Maurice Baring (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was an English

man of letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the world of culture, either ...

, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During World War I, Baring served in the Intelligence Corps and

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Life and writings

Baring was the eighth child, and fifth son, of Edward Charles Baring, first

Baron Revelstoke Baron Revelstoke, of Membland in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 30 June 1885 for the businessman Edward Baring, head of the family firm of Barings Bank and a member of the Baring fami ...

, of the Baring banking family, and his wife Louisa Emily Charlotte Bulteel, granddaughter of the second Earl Grey. Born in Mayfair, he was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. After an abortive start of a diplomatic career, he travelled widely, particularly in Russia, where he lived in 1905–06. He reported as an eye-witness of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

for the London ''

Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning ...

''. On returning to London he lived at North Cottage, 6 North Street, Westminster. At the start of

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 ...

he joined the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

, where he served as assistant to David Henderson and Hugh Trenchard in France. Throughout the war he corresponded with Lady Juliet Duff, the widow of Sir Robin Duff, 2nd Baronet of Vaynol, who was killed on 16 October 1914 near Oostnieuwkerke while serving with the 2nd Life Guards. These letters were later published under the title of ''Dear Animated Bust: Letters to Lady Juliet Duff''. In 1918, Baring served as a staff officer in the

and was appointed

Officer 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 ...

in the 1918 Birthday Honours. In 1925 Baring received an honorary commission as a

wing commander Wing commander (Wg Cdr or W/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Wing commander is immediately se ...

in the Reserve of Air Force Officers. After his death, Trenchard wrote, "He was the most unselfish man I have ever met or am likely to meet. The Flying Corps owed to this man much more than they know or think."

Read, Piers Paul Piers Paul Read FRSL (born 7 March 1941) is a British novelist, historian and biographer. He was first noted in 1974 for a book of reportage, '' Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors'', later adapted as a feature film and a documentary. Read ...

(2007)
"What's become of Baring?"
''The Spectator'', 10 October 2007. Reprinted i
''Chesterton Review'', Spring-Summer 2008
pp. 309–311. As an author, Baring wrote poetical dramas earlier in his career (for instance ''The Black Prince and Other Poems'', 1902), then a series of books on Russia (such as ''Landmarks in Russian Literature'', 1910, and ''The Mainsprings of Russia'', 1914). After the war he turned to full time writing and began to write novels. These included ''C'' (1924), ''Cat's Cradle'' (1925), ''The Coat Without Seams'' (1929), ''Robert Peckham'' (1930) and ''The Lonely Lady of Dulwich'' (1934). An autobiography, ''The Puppet Show of Memory'', came out in 1922, focused on his childhood and youth. From 1925 his publisher William Heinemann issued his works in a Collected Uniform Edition. After living at various London addresses, he moved in 1930 to a small villa in Rottingdean. His last full-scale work was the anthology with commentary ''Have You Anything to Declare'' (1936). He experienced chronic illness during the last years of his life; for his final 15 years, he had

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

. He was cared for at Beaufort Castle in Scotland, the home of his relative Lady Laura Lovat, from August 1940 until his death.

Personal life

He was widely known socially, to some of the Cambridge Apostles, to The Coterie, and to the literary group associating with G. K. Chesterton and

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

in particular. He enjoyed close friendships with Dame Ethel Smyth (who produced a biography of him in 1938) and Enid Bagnold.Letley, Emma. ''Maurice Baring: A Citizen of Europe'' (1991). He was an accomplished reader and scholar of the Greek and Latin classics, and fluent in five or six modern languages. His friend the career diplomat Sir Ronald Storrs wrote that Baring was, "equally at home with the greatest writers of English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Latin, and Greek; with the then almost startling additions of Danish and Russian literature." However he tended to conceal rather than display his learning, and was staunch in his

anti-intellectualism Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, history, and science as impractical, politica ...

with respect to the arts, and a convinced practical joker. Previously an agnostic, he converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 1909, which he described in his autobiography as "the only action in my life which I am quite certain I have never regretted." Speaking from personal experience, however, he once advised Belloc to "never, never, never talk theology or discuss the Church with those outside it. People simply do not understand what you are talking about and they merely (a) get angry and (b) come to the conclusion that one doesn't believe in the thing oneself and that one is simply doing it to annoy."

Legacy

Belloc dedicated three of his books to Baring: ''On Nothing and Kindred Subjects'', ''Green Overcoat'', and ''The Cruise of the Nona''. Baring is also mentioned in ''Belloc's Cautionary Verses'': He once gave

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

a copy of his book ''C''. She was not impressed, writing in her diary: "Second-rate art i.e. C., by Maurice Baring. Within its limits, it is not second rate, or there is nothing markedly so, at first go off. The limits are the proof of its non-existence. He can only do one thing; himself to wit; charming, clean, modest, sensitive Englishman. Outside that radius and it does not carry far nor illumine much, all is—as-it-should be—light, sure, proportioned, affecting even; told in so well-bred a manner that nothing is exaggerated, all related, proportioned. I could read this for ever, I said. L. said one would soon be sick to death of it". The character Horne Fisher, the protagonist of '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'', a collection of detective stories by G. K. Chesterton, "is generally thought to be based on Chesterton's good friend, Maurice Baring". Although, while "Fisher fits Baring's physical description, he is a respected member of the upper class, and he seems to know everybody and everything", the similarity ends there, Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist notes: "By all accounts, the real Baring was a charming, affable gentleman who knew how to laugh and had no fear of making a fool of himself", while "Horne Fisher is distinctly lacking in both the charm and humour departments." The writer

Vernon Lee Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the French-born British writer Violet Paget (14 October 1856 – 13 February 1935). She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, ...

was a friend of Baring. Lee dedicated her 1927 short-story collection ''For Maurice: Five Unlikely Stories'' to Baring.

Works

*''The Black Prince and Other Poems'' (1903)
''With the Russians in Manchuria.''
(1905) London: Methuen
OCLC 811786
*''Forget-me-Not and Lily of the Valley'' (1905) Humphreys *''Sonnets and Short Poems'' (1906) *
''Russian Essays and Stories.''
(1908) London: Methuen. *''Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories'' (1909) short stories *''Dead Letters'' (1910) satirical collection *''The Glass Mender and Other Stories'' (1910)
''Landmarks in Russian Literature''
(1910) London: Methuen. * ''Diminutive Dramas'' (1911), Constable & Co
''The Russian People''
(1911) *''Letters from the Near East'' (1913)
''Lost Diaries''
(1913) fictional extracts from diaries of notable people
''The Mainsprings of Russia''
(1914) * (1914/15)
''Round the World in any Number of Days''
(1919)
''Flying Corps Headquarters 1914–1918''
(1920)
''Passing By''
(1921) novel
''The Puppet Show of Memory''
(1922) autobiography *''Overlooked'' (1922) short story *''Poems 1914–1919'' (1923) *''C'' (1924) novel *''Punch and Judy and Other Essays'' (1924) *''Half a Minute's Silence and Other Stories'' (1925) *''Cat's Cradle'' (1925) novel *''Daphne Adeane'' (1926) novel *''Tinker's Leave'' (1927) novel *''Comfortless Memory'' (1928) novel *''The Coat Without Seam'' (1929) novel *''Robert Peckham'' (1930) historical novel *''In My End is My Beginning'' (1931) biographical novel about Mary Stuart *''Friday's Business'' (1932) novel *''Lost Lectures'' (1932) imaginary lectures *''Unreliable History'' (1934) omnibus collection of works *''The Lonely Lady of Dulwich'' (1934) novella *''Darby and Joan'' (1935) novel *''Have You Anything to Declare?'' (1936) collection of notes and quotes *''Collected Poems'' (1937) poetry *''Maurice Baring: A Postscript by Laura Lovat with Some Letters and Verse'' (1947) *''Maurice Baring Restored: Selections from His Work'' (1970) chosen and edited by Paul Horgan *''Dear Animated Bust: Letters to Lady Juliet Duff, France 1915-1918'' (1981) *''Maurice Baring: Letters'' (2007) selected and edited by Jocelyn Hillgarth and Julian Jeffs *Baring also edited ''The Oxford Book Of Russian Verse'' published by Clarendon (1924)

References

External links

Portraits of Maurice Baring
in the

National Portrait Gallery (London) The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

. * Maurice Baring Collection. General Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Libraries

Maurice Baring Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

Maurice Baring Collection
at

Houghton Library Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, Lamont Library, and Loeb House, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library s ...

Maurice Baring Collection
at the John J. Burns Library
Maurice Baring material
at the

UK National Archives The National Archives (TNA; ) is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its parent department is the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is the ...

Electronic editions

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baring, Maurice 1874 births 1945 deaths 20th-century British essayists 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English translators 20th-century Roman Catholics Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Maurice British Army personnel of World War I British male dramatists and playwrights British male essayists Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism Deaths from Parkinson's disease in the United Kingdom English Catholic poets English dramatists and playwrights English essayists English male non-fiction writers English male novelists English male poets English Roman Catholic writers English translators English travel writers Intelligence Corps officers Military personnel from the City of Westminster Neurological disease deaths in Scotland Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Eton College People from Mayfair Royal Air Force personnel of World War I Royal Air Force wing commanders Royal Flying Corps officers War correspondents of the Balkan Wars War correspondents of the Russo-Japanese War Writers from the City of Westminster Younger sons of barons