Sir Henry Paul Harvey (born Durant; 1 October 1869 – 30 December 1948)''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995'' was a British diplomat and editor of literary reference works. He compiled ''

The Oxford Companion to English Literature ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' first published in 1932, edited by the retired diplomat Paul Harvey (diplomat), Sir Paul Harvey (1869–1948), was the earliest of the Oxford Companions to appear. It is currently in its seventh ed ...

'' (1932), the first of the

Oxford Companions ''Oxford Companions'' is a book series published by Oxford University Press, providing general knowledge within a specific area. The first book published in the series was ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature ''The Oxford Companion to ...

series.

Life

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Harvey was the illegitimate child of the French sculptor Henri Joseph François, Baron de Triqueti and the English sculptor Susan Durant.''UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870–1916''Jacqueline Banerjee
Baron Henri-Joseph-François de Triqueti (1803-1874)

Victorian Web The Victorian Web is a hypertext project derived from hypermedia environments, Intermedia and Storyspace, that anticipated the World Wide Web. Initially created between 1988 and 1990 with 1,500 documents, it has grown to over 132,000 items in Dec ...

, 9 May 2010. Accessed 9 June 2013. After his mother died in 1873 when he was 4 years old, he was brought up by Blanche Lee Childe, his aunt or half-sister; when Childe also died in 1886, he was sponsored by

Augusta, Lady Gregory Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (; 15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish dramatist, Folklore, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre a ...

with help from

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

. Educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, he married Ethel Frances Persse, daughter of Col. Edward Persse, in 1896. Their daughter was photographer Merlyn Severn. Harvey was (Assistant) Private Secretary to the Marquess of Lansdowne,

Secretary of State for War The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...

, from 1895 to 1900. He was Egyptian Financial Advisor from 1907 to 1912 and 1919 to 1920. He was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(CB) in 1901 and a Knight Commander of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III ...

(KCMG) in 1911. Prompted by a suggestion of

Kenneth Sisam Kenneth Sisam (2 September 1887 – 26 August 1971) was a New Zealand academic and publisher, whose major career was as an employee of the Oxford University Press. Life Born at Ōpōtiki in 1887, Sisam was the eighth and youngest child of Alfred ...

at the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, Harvey compiled the ''Oxford Companion to English Literature'', the first of the

.Sir Paul Harvey
/ref> He subsequently compiled the ''Companion to Classical Literature'', and was working on the ''Companion to French Literature'' at the time of his death.

Works

* ''

'', 1932 * '' The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature'', 1937 * ''The Oxford Companion to French Literature'', 1959 (with Janet E. Heseltine)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Paul 1869 births 1948 deaths British diplomats Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George British literary scholars Alumni of New College, Oxford People educated at Rugby School