Hector Bolitho
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Henry Hector Bolitho (28 May 1897 – 12 September 1974) was a New Zealand writer, novelist and biographer, who had 59 books published. Widely travelled, he spent most of his career in England.[1]
Biography
Hector Bolitho was born and educated in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of Henry and Ethelred Frances Bolitho. He travelled in the South Sea Islands in 1919 and then through New Zealand with the Prince of Wales in 1920.[2]
Bolitho lived in Sydney from 1921 to 1923,[3] where he became editor of the Shakespearean Quarterly and literary editor and drama critic of the Evening News in Sydney.[4]
He also travelled in Africa, Canada, America, and Germany in 1923-4, finally settling in Britain where he was to remain for the rest of his life.[5]
On his arrival in Britain he worked as a freelance journalist; in 1927 he also provided a glowing introduction to (former journalist of the Evening News and future crime writer) Max Murray's first book, a sea voyage called The World's Back Doors (Jonathan Cape, 1927), the sixty-first book in Jonathan Cape's Traveller's Library series.[6]
At the start of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) as an intelligence officer with the rank of squadron leader, editing the Royal Air Force Weekly Bulletin, which in 1941 became the Royal Air Force Journal. In 1942 he was appointed editor of the Coastal Command Intelligence Review.
Bolitho undertook several lecture tours of America (in 1938–39, 1947, 1948, and 1949) and he also revisited Australia in later years.[3]
In his forties, Bolitho shared his life and his home with John Simpson. Hector described John as his ‘secretary’, which was then a common euphemism for gay partner. Simpson later died and his long-term partner was Derek Peel, an army officer. They met in 1949 and were together until Bolitho's death in 1974.[7]
Bolitho is referenced in fictional form as "Hector Bolithiero" in the Denton Welch short story "Brave and Cruel".
The name Bolitho is of Cornish origin.[8]
Bibliography
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References
- ^ team, Code8. "Hector Bolitho". Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD) Literary Agents. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Bloomsbury.com. "Bloomsbury - Hector Bolitho - Hector Bolitho". www.bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
- ^ a b "Hector Bolito". AustLit. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
- ^ Michael Thornton, ‘Bolitho, (Henry) Hector (1897–1974)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 4 May 2014
- ^ "The Albatross". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ "The Travellers' Library (Jonathan Cape) - Book Series List". www.publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- ^ "queerplaces - Hector Bolitho". www.elisarolle.com. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ "Cornish Family Names". Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
Biographies
Fairgray, Joyce Windsor Reserve to Windsor Castle: Hector Bolitho 1897-1974, Devonport Library Associates, Auckland 2009.
External links
- 1897 births
- 1974 deaths
- British biographers
- British gay writers
- New Zealand people of Cornish descent
- New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom
- New Zealand LGBT novelists
- Gay novelists
- British male novelists
- British monarchists
- 20th-century British novelists
- 20th-century British historians
- 20th-century British male writers
- Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II
- Royal Air Force squadron leaders
- Male biographers
- 20th-century British LGBT people