Charles Whibley

Charles Whibley (1859–1930) was an English literary journalist and author. Whibley's style was described by Matthew as "often acerbic high-tory commentary".[1] In literature and the arts, his views were progressive. He supported James Abbott McNeill Whistler[2] (they had married sisters).[3] He also recommended T. S. Eliot to Geoffrey Faber, which resulted in Eliot's being appointed as an editor at Faber and Gwyer.[4] Eliot's essay Charles Whibley (1931) was contained within his Selected Essays, 1917-1932. Whibley died on 4 March 1930 at Hyères, France, and his body was buried at Great Brickhill, Buckinghamshire.[5]

Charles Whibley

Charles Whibley, English writer and journalist
Born 9 December 1859
Sevenoaks, Kent, England
Died 4 March 1930
Hyères, France
Occupation Writer and journalist
Parent(s) Ambrose Whibley and Mary Jean Davy

Early life

Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian (1888–1900), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.[6]

Whibley was born 9 December 1859 at Sevenoaks, Kent, England, the eldest son of Ambrose Whibley,[7] silk mercer, and his second wife, Mary Jean Davy.[8] He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took a first in classics in 1883.[5][9]

Charles Whibley's immediate family included his brother Leonard Whibley, who was Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1899–1910, and a lecturer in Classics (Ancient History).[10] Charles also had a half-brother, Fred Whibley, copra trader, on Niutao, Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu), and a half-sister, Eliza Elenor, who was the wife of John T. Arundel, the owner of J. T. Arundel & Co. which evolved into Pacific Islands Company and later the Pacific Phosphate Company, which commenced phosphate mining in Nauru and Banaba Island (Ocean Island).

Whibley worked for three years in the editorial department of Cassell & Co, publishers. He shared a house with his brother Leonard Whibley, William Ernest Henley, and George Warrington Steevens.[11]

Life in Paris

In 1894 Charles became the Paris correspondent for the Pall Mall Gazette. This Tory evening paper conformed with Whibley's conservative political views.

In Paris Charles moved in the symbolist circles with Stéphane Mallarmé, Marcel Schwob, and Paul Valéry.[12] He was a witness at the wedding of Marcel Schwob and Marguerite Moreno in England on 12 September 1900.

Marriage to Ethel Birnie Philip

In 1896 Charles married Ethel Birnie Philip in the garden of the house occupied by James McNeill Whistler at n° 110 Rue du Bac, Paris.[13] Ethel Birnie Philip was the daughter of the sculptor John Birnie Philip and Frances Black. Before her marriage Ethel Whibley worked during 1893–4 as secretary to James McNeill Whistler. Whistler painted a number of full-length portraits of Ethel Whibley, including Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian, and portraits and sketches of her titled as Miss Ethel Philip or Mrs Ethel Whibley.[3]

Hartrick (1939) describes Whibley as "an obviously English type, and therefore something of a red rag to Whistler".[14] As the brother-in-law of James McNeill Whistler, Whibley was part of Whistler's intimate family circle, referred to as "Wobbles" in Whistler's correspondence. On one occasion Whistler mocked Whibley for describing himself as "something of a boulevardier" during his time in Paris.[2] In 1897 Whistler created the cover design for Whibley's volume of essays A Book of Scoundrels.[15]

Later career as a writer

His wife, Ethel, died in 1920, and in 1927 Charles married Philippa Raleigh, the daughter of Walter Raleigh, Chair of English Literature at Oxford University.[16]

Whibley contributed to the London and Edinburgh magazines, including The Pall Mall Magazine, Macmillan's Magazine, and Blackwood's Magazine. As a writer on Blackwood's Magazine, he was a prominent conservative columnist, as well as an influential literary figure, recruited by its editor William Blackwood III.[17] He was a persistent critic of the system of state education.[18] It was an open secret that Whibley contributed anonymously, to the Magazine, his Musings without Methods for over twenty-five years. T. S. Eliot described them as "the best sustained piece of literary journalism that I know of in recent times".[19] Whibley was friends with William Ernest Henley and contributed to the Scots Observer (published in Edinburgh) and also to the National Observer (published in London) under Henley's editorship.[20]

A portrait of Charles Whibley (1925–26), by Sir G. Kelly, is held by Jesus College, Cambridge. A sketch of Charles Whibley is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.[21]

Works

Project Gutenburg publishes online editions of American Sketches[23] and A Book of Scoundrels[24]

Literature

References

  1. ↑ H.C.G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, reference36851
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Charles Whibley, 1859–1930". University of Glasgow – The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Ethel Whibley, 1861–1920". University of Glasgow – The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  4. ↑ Kojecky, Roger (1972). T. S. Eliot's Social Criticism. Faber & Faber. p. 55. ISBN 0571096921.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Whibley, Charles (WHBY879C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  6. ↑ National Gallery of Art webpage describing "Mother of pearl and silver: The Andalusian
  7. ↑ 1881 British Census information: born 1821 Brenchley, Kent, England; Occupation, Silk Mercer; Dwelling, 39 Park St (East) (2 Shops) (Cavendish House); Census Place, Bristol St Augustine, Gloucester, England
  8. ↑ 1881 British Census information : Birth Year, 1832; Birthplace, Ashwater, Devon, England
  9. ↑ Literary Encyclopedia article
  10. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004, Index Number 101036852
  11. ↑ Biography of Leonard Whibley, by Sydney C. Roberts, Mark Pottle, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Reference 36852
  12. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, reference 36851
  13. ↑ wedding photo credited to E. Vallois held by Library of the University of Glasgow, Special Collections, GB 0247 Whistler PH1/165
  14. ↑ Hartrick, Archibald, A Painter's Pilgrimage Through Fifty Years, Cambridge, 1939
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 A Book of Scoundrels by Charles Whibley, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1632
  16. ↑ 'RALEIGH, Sir Walter', Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 1 April 2008
  17. ↑ Julie F. Codell, Imperial Co-histories: National Identities and the British and Colonial Press, p. 96.
  18. ↑ Edward Pearce, Lines of Most Resistance (1999), p. 274.
  19. ↑ H. C. G. Matthew, 'Whibley, Charles (1859–1930)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004
  20. ↑ Edited by Atkinson, Damian. (2013). The Letters of William Ernest Henley to Charles Whibley, 1888–1903. 1 & 2. Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 0-7734-4365-7.
  21. ↑ pen and ink drawing of Charles Whibley (NPG 4395) by Powys Evans (1929)
  22. ↑ American Sketches by Charles Whibley, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25786
  23. ↑ American Sketches by Charles Whibley, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25786
  24. ↑ A Book of Scoundrels by Charles Whibley, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1632

External links

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Charles Whibley