Hesketh Pearson

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Edward Hesketh Gibbons Pearson (February 20, 1887 - April 9, 1964) was an English actor, theatre director and writer. He is known mainly for his popular biographies; they made him the leading British biographer of his time, in terms of commercial success.

He was born in Hawford, Claines Worcestershire, and educated at Bedford Grammar School. He began acting in 1911, after having travelled in the Americas. During World War I he served in the British Army, in Mesopotamia and elsewhere, being awarded the Military Cross. He returned to the stage after it was over.

In 1926 the anonymously-published Whispering Gallery, purporting to be diary pages from leading political figures, caused him to be prosecuted for attempted fraud. He won the case.

He was a close friend and collaborator of Hugh Kingsmill and of Malcolm Muggeridge; Richard Ingrams' later biography of Malcolm Muggeridge [Muggeridge: The Biography ISBN 0-00-255610-3] claims Pearson had an affair with Kitty Muggeridge, at the beginning of the 1940s, when Malcolm was in Washington D.C..

[edit] Works

Modern Men And Mummers (1921)
A Persian Critic (1923)
The Whispering Gallery: Leaves from a Diplomat's Diary (1926) fictional diary, published as an anonymous hoax
Iron Rations (1928) stories
Doctor Darwin (1930) on Erasmus Darwin
Ventilations: Being Biographical Asides (1930)
The Fool of Love. A Life of William Hazlitt (1934)
The Smith of Smiths, Being The Life, Wit and Humour of Sydney Smith (1934)
Common Misquotations (1934) editor
Gilbert and Sullivan: A Biography (1935)
The Swan of Lichfield being a selection from the correspondence of Anna Seward (1936) editor
Labby: The Life and Character of Henry Labouchere (1936)
Tom Paine. Friend of Mankind: a Biography (1937)
Thinking It Over (1938)
Skye High: The Record of a Tour through Scotland in the Wake of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell (1938) with Hugh Kingsmill
This Blessed Plot (1942)
A Life of Shakespeare: With An Anthology of Shakespeare's Poetry (1942)
Bernard Shaw : His Life and Personality (1942) also G.B.S. A Full Length Portrait (US)
Conan Doyle: His Life and Art (1943)
Oscar Wilde, His Life and Wit (1946)
Talking of Dick Whittington (1947) with Hugh Kingsmill
The Hero of Delhi (1948) on John Nicholson
Dickens, his character, comedy, and career (1949)
G.B.S. A Postscript (1950)
The Last Actor-Managers (1950)
Essays of Oscar Wilde (1950) editor
Dizzy; the life and personality of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1951)
The Man Whistler (1952)
Walter Scott: His Life and Personality (1954)
Beerbohm Tree: His Life & Laughter (1956)
Gilbert: His Life and Strife (1957)
Johnson and Boswell: the Story of Their Lives (1958)
Merry Monarch, the Life and Likeness of Charles II (1960)
The Pilgrim Daughters (1961) Marrying Americans (US)
Lives of the Wits (1962)
Henry of Navarre (1963)
Hesketh Pearson, By Himself (1965) autobiography
Extraordinary People (1965) biographical essays