Dame Iris Margaret Origo, Marchesa Origo, DBE (née Cutting; 15 August 1902 – 28 June 1988) was an English-born

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

and writer. She lived in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and devoted much of her life to improving the Tuscan estate at

La Foce La Foce is a large estate that lies close to the towns of Montepulciano, Chiusi, and Chianciano Terme in the Southern Tuscan region of Val d'Orcia, midway between Florence and Rome. History La Foce lies on the Via Francigena, the ancient road and ...

, near

Montepulciano Montepulciano () is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and ''comune'' in the Italian province of Siena in southern Tuscany. It sits high on a limestone ridge, east of Pienza, southeast of Siena, southeast of Florence, and north of Rome ...

, which she bought with her husband in the 1920s. During the

Second World War 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 ...

, she persistently sheltered refugee children and helped many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans, in defiance of Italy's

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

regime and

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

occupation forces.

Origins and upbringing

Origo was born as Iris Margaret Cutting at Beechwood Cottage, Birdlip,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England,Caroline Moorehea
Dame Iris Origo (article)
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Oxford University Press, October 2011; online ed., May 2012. Accessed 24 January 2016.] to the American

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

William Bayard Cutting Jr. and Lady Sybil Marjorie Cuffe (daughter of Lord Desart, an Irish peer). The Cutting family was a known, wealthy and

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

family – Origo was a granddaughter of

William Bayard Cutting William Bayard Cutting (January 12, 1850 – March 1, 1912), a member of New York's merchant aristocracy, was an attorney, financier, real estate developer, sugar beet refiner and philanthropist. Cutting and his brother Fulton started the sugar ...

and a niece of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

progressive Senator Bronson M. Cutting. Her parents travelled widely after their marriage, particularly in Italy, where her father contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. He then travelled the world in search of relief from the symptoms of the disease, which killed him in 1910 at the age of 29. Before he died, William wrote to his wife that he wanted their young daughter to grow up in Italy, "free from all this national feeling which makes people so unhappy. Bring her up somewhere where she does not belong, so she cannot have it." Iris and her mother settled in Italy, buying

Villa Medici in Fiesole The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built for the Medici family. It was built between 1451 and 1457. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed as Medici Villas and Gar ...

, one of Florence's most spectacular villas. There they became close friends with

Bernard Berenson Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book ''The Drawings of the Florentine Painters'' was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large ...

, who lived at nearby ''I Tatti''. Iris was briefly enrolled at a London school, but mainly taught at home by Professor Solone Monti and a series of French and German governesses. In April 1918 her mother remarried, to the architectural historian Geoffrey Scott, also of the Berensonian circle. She divorced him in 1926 and took a third husband, the essayist

Percy Lubbock Percy Lubbock, Order of the British Empire, CBE (4 June 1879 – 1 August 1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer. His controversial book ''The Craft of Fiction'' gained influence in the 1920s. Life Perc ...

.Isabel Colegate
Coming Home to Heroism
''The Spectator'', 7 October 2000. Book review of

Caroline Moorehead Caroline Mary Moorehead (born 28 October 1944) is a human rights journalist and biographer. Early life Born in London, Moorehead is the daughter of Australian war correspondent Alan Moorehead and his English wife Lucy Milner. She received a B ...

's ''Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val d'Orcia''.

Personal life

Iris Cutting travelled to England and the United States, so as to be launched into society in both countries. In 1922, she met

Colin Mackenzie Colonel Colin Mackenzie (1754–8 May 1821) was a Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist and an indologist. He sur ...

, a young Scottish businessman working 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 ...

; a romantic correspondence was followed by a passionate affair. On 4 March 1924, Iris married Antonio Origo, an illegitimate son of Marchese Clemente Origo. They moved to their purchased estate,

, near

Chianciano Terme Chianciano Terme is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southeast of Florence and about southeast of Siena. It is located between the Valdichiana and the Val d'Orcia. Chianciano Terme ...

in the

Province of Siena The province of Siena (, ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena. It has 259,826 inhabitants. Geography The province is divided into seven historical areas: * Alta Val d'Elsa * Chian ...

. It was in an advanced state of disrepair, but their hard work, care and attention managed to transform it. Their son, Gian or Gianni Clemente Bayard (24 June 1925 – 30 April 1933), died of meningitis at the age of seven. They also had two daughters, Benedetta (born 1 August 1940) and Donata (born 9 June 1943).

Writing career

After the death of her son, Iris Origo began a writing career with a well-received biography of

Giacomo Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. Considered the greatest Italian poet of the 19th century and one of the greatest a ...

, published in 1935. A reviewer noted that "an unobtrusive scholarship gives alimentation to a deft power in narrative, and the style is always alive and sometimes very beautiful." She followed this in 1938 with a life of

Cola di Rienzo Nicola di Lorenzo Gabrini (1313 8 October 1354), commonly known as Cola di Rienzo () or Rienzi, was an Italian politician and leader, who styled himself as the "tribune of the Roman people". During his lifetime, he advocated for the unificatio ...

, a 14th-century populist revolutionary and would-be dictator in Rome. After discovering love letters between

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

and the Countess Teresa Guiccioli she wrote ''The Last Attachment'' about their relationship. ''The Merchant of Prato'' is about everyday 14th-century life, a book Origo wrote after examining a huge cache of medieval documents. The Origos spent the Second World War at La Foce caring for refugee children, and after Italy (but not Germany) surrendered, helping escaped Allied prisoners of war trying to cross German lines or simply survive. After the war, she divided her time between La Foce and Rome, where the Origos had bought an apartment in the Palazzo Orsini, and devoted herself to writing. '' War in Val d'Orcia'' (1947) was her first book to be popular as well as a critical success. Her 1957 book ''The Merchant of Prato'' was found to be a valuable source for students of Italian city and mercantile life, based on research in the archives of the merchant Francesco di Marco Datini (1335–1410). She also cast light on a little-known facet of medieval and early Italian life in an article, "The Domestic Enemy: the Eastern Slaves in Tuscany in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries". The Origos holidayed at Gli Scafari, a house built by the architect

Cecil Pinsent Cecil Ross Pinsent FRIBA (5 May 1884 – 5 December 1963) was a British garden designer and architect, noted for the innovative gardens which he designed in Tuscany between 1909 and 1939. These imaginatively re-visited the concepts of Italian 16t ...

for Iris's mother, at

Lerici Lerici (, locally ) is a ''comune'' in the province of La Spezia, in the Italian region of Liguria, part of the Italian Riviera. It is situated on the coast of the Gulf of La Spezia, southeast of La Spezia. It is known as the place where t ...

on the Gulf of Spezia. Antonio Origo died on 27 June 1976. Iris Origo died at her estate in Tuscany on 28 June 1988, aged 85.

Honours

Iris Origo was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1967. On 31 December 1976 she was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE) "for services to British cultural interests in Italy and to Anglo-Italian relations". La Foce is the birthplace of a chamber music festival held in Iris Origo's memory, organised by her grandson, the cellist Antonio Lysy.

Works

*''Allegra'' (1935), a short life of Byron's daughter *''Leopardi: A Study in Solitude'' (1935; second edition 1953), a biography of

*''Gianni'', a privately printed memorial to Iris's son *''Tribune of Rome: A Biography of Cola di Rienzo'' (1938), on the 14th-century Roman revolutionary *'' War in Val d'Orcia'' (1947; NYRB edition 2018), a diary of the last years of fascism and the liberation of Italy *''The Last Attachment: The Story of

and Teresa Guiccioli'' (1949) *''Giovanni and Jane'' (1950), a children's book *''A Measure of Love'' (1957), biographical essays *''The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini, 1335-1410'' (1957) *"Pope Pius II" (1961), in J. H. Plumb et al., ''The Horizon Book of the Renaissance'', Collins 1961 *''

Images and Shadows ''Images and Shadows: Part of a Life'' is a book by Iris Origo, the Irish-American writer who spent most of her life in Italy. She owned and lived in the Tuscan estate of La Foce. It was first published by John Murray in 1970. The autobiography ...

: Part of a Life'' (1970), an elegiac autobiography *''The Vagabond Path'' (1972), an anthology *''The World of San Bernardino'' (1963), a life of

Bernardino of Siena Bernardino of Siena, Order of Friars Minor, OFM (Bernardine or Bernadine; 8 September 138020 May 1444), was an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in Italy. He was a systematizer of Scholasticism, ...

*''A Need to Testify: Portraits of Lauro de Bosis,

Ruth Draper Ruth Draper (December 2, 1884December 30, 1956) was an American actress, dramatist and noted Monologist#Diseuse, diseuse who specialized in character-driven monologues and monodrama. Her best-known pieces include ''The Italian Lesson'', ''Three ...

Gaetano Salvemini Gaetano Salvemini (; 8 September 1873 – 6 September 1957) was an Italian socialist and anti-fascist politician, historian, and writer. Born into a family of modest means, he became a historian of note whose work drew attention in Italy and ab ...

Ignazio Silone Secondino Tranquilli (1 May 1900 – 22 August 1978), best known by the pseudonym Ignazio Silone (, ), was an Italian politician, novelist, essayist, playwright, and short-story writer, world-famous during World War II for his powerful anti-fasci ...

and an essay on Biography'' (1984) (four opponents of fascism) *''Un'amica. Ritratto di Elsa Dallolio'' (1988), a memoir of an old friend *''A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939–1940'' (2017), Pushkin Press, and (2018) New York Review of Books

References

Bibliography

"Coming Home to Heroism"
''The Spectator'' 7 October 2000. Available online. Book review of

's ''Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val d'Orcia'' (London, John Murray, 2000) *Gianna Pomata
Dalla biografia alla storia e ritorno: Iris Origo fra Bloomsbury e Toscana
in Genesis: Rivista della Società italiana delle storiche, pp. 117–156 (2007, in Italian) at torrossa.com. Accessed 15 December 2017