Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc
Portrait by E. O. Hoppé, 1910
Born	Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (1870-07-27)27 July 1870 La Celle-Saint-Cloud, Seine-et-Oise, French Empire
Died	16 July 1953(1953-07-16) (aged 82) Guildford, Surrey, England
Resting place	Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead
Occupation	Writer historian politician
Nationality	France United Kingdom (from 1902)
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Period	1896–1953
Genre	Poetry history essays politics economics travel literature
Literary movement	Catholic literary revival
Spouse	Elodie Hogan ​ ​ (m. 1896; died 1914)​
Children	5
Relatives	Bessie Rayner Parkes (mother) Marie Belloc Lowndes (sister)
Member of Parliament for Salford South
In office 1906–1910
Preceded by	James Grimble Groves
Succeeded by	Anderson Montague-Barlow
Personal details
Political party	Liberal
Signature

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (/hɪˈlɛər ˈbɛlək/ also US: /bɛlˈɑːk/, French: [ilɛːʁ bɛlɔk]; 27 July 1870 – 16 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.

Family and career

Hilaire Belloc portrait, c. 1903

Family

Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France to a French father, Louis Belloc (1830–1872) and an English mother.

Early life

Belloc grew up in England; his boyhood was spent in Slindon, West Sussex. He wrote about his home in poems such as "The South Country", and "Ha'nacker Mill”.

Writing

See also: Hilaire Belloc bibliography

Belloc wrote more than 150 books, the subjects ranging from warfare to poetry to the many current topics of his day. He has been called one of the Big Four of Edwardian Letters, along with H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and G. K. Chesterton, all of whom debated with each other into the 1930s. Belloc was closely associated with Chesterton, and Shaw coined the term "Chesterbelloc" for their partnership. Belloc was co-editor with Cecil Chesterton of the literary periodical the Eye-Witness.

Essays and travel writing

In 1902, Belloc published The Path to Rome, an account of a walking pilgrimage from Central France across the Alps to Rome. The Path to Rome contains descriptions of the people and places he encountered, his drawings in pencil and in ink of the route, humour, poesy. In 1904 he published The Old Road in which he rediscovers as a historian the ancient pilgrim road from Winchester to Canterbury, producing his own maps and walking the path as a guide to primal things: “ ON THE ROAD AND THE FASCINATION OF ANTIQUITY

There are primal things which move us. Fire has the character of a free companion that has travelled with us from the first exile; only to see a fire, whether he need it or no, comforts every man. ”

Poetry

Original cover for Cautionary Tales for Children, illustrated by Basil T. Blackwood

His 1907 Cautionary Tales for Children, humorous poems with implausible morals, illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood (signing as "B.T.B.") and later by Edward Gorey, are the most widely known of his writings. This includes the tale of "Matilda”.

Sussex

Belloc grew up in Slindon and spent most of his life in the part of Sussex that is now West Sussex. He loved Sussex as the place where he was brought up, considering it his earthly "spiritual home".

Belloc wrote several works about Sussex including Ha'nacker Mill, The South Country, the travel guide Sussex (1906) and The County of Sussex (1936). One of his best-known works relating to Sussex is The Four Men: A Farrago (1911), in which the four characters, each aspects of Belloc's personality, travel on a pilgrimage across the county from Robertsbridge to Harting. The work has influenced others including musician Bob Copper, who retraced Belloc's steps in the 1980s.

Belloc was also a lover of Sussex songs and wrote lyrics for some songs which have since been put to music. Belloc is remembered in an annual celebration in Sussex, known as Belloc Night, that takes place on the writer's birthday, 27 July, in the manner of Burns Night in Scotland. The celebration includes reading from Belloc's work and partaking of a bread and cheese supper with pickles.

In the media

• Stephen Fry has recorded an audio collection of Belloc's children's poetry.
• The composer Peter Warlock set many of Belloc's poems to music.
• Peter Ustinov recorded Belloc's The Cautionary Tales in 1968 for the Musical Heritage Society (MHC 9249M).
• A well-known parody of Belloc by Sir John Squire, intended as a tribute, is Mr. Belloc's Fancy.
• Syd Barrett used Cautionary Tales as the basis for the song "Matilda Mother" from the 1967 album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
• King's Mill, Shipley, once owned by Belloc, was used in the British TV drama Jonathan Creek.
• On the second episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, in the sketch "The Mouse Problem", a list of famous people who secretly were mice is concluded with "and, of course, Hilaire Belloc".

See also

• Hilaire Belloc bibliography
• Mr. Belloc Objects to "The Outline of History" – H. G. Wells' dispute with Belloc
• Hilaire Belloc – Wikiquote

References

• Belloc, Hilaire. "Europe and the faith" "archive.org"
• Boyd, Ian. "Hilaire Belloc: the Myth and the Man," The Tablet, 12 July 2003.
• Boyle, David. "Hilaire Belloc and the Liberal Revival: Distributism: An Alternative Liberal Tradition?" Archived 21 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Liberal History, Issue 40, Autumn 2003.
• Braybrooke, Patrick. Some Thoughts on Hilaire Belloc, Drane's, 1924.
• Cooney, Anthony. Hilaire Belloc: 1870–1953, Third Way Movement Ltd., 1998.
• Corrin, Jay P. G. K. Chesterton & Hilaire Belloc: The Battle Against Modernity, Ohio University Press, 1991.
• Coyne, Edward J. "Mr. Belloc on Usury," Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 21, No. 82, Jun. 1932.
• Feske, Victor. From Belloc to Churchill: Private Scholars, Public Culture and the Crisis of British Liberalism 1900–1939, University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
• Fytton, Francis. "After Belloc: Who?," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 83, No. 967, Mar. 1954.
• Fytton, Francis. "In Defence of Belloc," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 83, No. 973, Sep. 1954.
• Gardner, A. G. "Mr. Hilaire Belloc." In Pillars of Society, James Nisbet, 1913.
• Hamilton, Robert. Hilaire Belloc; An Introduction to his Spirit and Work, Douglas Organ, 1945.
• Haynes, Renée. Hilaire Belloc, British Council and the National Book League, 1953.
• Kelly, Hugh. "Hilaire Belloc: Catholic Champion: In Commemoration of His Seventieth Birthday," Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 30, No. 117, Mar. 1941.
• Kelly, Hugh. "Centenary of Hilaire Belloc," Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 59, No. 236, Winter, 1970.
• Kilmer, Joyce. "The Poetry of Hilaire Belloc," Prose Works, Vol. 2, George H. Doran Company, 1918.
• Leo, Brother. "Hilaire Belloc, Initiator," The Catholic World, Vol. CXII, March 1921.
• Longaker, Mark. "Bias and Brilliance: Mr. Hilaire Belloc," Contemporary Biography, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934.
• Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Young Hilaire Belloc, Some Records of Youth and Middle Age, P. J. Kennedy & Sons, 1956.
• McCarthy, John P. "Hilaire Belloc and the French Revolution," Modern Age, Spring 1993.
• MacManus, Francis. "Mr. Belloc's England," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 64, No. 757, Jul. 1936.
• Mandell, C. Creighton and Shanks, Edward. Hilaire Belloc, the Man and his Work, Methuen & Co., 1916.
• Maynard, Theodore. "The Chesterbelloc," Part II, Part III, Part IV, The Catholic World, Vol. CX, October 1919/March 1920.
• McCarthy, John P. Hilaire Belloc: Edwardian Radical, Liberty Press, 1978.
• Morton, J. B. Hilaire Belloc: A Memoir, Hollis & Carter, 1955.
• Pearce, Joseph. Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc, HarperCollins, 2002.
• Rich, Tim. "On a Monkey's Birthday: Belloc and Sussex." In Common Ground: Around Britain in Thirty Writers, Cyan Books, 2006 ISBN 1-904879-93-4.
• Rope, H. E. G. "My Memory of Hilaire Belloc," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 81, No. 962, Oct. 1953.
• Schall, James V. "Belloc's Infamous Phrase," The Catholic Thing, 18 October 2011.
• Semper, I. J. A Study of Four Outstanding Books of Christian Apologetics, Columbia College Library, 1928.
• Sherbo, Arthur. "Belated Justice to Hilaire Belloc, Versifier (1870–1953)," Studies in Bibliography, Vol. 45, 1992.
• Shuster, George Nauman. "The Adventures of a Historian: Hilaire Belloc." In The Catholic Spirit in Modern English Literature, The Macmillan Company, 1922.
• Speaight, Robert. The Life of Hilaire Belloc, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1957.
• Stove, R. J. "Why Belloc Still Matters," The American Conservative, 13 January 2003.
• Wilhelmsen, Frederick. Hilaire Belloc: No Alienated Man. A Study in Christian Integration, Sheed and Ward, 1953.
• Wilhelmsen, Frederick. "The World of Hilaire Belloc," Modern Age, Spring 1979.
• Wilhelmsen, Frederick. "Hilaire Belloc: Old Thunder," Modern Age, Fall 1984.
• Wilhelmsen, Frederick. "Hilaire Belloc: Defender of the Faith," The Catholic Writer: The Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute, Vol. II, 1989 [Rep. by CERC: Catholic Education Resource Center.
• Wilson, A. N. Hilaire Belloc, Atheneum, 1984 [Rep. by Gibson Square Books, 2003].
• Woodruff, Douglas, ed., For Hilaire Belloc, Sheed & Ward, 1942 [with contributions by Douglas Jerrold, Ronald Knox, Arnold Lunn, C. A. J. Armstrong, Christopher Hollis, Gervase Matthew, David Mathew, J. B. Morton, W. A. Pantin, David Jones].

External links

• Works by Hilaire Belloc in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
• Works by Hilaire Belloc at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Hilaire Belloc at Faded Page (Canada)
• Works by or about Hilaire Belloc at the Internet Archive
• Works by Hilaire Belloc at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Hilaire Belloc at Hathi Trust
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hilaire Belloc
• Catholic Authors: Hilaire Belloc
• Quotidiana: Hilaire Belloc
• Hilaire Belloc, The rise of the capitalist state (1912)
• Hilaire Belloc Papers at Boston College