Profile of L.P. Hartley on Famous Like Me

Leslie Poles Hartley (December 30, 1895 - December 13, 1972) was a British writer, known for novels and short stories. His best known work is The Go-Between, which was made into a 1971 film with a star cast, in an adaptation by Harold Pinter. The quotation from the book's opening sentence 'the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there' has become almost proverbial.

He was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. He was educated in Cliftonville, Thanet, then briefly at Clifton College, where he first met Clifford Henry Benn Kitchin, and at Harrow School.

In 1915 he went up to Balliol College, Oxford, to read modern history. There he befriended Aldous Huxley. In 1916 he joined the British Army. He was commissioned as an officer but for health reasons never left the United Kingdom. He was invalided out, returning to Oxford in 1919, where he gathered a number of literary friends. These included Lord David Cecil, who was to be a lover.

He was published in Oxford Poetry in 1920 and then 1922. He edited Oxford Outlook, with Gerald Howard and A. B. B. Valentine in 1920, in 1921 also with Basil Murray and M. C. Hollis. At this time he was introduced by Huxley to Lady Ottoline Morrell. Kitchin was at Oxford also, who introduced him to the Asquiths; Cynthia Asquith became a lifelong friend. Despite being named for Leslie Stephen, he always belonged to the rather louche Asquith milieu, and was rebuffed by the Bloomsbury group.

Despite a rapid ascent socially, having his first writing published, and starting out as a reviewer after his Oxford degree, his life was very strained, resulting in a breakdown in 1922. He shortly started spending much time in Venice, as he did for many years.

Until the success of The Go-Between he counted as a somewhat snobbish minor writer. He received a measure of recognition, with the CBE awarded in 1956.

Works

• Night Fears (1924) stories
• Simonetta Perkins (1925)
• The Killing Bottle (1932) stories
• The Shrimp and the Anemone (1944) Eustace and Hilda Trilogy I
• The West Window (1945)
• The Sixth Heaven (1946) Eustace and Hilda Trilogy II
• Eustace and Hilda (1947) Eustace and Hilda Trilogy III
• The Travelling Grave (1948) stories
• The Boat (1949)
• My Fellow Devils (1951)
• The Go-Between (1954)
• The White Wand and other stories (1954)
• A Perfect Woman (1955)
• The Hireling (1957)
• Facial Justice (1960)
• The Bachelors (1960) (with Muriel Spark)
• Two For The River (1961) stories
• The Brickfield (1964)
• The Betrayal (1966)
• Essays by Divers Hands : Volume XXXIV (1966) editor
• The Novelist's Responsibility (1967) essays
• Poor Clare (1968)
• The Collected Short Stories of L P Hartley (1968)
• The Love-Adept - a variation on a theme (1969)
• The Love-Adept (1969)
• My Sisters' Keeper (1970)
• Mrs. Carteret Receives (1971) stories
• The Harness Room (1971)
• The Collections: A Novel (1972)
• The Will and the Way (1973)
• The Complete Short Stories Of L.P Hartley (1973)
• The Collected Macabre Stories (2001)

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