TREVELYAN, (Walter) Raleigh 1923-

PERSONAL: Surname is pronounced "Trevillian"; born July 6, 1923, in Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India; son of Walter Raleigh Fetherstonhaugh (a colonel in the Indian Army) and Olive Beatrice (Frost) Trevelyan. Education: Attended secondary school at Winchester College, Winchester, England, 1937-42. Religion: Church of England. Hobbies and other interests: Travel, gardening, collecting, theater.

ADDRESSES: Home—St. Cadix, St. Veep, Lostwithiel, Cornwall PL22 0NG, England; 18 Hertford St., London W1Y 7DB, England. Agent—A. M. Heath and Co. Ltd., 79 St. Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4AA, England; Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, 1501 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

CAREER: Samuel Montagu (merchant banker), London, England, trainee, 1947-48; William Collins Sons and Co. Ltd. (publisher), London, editor, 1948-58; Hutchinson and Co. Ltd. (publisher), London, editor and director of Arrow Books Ltd. and New Authors Ltd., 1958-61; Penguin Books Ltd. (publisher), Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, editor, 1961-62; Michael Joseph Ltd. (publisher), London, editorial director, 1962-73; Hamish Hamilton Ltd. (publisher), London, director, 1973-80; Jonathan Cape Ltd. (publisher), London, literary advisor, 1980-86; Bloomsbury (publisher), literary adviser, 1986-88. Member of British Goodwill Mission to Virginia for the Jamestown Festival, 1957. Military service: British Army, Infantry, Rifle Brigade, 1942-46; served with military mission to Italian Army in Rome, 1944-46; became captain; mentioned in dispatches.

MEMBER: International PEN (vice chair of English Center), Royal Society of Literature (fellow), Royal Geographical Society (fellow), British-Italian Society, Anglo-Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (chair).

AWARDS, HONORS: John Florio Prize, Translators Association, for The Outlaws.

WRITINGS:

The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After (Book Society recommendation), William Collins (London, England), 1956, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1957.

A Hermit Disclosed (Book Society choice), Longmans, Green (London, England), 1960, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1961.

(Translator) Giuliano Palladino, Peace at Alamein, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1962.

(Editor) Italian Short Stories/Racconti italiani, Penguin (Baltimore, MD), 1965.

The Big Tomato, Longmans, Green (London, England), 1966.

(Editor) Italian Writing Today, Penguin (Baltimore, MD), 1967.

(Translator from Italian) Luigi Meneghello, The Outlaws, Morrow (New York, NY), 1967.

Princes under the Volcano, Morrow (New York, NY), 1972.

The Shadow of Vesuvius, Michael Joseph (London, England), 1976.

A Pre-Raphaelite Circle, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 1978.

Rome '44: The Battle for the Eternal City, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1981, Viking (New York, NY), 1982.

Shades of the Alhambra, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1985.

The Golden Oriole: Childhood, Family, and Friends in India, Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

Grand Dukes and Diamonds, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1991.

(Editor) A Clear Premonition: The Letters of Lieutenant Timothy Lloyd, 1943-44, Leo Cooper (London, England), 1994.

The Companion Guide to Sicily, Companion Guides, 1996.

Sir Walter Raleigh, Allen Lane (London, England), 2003.

Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Apollo, Connoisseur, New York Times Book Review, London Sunday Times, Observer, Listener, Guardian, and Times Literary Supplement; contributor to National Trust publications.

SIDELIGHTS: Raleigh Trevelyan's military histories The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After and Rome '44: The Battle for the Eternal City have both been praised by reviewers. Trevelyan was a twenty-year-old Rifle Brigade subaltern when he took part in the Allied landings at Anzio, Italy, in 1944, and The Fortress is the journal that he wrote at that time. A Times Literary Supplement contributor called it "a concentrated and brilliantly observed account of the dangers and confusion of infantry warfare" and noted that "the restless immediacy native to the diary form escapes the confines of journalism through the author's self-awareness." In conclusion, the reviewer stated: "The unsentimental humanity of his dealings with his men . . . and the piled-up excitements of the close-quarters action make this one of the most notable memoirs to have emerged from the Second World War." Of Rome '44, Norman Lewis wrote in the New York Times Book Review: "Raleigh Trevelyan's book is a distinguished addition to the chronicles of war. His writing is of sensitive literary quality."

Trevelyan similarly aroused admiration with The Golden Oriole: Childhood, Family, and Friends in India, a wide-ranging look at India under British rule during the 1800s and 1900s, unified by the author's focus on his own family's experiences. Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Jan Morris judged it one of the best Anglo-Indian memoirs and "one of the very few that will survive not just as a period piece but as literature." Among Trevelyan's ancestors were a number of administrators, soldiers, and writers who lived and worked in India; using his own memories and details of their lives, writings, and experiences the author "is able to evoke the whole course of the British relationship with India," Morris claimed. The critic applauded Trevelyan's writing skill and unsentimental and often humorous approach, summing up The Golden Oriole as a "historical memoir of the profoundest kind."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times Book Review, February 21, 1982, Norman Lewis, review of Rome '44: The Battle for the Eternal City, November 22, 1987, Jan Morris, review of The Golden Oriole: Childhood, Family, and Friends in India, pp. 3, 51.

Times Literary Supplement, January 31, 1986, review of The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After; March 28, 2003, John Bossy, review of Sir Walter Raleigh, p. 27.*