Vincent Cronin
Encyclopedia
Vincent Archibald Patrick Cronin, FRSL
(24 May 1924 — 25 January 2011) was a British
historical, cultural, and biographical writer, best-known for his biographies of Louis XIV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
, Catherine the Great, and Napoleon, as well as for his books on the Renaissance
.
Cronin was born in Tredegar
, Monmouthshire
to Scottish
doctor and novelist, A. J. Cronin
and his wife May Gibson, but moved to London
at the age of two. He was educated at Ampleforth College
, Harvard University
, the Sorbonne
, and Trinity College
, Oxford
, from which he graduated with honours in 1947, earning a degree in ancient history
and philosophy
. During the Second World War, he served as a lieutenant in the British Army
.
, Marbella
, and Dragey, in Avranches
, Basse-Normandie
, where they lived at the Manoir de Brion
.
He died at his home in Marbella on 25 January 2011.
Award, the W.H. Heinemann
Award (1955), and the Rockefeller Foundation
Award (1958). He also contributed to the Revue des Deux Mondes
, was the first General Editor of the Companion Guides series, and was on the Council of the Royal Society of Literature
.
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
(24 May 1924 — 25 January 2011) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
historical, cultural, and biographical writer, best-known for his biographies of Louis XIV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
, Catherine the Great, and Napoleon, as well as for his books on the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
.
Cronin was born in Tredegar
Tredegar
Tredegar is a town situated on the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in south-east Wales. Located within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution in South Wales...
, Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
to Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
doctor and novelist, A. J. Cronin
A. J. Cronin
Archibald Joseph Cronin was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known works are Hatter's Castle, The Stars Look Down, The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years, all of which were adapted to film. He also created the Dr...
and his wife May Gibson, but moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the age of two. He was educated at Ampleforth College
Ampleforth College
Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, England, is the largest Roman Catholic co-educational boarding independent school in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1802, as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, and Trinity College
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, from which he graduated with honours in 1947, earning a degree in ancient history
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. During the Second World War, he served as a lieutenant in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
.
Family
In 1949, he married Chantal de Rolland, and they had five children. The Cronins were long-time residents of LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Marbella
Marbella
Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....
, and Dragey, in Avranches
Avranches
Avranches is a commune in the Manche department in the Basse-Normandie region in north-western France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. The inhabitants are called Avranchinais.-History:...
, Basse-Normandie
Basse-Normandie
Lower Normandy is an administrative region of France. It was created in 1956, when the Normandy region was divided into Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy...
, where they lived at the Manoir de Brion
Manoir de Brion
The Manoir de Brion, also known as the Château de Brion, is a former Benedictine priory of the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, France.It is located near the village of Genêts, in Basse-Normandie, and was founded in 1137 by the abbot Bernard du Bec...
.
He died at his home in Marbella on 25 January 2011.
Awards
Cronin was a recipient of the Richard HillaryRichard Hillary
Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary was a Battle of Britain pilot who died during World War II...
Award, the W.H. Heinemann
William Heinemann
William Heinemann was the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London.He was born in 1863, in Surbiton, Surrey. In his early life he wanted to be a musician, either as a performer or a composer, but, realising that he lacked the ability to be successful in that field, he took a job with...
Award (1955), and the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
Award (1958). He also contributed to the Revue des Deux Mondes
Revue des deux mondes
The Revue des deux Mondes is a French language monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829....
, was the first General Editor of the Companion Guides series, and was on the Council of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
.
Works
- The Golden Honeycomb: A Sicilian Quest (1954) ISBN 0-246-11125-9
- The Wise Man from the West: Matteo RicciMatteo RicciMatteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....
and his Mission to ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
(1955) ISBN 0-00-626749-1 - The Last Migration (1957) (on the Falqani tribe of South Persia) ISBN 0-85617-608-7
- "T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
as a Translator." T. S. Eliot: A Symposium for His Seventieth Birthday. Ed. Neville Braybrooke, 129-137 (1958) ISBN 0-900-39182-0 - A Pearl to IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
: The Life of Roberto de NobiliRoberto de NobiliRoberto de Nobili was an Italian Jesuit missionary to Southern India. He used a novel method of adaptation to preach Christianity, adopting many local customs of India which were, in his view, not contrary to Christianity.Born in Montepulciano, Tuscany in September 1577, Roberto de Nobili arrived...
(1959) ISBN 0-246-63709-9 - The Letter After Z (1960) (novel)
- Translator, L'Amour Profane by Alfred Kern (1961) (novel)
- A Calendar of Saints (1963)
- The Companion Guide to ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(1963 - first edition) ISBN 0-00-613765-2 - Louis XIV (1964) ISBN 0-00-272072-8
- Translator, The Christian Centuries: A New History of the Catholic Church, Volume One: The First Six Hundred Years by Jean Danielou and Henri Marrou (1964) ISBN 0-232-35604-1
- Four Women in Pursuit of an Ideal (1965) (about Caroline de Berry, Marie D'AgoultMarie d'AgoultMarie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, Vicomtesse de Flavigny , was a French author, known also by her married name and title, Marie, Comtesse d'Agoult, and by her pen name, Daniel Stern....
, Eve Hanska and Marie BashkirtseffMarie BashkirtseffMarie Bashkirtseff was a Ukrainian-born diarist, painter and sculptor....
; also published as The Romantic Way, 1966) - Editor, The Sunday Times Travel and Holiday Guide (1966) (edited with Elizabeth Nicholas and Leonard Russell)
- The Florentine Renaissance (1967) ISBN 0-00-211262-0
- Mary Portrayed (1968) ISBN 0-87505-213-4
- "The Classical Ideal in FlorenceFlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
." Essays by Divers Hands, Volume XXXV: 23-39 (1969) - Editor, The Companion Guide to the West HighlandsScottish HighlandsThe Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
of Scotland by W.H. Murray (1969) ISBN 0-13-154774-7 - The Flowering of the Renaissance (1969) ISBN 0-7126-9884-1
- Editor, The Companion Guide to the North Island of New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
by Errol Brathwaite (1970) ISBN 0-00-211139-X - NapoleonNapoleon Bonaparte: An Intimate BiographyNapoleon also published as Napoleon Bonaparte: An Intimate Biography in 1972 isa biography of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte written by Vincent Cronin...
(1971), ISBN 0-00-637521-9 (also published as Napoleon Bonaparte: An Intimate Biography, 1972, ISBN 0-688-00100-9) - The Horizon Concise History of Italy (1972) ISBN 0-07-014477-X (also published as A Concise History of Italy, 1973, ISBN 0-304-29236-2)
- Louis and Antoinette (1974) ISBN 0-8095-9216-9
- Translator, Towards a New Democracy by Valery Giscard D'EstaingValéry Giscard d'EstaingValéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
(1977) ISBN 0-00-216156-7 - Catherine, Empress of All the Russias (1978) ISBN 0-00-216119-2
- Editor, Essays by Divers Hands, Volume XL (1979) ISBN 0-85115-119-1
- Editor, The Companion Guide to FlorenceFlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
by Eve Borsook (1979) ISBN 0-00-216245-8 - The View from Planet Earth: Man Looks at the CosmosCosmosIn the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
(1981) ISBN 0-688-01479-8 - ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on the Eve, 1900-1914 (1989) ISBN 0-312-04876-9 - The Renaissance (1992) ISBN 0-00-215411-0
- Paris: City of Light, 1919-1939 (1994) ISBN 0-00-215191-X
- ChileChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
Rediscovered (2009) ISBN 1906768021 - NeroNeroNero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
(2010) ISBN 1906768145