist, that year; Crowley lent him money while he was still recovering from his overspending. He spoke no English when he arrived in the UK, but learned it quickly enough to publish a collection of short stories, ''Planetary Journeys and Earthly Sketches'', in 1908. Crowley remarked on his talent in his reminiscences: "His imperfect acquaintance with English resulted in his inventing curiously fascinating terms of phraseology. He had remarkable imagination and a brilliant ability to use the bizarre." The two books contained some fantasy and early science fiction stories; the former is described by ''The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction'' as "mostly consist ngof affected parables", though Israel Zangwill was more complimentary about his work.

In 1909 Crowley began publishing ''The Equinox'', a journal about his occult interests, and began enrolling students. Raffalovich was among the first to sign up, under the name Frater Audeo et Gaudeo.Kaczynski (2010), p. 14 of chapter 8. Raffalovich's fiction, some of which was published in ''The Equinox'', included stories featuring a character named Elphenor Pistouillat de la Ratisboisière, who was based on Crowley. In 1910, via the publishing house he had set up for ''The Equinox'', Crowley republished ''Planetary Journeys'' under the title ''On the Loose'', and also published two other books of Raffalovich's: ''The Deuce and All'', and ''The History of a Soul''.

At one point he proposed to Crowley that they form a company to publish the journal, but by early 1910 there was a rift between the two and the acquaintanceship ended, with Crowley claiming that Raffalovich had acted on his behalf without authorization, and cashed cheques in Crowley's name, forging the signature.Kaczynski (2010), p. 19 of chapter 10.

International politics

In 1910 Raffalovich began publishing articles on international politics. He met Vladimir Stepanowsky, a Ukrainian political exile, in London in 1912, and soon began publishing letters and articles in support of Ukrainian independence, sometimes under the pseudonym "Bedwin Sands". Along with Stepanowsky, Marian Melenevsky, and Francis Bartlett, he was one of the four founders of the London-based Ukraine Committee (also known as the Ukraine (British) Committee), in March 1913. He became the Honorary Secretary, and by the summer of that year was the main organizer of the committee's activities.''The Academy'' (1914), p. 729. Members included the historian Robert Seton-Watson.

Raffalovich was also among the leadership of Ottoman Committee founded in the summer of 1913, a society focused on relations with Turkey, and later renamed into the Ottoman Association.

Raffalovich is described in the ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' as "the best-informed observer of Ukrainian affairs in Great Britain in his day". In 1914 Raffalovich was invited to visit Lviv to participate in celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko. He spent several months, starting in May 1914, in Galicia, and was there when World War I broke out in August 1914, but was able to return to the UK.Kravchenyuk (September 1963), pp. 113–117.Dobriansky (1963), pp. 124-126. He was forced to leave the UK in 1915 under suspicion of treasonously supporting Germany, and the Ukraine Committee ceased to exist with his departure.

Later life

In 1916 he was in New York, and corresponded with Joseph King, a British MP, about the state of the Ukrainians. King was fined for including information about war issues in a letter he sent to Raffalovich, and an article appeared in the London ''Evening Standard'' accusing Raffalovich of pro-German sympathies.

By 1921 Raffalovich was an assistant professor of French at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; Dartmouth granted him a leave of absence for the 1921-1922 academic year. He spent five years in the 1920s in Italy, returning by early 1928, and published a study of Mussolini. In 1926, while in Italy, he was Secretary-Interpreter for a program of the Rockefeller Foundation.''The Atlanta Journal'' (1940), p. 19. He married and he and his wife, Dorothy Harmon Dawson, moved to Atlanta, Georgia in about 1929. She died there on April 2, 1940, aged 51.''The Atlanta Constitution'' (1940), p.12. Later that year he began teaching French and Italian at the Georgia Conservatory of Music in Atlanta.

He died in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 17 May 1958.

Works

This is a partial list of Raffalovich's work as a writer and translator.

Books

* Translated by George Raffalovich.
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** Retitled:
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* ''The Academy'' (1910), p. 631.
** Reprinted:
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* Translated by George Raffalovich.

Short stories

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Pamphlets

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Notes

References

Sources

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Raffalovich, George
1880 births
1958 deaths
20th-century British journalists
Ukrainian independence activists