Sunday, April 26, 2020

Peter Wright (writer)

Britannicus: added Category:British writers using HotCat


'''Peter Emmanuel Wright''' (''c''. 1880/1 – 1957) was a [[United Kingdom|British]] writer.<ref name="Times">‘Captain P. E. Wright’, ''The Times'' (17 April 1957), p. 13.</ref>

He was born in [[Paris]] to a [[Yorkshire]] bookmaker and was educated at [[Harrow School]]. He won an [[Exhibition (scholarship)|Exhibition]] to [[Balliol College, Oxford]] when he was 16 and a full scholarship at 17.<ref name="Times" /> During the [[World War I|First World War]] he served as a captain in the machine gun corps and as an assistant secretary to the [[Supreme War Council]].<ref name="Times2">'High Court of Justice', ''The Times'' (14 July 1926), p. 5.</ref>

His 1921 book, ''At the Supreme War Council'', detailed his experiences as an interpreter at the Supreme War Council. His 1924 work, ''The Shirt'', was a collection of essays and stories.<ref name="Times" /> On 11 June 1925 his ''Portraits and Criticisms'' was published.<ref name="Times3">‘The Gladstone Case’, ''The Times'' (4 February 1927), p. 14.</ref> This was a collection of character sketches which included [[H. H. Asquith]], [[Margot Asquith]] and [[Lord Robert Cecil]].<ref name="Times" /> In the essay on Cecil, Wright said of [[William Ewart Gladstone]]: "Gladstone...founded the great tradition since observed by many of his followers and successors with such pious fidelity, in public to speak the language of the highest and strictest principle, and in private to pursue and possess every sort of woman".<ref>Peter Wright, ''Portraits and Criticism'' (London: Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, 1925), p. 152.</ref><ref>John Gardiner, ''The Victorians: An Age in Retrospect'' (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 193.</ref><ref name="Diaries">[[M. R. D. Foot]], ‘Introduction’, in Foot (ed.), ''The Gladstone Diaries: Volume I: 1825-1832'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. xxxiii.</ref>

Gladstone's two surviving sons, [[Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone|Herbert]] and [[Henry Gladstone, 1st Baron Gladstone of Hawarden|Henry Gladstone]], wrote to Wright on 22 July 1925: "Your garbage about Mr. Gladstone in ''Portraits and Criticisms'' has come to our knowledge. You are a liar. Because you slander a dead man, you are a coward. Because you think that the public will accept invention from such as you, you are a fool".<ref name="Times2" /><ref name="Times3" /> In a letter to Herbert Gladstone, the publishers (Eveleigh Nash and Grayson) claimed that the offending passage was inserted by Wright in the proof stage of printing.<ref>‘Mr. Gladstone's Character’, ''The Times'' (28 July 1925), p. 16.</ref> The Gladstones sent a copy of their letter to Wright to ''[[The Nation and Athenaeum|The Nation]]'' and Wright replied with a letter to the ''[[Daily Mail]]''.<ref name="Times3" /> On 27 July Herbert Gladstone complained to the [[Bath Club]] that Wright ("a liar, a coward, and a foul fellow") had written letters on the controversy to ''The Nation'' on Club notepaper, which led to Wright's expulsion (Wright had replied to an earlier criticism of the book in a letter to ''The Nation'').<ref name="Times3" /> Wright subsequently sued the Club for damages and Herbert Gladstone for libel for his 27 July letter.<ref>Gardiner, pp. 193–94.</ref><ref name="Times3" />

After the trial, which lasted from 27 January to 3 February 1927, Wright was awarded £125 in damages from the Club for wrongful expulsion but he lost the libel case.<ref>Gardiner, p. 194.</ref><ref name="Times" /> The jury explained that "the gist of the defendant's letter of July 27 was true" and added that they were "of the unanimous opinion that the evidence which has been placed before us has completely vindicated the high moral character of the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone".<ref name="Times3" />

==Works==
*''At the Supreme War Council'' (1921).
*''The Shirt'' (1924).
*''Portraits and Criticisms'' (1925).
==Notes==




[[Category:1880s births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Harrow School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British writers]]


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