Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (født 27. juli 1870 i La Celle-Saint-Cloud nær Versailles i Frankrike, død 16. juli 1953 i Guildford i England) var en fransk-britisk forfatter og historiker som ble britisk borger i 1902. Hans katolske tro influerte det meste han skrev. 

Han var bror til forfatteren Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes.

A.N. Wilson og Joseph Pearce har skrevet biografier om ham.

Biografi

Bakgrunn 
Han hadde fransk far og engelsk mor. Han vokste opp i Slindon i West Sussex. Hans feministiske mor, Elizabeth Rayner Parkes, var også forfatter og i slekt med kjemikeren Joseph Priestley. Faren Louis Belloc var advokat og sønn av kunstneren Jean-Hilaire Belloc. Faren tapte penger på børsen og døde da Hilaire Belloc var fem år gammel; moren tok ham og hans søster Marie til England.

Etter utdannelse ved John Henry Newmans Oratory School i Edgbaston i Birmingham vendte Belloc vendte tilbake til Frankrike for å gjøre militærtjeneste ettersom han var fransk borger. Han tjenestegjorde i artilleriet i et regiment nær Toul i 1891. Da han senere ble britisk borger, beholdt han samtidig sitt franske borgerskap.

Han studerte deretter historie ved Balliol College ved University of Oxford, og tok en meget god slutteksamen.

Politiker, journalist, forfatter 
Hans forfatterskap tok til i 1890-årene. I årene 1906 til 1910 var han representant for det liberale parti i Underhuset. I denne perioden begynte han også å virke som journalist. På grunn av det som han opplevet som hykleri i politikken, trakk han seg tilbake fra det politiske liv. Han kritiserte den politiske gjøren og laden både i journalistikk og i bøker.

Sammen med Gilbert Keith Chesterton var Belloc talsmann for katolisismen og for den sosialpolitiske modell distributismen, og med dette en markant motstander av George Bernard Shaw og Herbert George Wells.

Han likte å promenere, og da han kurtiserte sin blivende hustru Elodie Hogan, som han traff i 1890, gikk han fra Midtvesten til hennes hjem i det nordlige California. De giftet seg i 1896. Han kjøpte land i Shipley i West Sussex. De fikk fem barn før hun døde av influensa i 1914. 

Sønnen Louis falt nær Cambrai i Frankrike da han tjenestegjorde i Royal Flying Corps under første verdenskrig. Hilaire Belloc fikk satt opp en minneplakett over ham i katedralen i Cambrai.

Belloc ble i 1941 rammet av slag, og kom seg aldri helt etter det. Han døde den 16. juli 1953 i Guildford i Surrey og ligger begravet i Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation i West Grinstead.

Bibliografi

Frem til 1909 
 Verses and Sonnets (1896)
 The Bad Child's Book Of Beasts (1896)
 More Beasts for Worse Children (1897)
 The Modern Traveller (1898)
 Danton; a study (1899)
 Paris, Its Sites, Monuments and History (1898)
 A Moral Alphabet (1899)
 Paris (1900)
 Lambkin's remains (1900)
 Robespierre (1901)
 The Path To Rome (1902)
 The great inquiry; faithfully reported by Hilaire Belloc and ornamented with sharp cuts drawn on the spot by G. K. Chesterton (1903)
 Caliban's Guide to Letters (1903)
 Emmanuel Burden, Merchant (1904)
 Avril. Essays on the French Renaissance (1904)
 The Old Road: From Canterbury to Winchester (1904)
 Hills and the Sea (1906)
 Sussex (1906)
 Esto Perpetua: Algerian Studies and Impressions (1906)
 Cautionary Tales for Children (1907)
 The Historic Thames (1907)
 Mr. Clutterbuck's Election (1908)
 On Nothing and Kindred Subjects  (1908)
 On Everything (1909)
 The Eye-Witness (1908)
 A Change in the Cabinet (1909)
 Marie Antoinette (1909)
 The Pyrenees (1909)

1910 – 1919 
 Pongo and the Bull (1910)
 Catholicism and Socialism: Second Series (1910)
 On Anything (1910)
 On Something (1910)
 Verses (1910)
 The Party System (1911) (sammen med Cecil Chesterton)
 More Peers (1911)
 The Four Men: a Farrago (1911)
 The French Revolution (1911)
 The Girondin (1911)
 First and last (1911) 
 British Battles: Battle of Blenheim (1911)
 Battle of Turcoing (1912)
 Battle of Crécy (1912)
 Battle of Waterloo (1912)
 Battle of Malplaquet
 Battle of Poitiers (1356) (1913)
 The Servile State (1912)
 The Green Overcoat (1912)
 The River of London (1912)
 This and That and the Other (1912)
 The History of England (1912) (sammen med John Lingard)
 The Stane Street (Chichester): a monograph (1913)
 Warfare in England (1913)
 The Book of the Bayeux tapestry (1914)
 The Romance of Tristan and Iseult (1915) (oversettelse)
 The History of England (1915)
 The Two Maps of Europe (1915)
 A Change in the Cabinet (1915)
 A General Sketch of the European War, the First Phase (1915)
 At the Sign of the Lion (1916)
 The last days of the French monarchy (1916)
 A General Sketch of the European War, The Second Phase (1916)
 The Free Press (1918)

1920 – 1929 
 Europe And The Faith (1920)
 The House of Commons and Monarchy (1920)
 The Jews (1922)
 The Mercy of Allah (1922)
 The Road (1923)
 The Contrast (1923)
 On (1923)
 Economics for Helen (1924)
 The Cruise of the Nona (1925)
 This and that and the other (1925)
 Mr. Petre (1925)
 The French Revolution (1925)
 The Campaign of 1812 and the Retreat from Moscow (1925)
 A Companion to Mr. Wells's "Outline of History"  (1926)
 Mr. Belloc Still Objects (1926)
 The Catholic Church and History (1926)
 Short Talks with the Dead and others (1926)
 The emerald of Catherine the Great (1926)
 Essays of Today and Yesterday (1926)
 Miniatures of French History (1926)
 Mrs. Markham's New History of England (1926)
 The Highway and Its Vehicles (1926)
 Oliver Cromwell (1927)
 The Haunted House (1927)
 Towns of Destiny (1927)
 Do We Agree?: A Debate Between G. K. Chesterton And Bernard Shaw, with Hilaire Belloc in the Chair (1928)
 Many Cities (1928)
 M. Wells et Dieu. Des poèmes et des essais  (1928) (sammen med Maurice Beerblock, A. Beucler, Pierre Colle, Elie Gothchaux, Robert Honnert, Georges Hugnet, Mercédès de Gournay, Max Jacob, Jean de Menasce, Eugenio d'Ors, Paul Sabon)
 James II (1928)
 But Soft - We Are Observed! (1928)
 How the Reformation Happened (1928)
 Belinda: a tale of affection in youth and age (1928)
 A Conversation with an Angel: and other essays (1928)
 The Chanty of the Nona (1928)
 The Missing Masterpiece (1929)
 Richelieu (1929)
 Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church (1929)

1930 – 1939 
 The Man Who Made Gold (1930)
 Wolsey (1930)
 The Catholic Church and Current Literature (1930)
 Joan of Arc (1930)
 Pauline - Favorite Sister of Napoleon (1930)
 New Cautionary Tales (1930)
 Essays of a Catholic Layman in England (1931)
 A Conversation with a Cat: and others (1931)
 *Cranmer (1931)
 On Translation (1931)
 One Hundred and one Ballades (1931) (sammen med E. C. Bentley G. K. Chesterton C.K. Scott-Moncrieff, Winifred Agar, Sidney Allnutt, Maurice Baring, Cecil Chesterton, Geoffrey Howard, Diggory King, H. S. Mackintosh)
 Nine Nines or Novenas from a Chinese Litany of Odd Numbers (1931)
 Napoleon (1932)
 The Postmaster General (1932)
 Saulieu Of The Morvan (1932)
 The Question and the Answer (1932)
 Ladies and Gentlemen: For Adults Only and Mature at That (1932)
 An Heroic Poem in Praise of Wine (1932)
 Charles the First, King of England (1933)
 William the Conqueror (1933)
 Below bridges (1933)
 The Tactics and Strategy of the Great Duke of Marlborough (1933)
 How We Got The Bible (1934)
 A Shorter History of England (1934)
 Milton (1935)
 Characters Of The Reformation (1936)
 The Restoration Of Property (1936)
 The hedge and the horse (1936)
 The Battleground: Syria and Palestine, The Seedplot of Religion (1936)
 The County of Sussex (1936)
 The Crisis Of Our Civilisation (1937)
 The Crusades : The World's Debate (1937)
 An Essay on the Nature of Contemporary England (1937)
 Stories, essays, poems (1938)
 Monarchy: a study of Louis XIV (1938)
 Return to the Baltic (1938)
 The Great Heresies (1938)
 The Church and Socialism (1938)
 The Case of Dr. Coulton (1938)
 On sailing the sea; a collection of seagoing writings (1939)
 The Last Rally: A Story of Charles II (1939)

 1940 – 1953 
 The Silence Of The Sea and Other Essays (1940)
 On the Place of Gilbert Chesterton in English Letters (1940)
 The Catholic and the War (1940)
 The Alternative (1940)
 Elizabethan Commentary (1942)
 Places (1942)
 Sonnets and Verse (1945)
 The Romance of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bedier (1945)
 Selected Essays (1948)
 An Anthology of his Prose and Verse (1951)
 World Conflict (1951)
 Songs of the South Country (1951)

Utgitt posthumt 
 Belloc Essays (1955)
 The Verse of Hilaire Belloc (1954)
 One Thing and Another. A Miscellany from his Uncollected Essays selected by Patrick Cahill (1955)
 Collected Verse (1958)
 Letters From Hilaire Belloc (1958)
 Advice: Hilaire Belloc's advice on wine, food and other matters (1960)
 Complete Verse (1970)
 Belloc: A Biographical Anthology (1970)
 Hilaire Belloc's Prefaces (1971)
 Cautionary Tales for Children (2002)
 Distributist Perspectives: Essays On Economics of Justice And Charity (2004) (sammen med essayer av Herbert W. Shove, George Maxwell, G. K. Chesterton, Arthur J. Penty, H. J. Massingham, Eric Gill og Harold Robbins)
 The Way Out (2006)

Referanser

Eksterne lenker 
 
 
 

Britiske forfattere
Britiske historikere
Personer fra distriktet Arun
Personer fra departementet Yvelines