Edward Hutton (writer)
Encyclopedia
Edward Hutton was a British author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 of travel books
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...

 and various Italian subjects.

Life and Work

Edward Hutton was born on April 12, 1875 in Hampstead, London, his father being a businessman with interests in Sheffield. He was educated at Highgate School
Highgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...

 but on the death of his father in 1890 his mother removed with her six children to Somerset and Edward went as a day boy to Blundell's School
Blundell's School
Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school located in the town of Tiverton in the county of Devon, England. The school was founded in 1604 by the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the time, and relocated to its present location on the...

, Tiverton. From an early age he applied himself to the study of the Greek and Roman classics. Instead of going up to Oxford, and having decided he was to be a writer, he chose to work in publishing in London. An unrewarding first position gave place to one with John Lane, founder of the Bodley Head, and publisher of the major works of 'the nineties' (which significantly influenced his style). Inheriting £5000 on his coming of age in 1896 he made his first journey to Italy and from then on he spent most of his life getting to know the Italians and their civilization. In 1898 he married Charlotte Miles, daughter of George Miles, a tea merchant in the City of London. From around 1901 they rented the Villa di Boccaccio at Settignano above Florence, which city became Hutton's spiritual home. The many English residents there who became his friends included Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. He was a major figure in pioneering art attribution and therefore establishing the market for paintings by the "Old Masters".-Personal life:...

 and Norman Douglas
Norman Douglas
George Norman Douglas was a British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind.-Life:Norman Douglas was born in Thüringen, Austria . His mother was Vanda von Poellnitz...

 while in 1917 he was instrumental with others in establishing the British Institute of Florence
British Institute of Florence
The British Institute of Florence is a cultural institute founded in 1917 in Florence, Italy, with the aim of promoting Anglo-Italian cultural relations, teaching English and Italian languages, and running a Library of English books to illustrate British and Italian literature, art, history and music...

. When he was 27 he published his first books on Italian themes, Italy and the Italians, and Studies in the Lives of the Saints. His love of Italy and the Italian way of life led to his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1928.

In 1905 he published the first of his series of nine illustrated books on different regions of Italy, The Cities of Umbria. His writing was not confined to Italy, however, and there were single books on Greece and Spain and also three in the Highways and Byways series, on Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

The Second World War with its threat to Italy's cultural heritage caused him great distress but he was influential in saving some of this by producing extensive lists for the Allied Intelligence Corps of what it was essential to protect. During these dark days he took on another role as designer of a cosmatesque
Cosmatesque
Cosmatesque, or Cosmati, is a style of geometric decorative inlay stonework typical of Medieval Italy, and especially of Rome and its surroundings. It was used most extensively for the decoration of church floors, but was also used to decorate church walls, pulpits, and bishop's thrones...

 floor for Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster...

 and another for Buckfast Abbey
Buckfast Abbey
Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Dedicated to Saint Mary, it was founded in 1018 and run by the Cistercian order from 1147 until it was destroyed under the Dissolution of the Monasteries...

. After the war he published a valuable book cataloguing the surviving Cosmati
Cosmati
The Cosmati were a Roman family, seven members of which, for four generations, were skilful architects, sculptors and workers in decorative geometric mosaic, mostly for church floors...

 pavements in Italy. During the 1950s he revisited the themes of six of his earlier works. Completely revised and re-written, now with black and white photographs and published by Hollis and Carter, they are essentially new books.

Hutton was highly honoured by Italy for his services to that country. In 1917 he was made a Cavaliere of the Italian Crown; at age 83 the Italian government conferred on him the Commenda of the Italian Order of Merit and at 90 he was awarded the Medaglia culturale d'oro

For fifty years Hutton lived in Clifton Hill, St. John's Wood, London, in a house once occupied by the Victorian painter William Powell Frith
Frith
Frith is an Old English word meaning "peace; freedom from molestation, protection; safety, security".- Etymology :Derived from Old English friðu, friþ, it is cognate to Old Norse friðr, Old High German fridu, German Friede, Dutch vrede, West Frisian frede, Icelandic friður, Common Scandinavian fred...

 (who is commemorated by a blue plaque on the façade). His wife died in 1960; he himself died on August 20, 1969.

Works

  • My Lady's Sonnets, 1896
  • Dalliance (essays), 1897
  • Frederic Uvedale: a Romance, 1901
  • Studies in the Lives of the Saints, 1902
  • Italy and the Italians, 1903
  • Perugino (The Popular Library of Art series), n.d.
  • The Cities of Spain, 1906
  • Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini: A Study of a XV century Italian Despot, 1906. 2nd edition revised, as The Mastiff of Rimini, 1926
  • Country Walks about Florence, 1908
  • In Unknown Tuscany, 1909
  • Giovanni Boccaccio: a biographical study, 1910
  • England of My Heart: Spring, 1911
  • A Book of the Wye, 1911
  • Ravenna, a Study (Illustrated by Harald Sund), 1913
  • Attila and the Huns, 1915
  • The uniform 'Cities' series:
    • The Cities of Umbria (With twenty illustrations in colour by A. Pisa), 1905
    • Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa (With Sixteen Illustrations In Colour By William Parkinson), 1907
    • Rome (With sixteen illustrations in colour by Maxwell Armfield
      Maxwell Armfield
      Maxwell Ashby Armfield was an English artist, illustrator and writer.Born to a Quaker family in Ringwood, Hampshire, Armfield was educated at Sidcot School and at Leighton Park School. In 1887 he was admitted to Birmingham School of Art, then under the headmastership of Edward R...

      ), 1909
    • Siena and Southern Tuscany (With sixteen illustrations in colour by O.F.M. Ward), 1910
    • Venice and Venetia (With fourteen illustrations in colour by Maxwell Armfield), 1911
    • The Cities of Lombardy (With twelve illustrations in colour by Maxwell Armfield), 1912. 2nd edition revised, as Milan and Lombardy, 1925
    • The Cities of Romagna and the Marches With twelve illustrations in colour by Frank Crisp), 1913
    • Naples and Southern Italy (With twelve illustrations in colour by Frank Crisp), 1915
    • Cities of Sicily (With twelve illustrations in colour by Harry Morley), 1926

  • The Pageant of Venice (with 20 colour plates by Frank Brangwyn), 1922
  • Pietro Aretino: the Scourge of Princes, 1922
  • The Sienese School in the National Gallery, 1925
  • The Franciscans in England 1224-1538, 1926
  • The Valley of Arno: a study of its history, geography and works of art, 1927
  • A Glimpse of Greece, 1928
  • The Highways and Byways series:
    • Somerset, 1912
    • Wiltshire, 1917
    • Gloucestershire, 1932
  • Catholicism and English Literature, 1942
  • The Cosmati: The Roman Marble Workers of the XIIth and XIIIth Centuries, 1950
  • Rome, 7th edition revised and enlarged (37 B&W illustrations), 1950
  • Florence (32 B&W illustrations), 1952. Re-issued in 1966
  • Assisi and Umbria Revisited (25 B&W illustrations), 1953
  • Venice and Venetia (33 B&W illustrations), 1954
  • Siena and Southern Tuscany, 1955
  • Naples and Campania Revisited, (38 B&W illustrations), 1958

External links


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