Robert Byron (left) with Harold Acton at Oxford around 1922
Born
(1904-07-05)5 July 1904 Villa La Pietra, near Florence, Italy
Died
27 February 1994(1994-02-27) (aged 89) Villa La Pietra, Tuscany, Italy
Occupation
poet, historical writer
Language
English, Italian, French
Nationality
British
Alma mater
Oxford University
Notable works
The Last of the Medici (1930, 1932) Modern Chinese Poetry (with S.-H. Ch'en, 1936) Peonies and Ponies (1941, 1983) Memoirs of an Aesthete (1948) The [Last] Bourbons of Naples (1956, 1961) Ferdinando Galiani (1960) Florence (with M. Huerlimann, 1960) Nancy Mitford (1975) The Peach Blossom Fan (with S.-H. Ch'en, 1976)
Notable awards
CBE (1965) knighted (1974)
Relatives
John Dalberg-Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell ActonCBE (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in China, he studied the Chinese language, traditional drama, and poetry, some of which he translated.
He was born near Florence, Italy, to a prominent Anglo-Italian family. At Eton College, he was a founding member of the Eton Arts Society before going up to Oxford to read Modern Greats at Christ Church. He co-founded the avant garde magazine The Oxford Broom and mixed with many intellectual and literary figures of the age, including Evelyn Waugh, who based the character of Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited partly on him. Between the wars, Acton lived in Paris, London, and Florence, proving most successful as a historian, his magnum opus being a 3-volume study of the Medicis and the Bourbons.
After serving as an RAF liaison officer in the Mediterranean, he returned to Florence, restoring his childhood home, Villa La Pietra, to its earlier glory. Acton was knighted in 1974 and died in Florence, leaving La Pietra to New York University.
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton CBE (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright...
187. Acton, p. 111. Acton, p. 192. Acton, p. 27. Acton, p. 38. Hale, p. 180. Hale, p. 181. Acton, p. 108. Acton, p. 112. Acton, p. 182. Acton, p. 243...
Conway, Professor of Latin at Manchester University; Arthur Acton, father of HaroldActon; R.S. Spranger; the Irish poet Herbert Trench. According to...
Mosley wrote the foreword and introduction of Nancy Mitford: A Memoir by HaroldActon. She produced her own two books of memoirs: A Life of Contrasts (1977...
passionate friendship with James Lees-Milne, was the one true love of HaroldActon and the unrequited love of Robert Byron. Desmond Edward Parsons was born...
asked to suppress for the first edition. The novel was dedicated to HaroldActon, "in homage and affection". Modest and unassuming theology student Paul...
University of California Press was translated by Chen Shih-hsiang and HaroldActon, K.B.E. with Cyril Birch collaborating. In the early Qing dynasty, the...
of which he was a member. Prominent members of the group included: HaroldActon Patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross Cecil Beaton John Betjeman Edward Burra...
Tuscany in central Italy. It was formerly the home of Arthur Acton and later of his son HaroldActon, on whose death in 1994 it was bequeathed to New York University...
was ennobled that year as Baron Rennell. According to Mitford's friend HaroldActon, Rodd was "a young man of boundless promise ... he had abundant qualifications...
of Arthur Acton's $1 billion art collection, and DNA testing has confirmed that she is his granddaughter. When Acton's son Sir HaroldActon died in 1994...
England in the first half of the 1920s. Their leader in fashion was HaroldActon, but their later leader in intellectual matters was more noticeably Maurice...
names associated with this assemblage are Robert Byron, Evelyn Waugh, HaroldActon, Nancy Mitford, A.E. Housman and Anthony Powell. Artists associated with...
a Public Baby by Philip O'Connor, an autographed copy of Humdrum by HaroldActon, the complete works of Wilfred Childe and several volumes of the pre-war...
October 1922 of the sophisticated Etonians HaroldActon and Brian Howard changed Waugh's Oxford life. Acton and Howard rapidly became the centre of an...
King of Sicily (1736–1759) Coat of arms as King of Spain (1761–1788) Acton, Sir Harold (1956). The Bourbons of Naples, 1734–1825. London: Methuen. Chávez...
"Manhattan Drug Research Benefits". The New York Times. "The Sir HaroldActon Society." "Acton Society Adds New Million–Dollar Donors". Global Health Nexus...
including to a soldier, a ship's purser, and a middle-aged divorcé. HaroldActon said she was "a fauness, with a little snub nose". Her closest friend...
in Florence. Antonia of Florence, saint Agnes of Montepulciano, saint HaroldActon, author and aesthete John Argyropoulos, scholar Leone Battista Alberti...
Waste Land through a megaphone from his college window was inspired by HaroldActon. When Sebastian and Charles return to Oxford, in the Michaelmas term...
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