Louis Golding (19 November 1895 – 9 August 1958) was an English writer, famous in his time especially for his novels, though he is now largely neglected; he wrote also short stories, essays, fantasies, travel books, and poetry.
Life
Born in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
into a
Ukrainian-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Ukraine dates back over a thousand years; Jewish communities have existed in the modern territory of Ukraine from the time of the Kievan Rus' (late 9th to mid-13th century). Important Jewish religious and cultural move ...
family, Golding was educated at
Manchester Grammar School
The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is a highly Selective school, selective Private_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom, private day school for boys aged 7-18 in Manchester, England, which was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham (then Bishop of Exeter). ...
and
Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...
.
[ Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, (editors) ''Twentieth Century authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature'', (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950 (pp. 548-49)] He used his Manchester background (as 'Doomington') and Jewish themes in his novels, the first of which was published while he was still an undergraduate (his student time was interrupted by service in
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
). Golding described
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
and
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...
as influences on his poetry.
His novel ''Magnolia Street'' was a bestseller of 1932; it is based on the
Hightown area of Manchester, as it was in the 1920s.
It features, authentically enough, a street divided into 'gentile' and 'Jewish' sides.
It was a 1939 play for
Charles B. Cochran in an adaptation by Golding and
A. E. Rawlinson, and was also filmed as ''Magnolia Street Story''. Magnolia Street was also dramatised by Allan Prior as a BBC Television series of the same name in 1961, which ran for 6 episodes.
Golding described his politics as "strongly to the left".
In 1932, the Hogarth Press published Golding's ''A Letter to Adolf Hitler'', an attack on
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
and
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
. In 1940, Golding also criticized the
Soviet Invasion of Finland.
and
McComas named ''Honey for the Ghost'' the best supernatural novel of 1949, saying it "begins with infinite leisure but builds to an incomparable climactic terror."
Film screenplays on which Golding collaborated included that of the
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...
film ''
The Proud Valley
''The Proud Valley'' is a 1940 Ealing Studios film starring Paul Robeson. Filmed in the South Wales coalfield, the principal Welsh coal mining area, the film is about an African American seaman who joins a mining community. It includes their ...
'' (1940); this work with Robeson may have led to his later visa problems with the U.S. authorities. He also was involved in the script of
the 1944 film of his novel ''Mr. Emmanuel''.
Golding employed
Gillian Freeman
Gillian Freeman (5 December 1929 – 23 February 2019) was an English writer. Her first book, ''The Liberty Man'', appeared while she was working as a secretary to the novelist Louis Golding. Her fictional diary, ''Nazi Lady: The Diaries of E ...
as a literary secretary. Freeman later became a novelist and screenwriter, often using her time with Golding as inspiration for her work.
He died from carcinoma of the pancreas at
St George's Hospital
St George's Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Tooting, London. Founded in 1733, it is one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals. It is run by the St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It shares its main hospital site i ...
, London, three weeks after an operation.
Works
*Sorrow of War (1919) poems
*Forward from Babylon (1920) novel
*Shepherd Singing Ragtime: and other poems (1921)
*Prophet and Fool (1923) poems
*Seacoast Of Bohemia (1923)
*Sunward (1924) travel
*Sicilian Noon (1925) travel
*Day of Atonement (1925) novel
*Luigi of Catanzaro (1926)
*The Miracle Boy (1927) novel
*Store of Ladies (1927)
*Those Ancient Lands Being a Journey to Palestine (1928) travel
*The Prince or Somebody (1929)
*Adventures in Living Dangerously (1930)
*Give up Your Lovers (1930)
*Magnolia Street (1932) novel
*A letter to Adolf Hitler (1932)
*James Joyce (1933) criticism
*The Doomington Wanderer (1934) stories
*Five Silver Daughters (1934) Tales of the Silver Sisters (1)
*The Camberwell Beauty (1935) novel
*The Pursuer (1936) novel
*In the Steps of Moses the Lawgiver
937
Year 937 ( CMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* A Hungarian army invades Burgundy, and burns the city of Tournus. Then they go southwards to Italy, pillaging the environs of ...
*The Jewish Problem (1938) non-fiction
*Mr. Emmanuel (1939) Tales of the Silver Sisters (2)
*Hitler through the Ages (1939) non-fiction
*The World I Knew (1940) non-fiction
*We Shall Eat and Drink Again (1944) with
André Simon, essays on food and drink
*The Vicar of Dunkerly Briggs (1944) novel
*Who's There Within? (1944) novel
*The Call of the Hand: And Other Stories (1944) stories
*Pale Blue Nightgown: A Book of Tales (1944) stories
*No News from Helen (1945) novel
*The Glory of Elsie Silver (1945) Tales of the Silver Sisters (3)
*The Dance Goes On (1947) novel
*Bareknuckle Lover; and Other Stories (1947)
*Three Jolly Gentlemen (1949) novel
*Honey for the Ghost (1949) novel
*The Dangerous Places (1951) Tales of the Silver Sisters (4)
*To the Quayside (1954) (Ghostwritten by
Emanuel Litvinoff)
*The Bareknuckle Breed (1952)(Ghostwritten by
Emanuel Litvinoff), published by Hutchinson & Co Ltd
*The Loving Brothers (1953) novel
*The Little Old Admiral (1958)
*The Frightening Talent (1973) novel
References
Further reading
*
External links
Encyclopædia Britannica*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golding, Louis
1895 births
1958 deaths
20th-century English male writers
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English poets
English anti-fascists
Jewish English writers
English male novelists
English male poets
English people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
People educated at Manchester Grammar School
Writers from Manchester
British military personnel of World War I
Military personnel from Manchester