Charles Morgan

Biography:

Charles Morgan (1894-1958), drama critic, novelist, playwright. He was trained in the Royal Navy but resigned in 1913 to lead a literary life, though he returned to serve in the navy during both World Wars. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford and joined the staff of The Times, becoming its principal drama critic, (1926-39). Contributed weekly articles on the London theatre to the New York Times. He received many honorary degrees; was one of the select foreign members of l’Institut de France; was elected president of the English Association, 1953-54, and of the International Literary Congress for Authors, 1954-56. He produced a continuous sequence of literary masterpieces. His novels and plays were particularly artistic, of profound significance, and of great and varied narrative power. Portrait in a Mirror (1929) was awarded the Femina-Vie Heureuse prize; The Fountain (1932) the Hawthornden prize; and The Voyage (1940) the James Tait Black memorial book prize. A dramatised version of The River Line (1949) was produced at the Edinburgh Festival in 1952.

His final two novels, A Breeze of Morning (1951), about an adult love affair witnessed by a young boy and Challenge to Venus (1957), featuring an Englishman in Italy and revisiting in brief some of the themes of The Fountain are now published again under the Rediscovered Books series of Jorge Pinto Books, Inc.

Books published by Jorge Pinto Books:

• Challenge to Venus (2010) Re-edition
• A Breeze of Morning (2010) Re-edition