Philip Guedalla
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Philip Guedalla (March 12, 1889 – December 16, 1944) was a British barrister, and a popular historical and travel writer and biographer. He is remembered now mainly for a biography of the Duke of Wellington, and his wit and epigrams, one example being "Even reviewers read a Preface," another being "History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other." He also was the originator of a now-common theory on Henry James, writing that "The work of Henry James has always seemed divisible by a simple dynastic arrangement into three reigns: James I, James II, and the Old Pretender".
He was born in London into a secular Jewish family; in later life he embraced his Jewish identity. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he in 1911 was the President of the Oxford Union; and was published in Oxford Poetry 1910 – 1913.
He practised as a barrister from 1913 to 1923, before turning to writing. He was a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party or as Independent Liberal five times, always unsuccessfully.
In World War II he served in the Royal Air Force, with the rank of Squadron Leader.
Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "My own pronunciation is gwuh-dal'lah. I have very little doubt that this is wholly incorrect." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
[edit] Works
- The Partition of Europe: A Textbook of European History 1715-1815 (1914)
- The Second Empire : Bonapartism, The Prince, The President, The Emperor (1922)
- Supers and Supermen: Studies in Politics, History and Letters (1922) essays Masters and Men (1923) essays
- Men of War (1923)
- Secret of the Coup D'Etat, The: Unpublished Correspondence of Prince Louis Napoleon, MM. De Morny, De Flahault, and Others, 1848-1852 (1924) with the Earl of Kerry
- A Gallery (1924)
- Napoleon and Palestine (1925) Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture
- Fathers of the Revolution (1926)
- Essays of To-day and Yesterday (1926)
- Palmerston 1784-1865 (1927)
- Conquistador: American Fantasia (1927)
- Gladstone and Palmerston: Being the Correspondence of Lord Palmerston With Mr. Gladstone 1851-1865 (1928)
- Bonnet and Shawl: Wives of Great Men (1928)
- The Missing Muse and Other Essays (1928)
- Mary Arnold (1928)
- Slings and Arrow: Sayings Chosen from the Speeches of the Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George (1929) editor
- If It Had Happened Otherwise (1931)
- The Duke (1931)
- The Queen and Mr. Gladstone (1933)
- Argentine Tango (1933)
- The Hundred Days (1934)
- Letters of Napoleon to Marie Louise (1935) introduction, with Charles de la Roncière
- The Hundred Years (1936)
- The Hundredth Year (1939)
- The Republics of South America (1937) a report by a Study Group of Members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) Chairman of Study Group
- Idylls of the Queen (1937)
- Ragtime and Tango (1938)
- The Jewish Past (1939) Presidential address delivered at the Jewish Historical Society of England
- Mr Churchill (1941)
- The Liberators (1942)
- The Two Marshals: Bazaine, Pétain (1943)
- Middle East, 1940 to 1942: A Study in Air Power (1944)
- Still Life essays
- Ignes Fatui - A Book of Parodies
