Walter Starkie
Encyclopedia
Walter Fitzwilliam Starkie CMG, CBE
, Litt.D (August 9, 1894 - November 2, 1976) was an Irish scholar, Hispanist
, author and musician.
Born in Killiney
, County Dublin, he was the eldest son of the noted Greek scholar and translator of Aristophanes
, William Joseph Myles Starkie
(WJM) (1860–1920) and May Caroline Walsh. Starkie grew up surrounded by writers, artists and academicians. His father was the last Resident Commissioner of National Education for Ireland under British rule (1899–1920). His aunt, Edyth Starkie
, was an established painter married to Arthur Rackham
and his godfather was John Pentland Mahaffy
, the tutor of Oscar Wilde
.
He is now best known as a translator of Spanish literature
, and as a leading authority on the Romani people (Gypsies). He spoke fluent Romany
, the language of the Gypsies.
and Trinity College, Dublin
, where he graduated in 1920, taking first-class honors in classics, history and political science. After winning first prize for violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music
in 1913, his father, wanting a more traditional career for his son, turned down an opportunity for Walter to audition for Sir Henry Wood, conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra
. His violin teacher was the celebrated Italian virtuoso and composer, Achille Simonetti
, a master who had been taught by Camillo Sivori
, the only pupil of Niccolo Paganini
. He became the first Professor of Spanish at Trinity College in 1926; his position covered both Spanish and Italian (there was an earlier "Professorship of Modern Languages" created in 1776 also covering both Italian and Spanish ). One of his pupils at Trinity was Samuel Beckett
who, however later took as his mentor, Thomas Rudmose-Brown, Professor of Modern Languages (French), described as "equally colourful" and probably more compatible.
As Starkie suffered with chronic asthma
throughout his life, he was sent to the warmer climate of Italy
during World War I
where he joined the Y.M.C.A. providing entertainment for the British troops. After the armistice
in November, 1918, in the town of Montebello Vicentino
, he befriended five Hungarian Gypsy prisoners of war and aided them in acquiring wood to construct makeshift fiddles. To one of them, Farkas, he became a bloodbrother and he swore that he would someday visit Farkas in Hungary
and mix with the Gypsy's tribe. This oath would later haunt him and affect the course of his life. While on tour in Northern Italy he met Italia Augusta Porchietti, an Italian Red Cross
nurse and amateur opera singer who was singing to patients and wounded soldiers at a hospital ward in Genoa
. They were married on August 10, 1921 and had a son, Landi William, and a daughter, Alma Delfina.
, Starkie became a director of the Abbey Theatre
in 1927 at the invitation of W.B. Yeats. Recent productions had been fraught with controversy, and one of his roles was to act as arbitor among the factions. In 1928, while Starkie was away in Italy
, Yeats, along with Lady Gregory
and Lennox Robinson
, the other two board members, rejected Seán O'Casey's
fourth play, The Silver Tassie
, his lament of the First World War. When he returned to Dublin he voiced his disagreement with the other board members saying that, "This play was written with the purpose of showing the useless brutality of war and the public should be allowed to judge it for themselves. O'Casey is groping for a new kind of drama and the Abbey should produce the play". In light of his previous successes at the Abbey Theatre
the rejection caused much controversy and O'Casey severed his relations with the theatre and took the play to London
where it premiered on October 11, 1929 at the Apollo Theatre
with Charles Laughton
and Barry Fitzgerald
under the direction of Raymond Massey
. To many observers the loss of O'Casey marked the beginning of a decline in the fortunes of the Abbey that has continued to the present day. At the start of World War II
the British were eager to send Catholics down to Spain
as their representatives, and so the Irish-Catholic, fiddle-playing Starkie was sent to Madrid as the British Council
representative, which took him away from the theatre and nightlife of Dublin, and into World War II Spain
. He resigned from the Abbey Theatre on September 17, 1942 and on the same day he accepted the invitation of Hilton Edwards
and Micheál MacLiammóir
to be on the board of directors at the Gate Theatre
.
He was one of the founders of the Centre International des Études Fascistes (CINEF). Its only publication, A Survey of Fascism (1928), had an article by him, Whither is Ireland Heading - Is It Fascism? Thoughts on the Irish Free State? During the 1930s, along with George Bernard Shaw
and W.B. Yeats he was an apologist for Benito Mussolini
, whom he had interviewed in 1927. In general terms he was influenced by the Irish poet and mystic George William Russell
(AE) in his writing on co-operatives. He travelled to Abyssinia
in 1935 and later wrote in favour of the Italian campaign there, opposing Éamon de Valera
's call for sanctions
, fearing they would further isolate Italy
and drive Benito Mussolini
into an alliance with Adolf Hitler
. However soon after his appointment in Madrid
his wife dropped her first name "Italia" to avoid being branded an agent of Mussolini.
(1940–1954), and went on to open branches in Barcelona
, Bilbao
, Seville
and Valencia. The Institute was backed by the British Council
and through lectures and exhibitions worked to influence Spanish opinion during World War II
and help maintain Spanish neutrality. Upon accepting this position he made a promise to Lord George Lloyd not to write any new books and to put the Raggle-Taggle Gypsies to rest for the duration of the war. However, Spain, owing to her non-belligerent status, became an asylum for refugees
from all over Europe, so his promise to curtail hobnobbing with Gypsies became impractical. The Institute stood apart from the British
Embassy which, like most embassies, tended to be stand-offish toward their local nationals. It was in itself an embassy to the survivors of Spain's
intellectual eclipse following the Spanish Civil War
. One Starkie's early triumphs was organizing a recital by the Czech
pianist Rudolf Firkušný
who, in October, 1940, was passing through Madrid on his way to the United States
. Finding a grand piano for Firkušný in war-torn Madrid was no easy task, but Starkie was able to locate a new Steinway
and the concert went ahead bringing together a significant gathering of Madrid Society as well as representatives from the American Embassy and Dutch
, Polish
, Egypt
ian, Turkish
and Czech
Ministers. In May, 1943, the actor Leslie Howard
came to Madrid to present a lecture on Hamlet
in which he showed similarities between the play and the actions of Adolf Hitler. On his return trip to London
from Lisbon
the plane on which he was traveling, BOAC Flight 777
, was shot down by the German
Luftwaffe
over the Bay of Biscay
. Among the 4 crew and 13 passengers who perished was the prominent Jewish activist Wilfrid B. Israel
, Francis German Cowlrick and Gordon Thomas MacLean, all of whom had lunched together at the Madrid British Institute the week before. On any one evening one could count on finding in the Institute at Calle Almagro 5, a great novelist such as Pío Baroja
, a rising star like Camilo José Cela
(Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
, 1989), that prince of essayists, Azorín
, composers like Joaquín Rodrigo
and painters such as Ignacio Zuloaga
. He left behind him a thriving institute which now has a school of more than 2,000 students. During the war he also helped organize and operate an escape route across the Pyrenees
for British airmen shot down over France. Walter and Augusta also allowed their large flat at number 24 Calle del Prado to be used as a safe house
for escaping prisoners of war and Jewish refugees
.
He was professor of comparative literature
at the University of Madrid
, from 1947 to 1956. After he retired from the British Institute he accepted a university position in the United States. It was his third American tour, taking him to the University of Texas, Austin (1957–58), New York University
(1959), Kansas University (1960), Colorado University (1961), and finally to the University of California, Los Angeles
(1961–70) where as Professor-in-Residence he was assigned to lecture in six Departments (English, Folklore-Mythology, Italian, Music, Spanish-Portuguese, and Theatre).
After his retirement from U.C.L.A. he returned with his wife, Italia Augusta, to live in Madrid. After suffering from a severe cardiac asthma attack he died on November 2, 1976. Italia followed him six months later on May 10, 1977. They are buried in the British Cemetery in Madrid.
The academic Enid Starkie
was his sister.
, with frontispieces by Arthur Rackham
. His observations of Gypsy life, while more anecdotal than scholarly, provide rich insights into these shadowy, nomadic people. Just as important Starkie's life serves as an example. As Julian Moynahan said in reviewing Scholars and Gypsies for The New York Times Book Review
(November 24, 1963): "Many lives have been more interesting and enviable in the telling than the living, but not so here. Emerging from the shadow of a somewhat blighted inheritance, Walter Starkie chose and enjoyed a lifelong freedom which most of us throw away with both hands on the day we leave school and take our first jobs." He was the President of the Gypsy Lore Society
from 1962 to 1973.
In addition to publishing a 1964 translation of plays from the Spanish Golden Age
in the Modern Library
volume as Eight Spanish Plays of the Golden Age, he published an abridged
translation of Don Quixote in hardcover
for Macmillan Publishers
in London in 1954. Illustated with engravings done by Gustave Doré
in 1863 for the French language
translation, Starkie's biographical introduction of Cervantes
was 160 pages long. When the abridgement
was reprinted in paperback by Macmillan
for the United States in 1957 his new introduction was shortened to only 7 pages. Later, Starkie published his complete and unabridged version of his translation of Don Quixote for New American Library
in 1964. Written in contemporary English, both have been in print since their publications, and are considered highly accurate, but Starkie does occasionally put Irish slang and phrase construction
(e.g. the phrase "I'm thinking", instead of "I think", and the oath "Bad 'cess to you!") into the mouths of its peasant
characters. This is a trait he repeats in his translation of The Mask, a brief one-acter by Lope de Rueda
published in Eight Spanish Plays of the Golden Age.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
, Litt.D (August 9, 1894 - November 2, 1976) was an Irish scholar, Hispanist
Hispanist
A Hispanist is a scholar specialising in Hispanic studies, that is Spanish or Portuguese language, literature, linguistics, or civilization, and by extension, Basque, Catalan and Galician....
, author and musician.
Born in Killiney
Killiney
Killiney is a suburb of Dublin in south County Dublin, Ireland. It is within the administrative area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County. The area is by the coast, south of neighbouring Dalkey, and north to Shankill area in the most southern outskirt of Dublin....
, County Dublin, he was the eldest son of the noted Greek scholar and translator of Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, William Joseph Myles Starkie
W. J. M. Starkie
William Joseph Myles Starkie was a noted Greek scholar and translator of Aristophanes. He was President of Queen's College, Galway and the last Resident Commissioner of National Education for Ireland under British rule .-Life:He was born at Rosses Point, Sligo, where his father was Resident...
(WJM) (1860–1920) and May Caroline Walsh. Starkie grew up surrounded by writers, artists and academicians. His father was the last Resident Commissioner of National Education for Ireland under British rule (1899–1920). His aunt, Edyth Starkie
Edyth Starkie
Edyth Starkie was an established portrait painterand sculptor who was married to Arthur Rackham. She was born on the west coast of Ireland at Westcliff, near Galway.-Early life:...
, was an established painter married to Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...
and his godfather was John Pentland Mahaffy
John Pentland Mahaffy
The Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy GBE CVO was an Irish classicist and polymathic scholar.-Education and interests:...
, the tutor of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
.
He is now best known as a translator of Spanish literature
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
, and as a leading authority on the Romani people (Gypsies). He spoke fluent Romany
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
, the language of the Gypsies.
Life
He was educated at Shrewsbury SchoolShrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
and Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, where he graduated in 1920, taking first-class honors in classics, history and political science. After winning first prize for violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music
Royal Irish Academy of Music
The Royal Irish Academy of Music is a linked college of Dublin City University located in Dublin, Ireland.It was founded in 1848 by a group of music enthusiasts and moved to its present address in Westland Row in 1871. The following year it was granted the right to use the title "Royal"...
in 1913, his father, wanting a more traditional career for his son, turned down an opportunity for Walter to audition for Sir Henry Wood, conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
. His violin teacher was the celebrated Italian virtuoso and composer, Achille Simonetti
Achille Simonetti
Achille Simonetti was an Italian and English violinist and composer.-Early life and education:Born in Turin on the 12th of June 1857, Simonetti left his family in Bologna and completed his studies under Francesco Bianchi, Eugenio Cavallini, Giuseppe Gamba, Charles...
, a master who had been taught by Camillo Sivori
Camillo Sivori
Ernesto Camillo Sivori, was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer.Born in Genoa, he was the only pupil of Paganini. He also studied with Restano, Giacomo Costa and Dellepiane....
, the only pupil of Niccolo Paganini
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
. He became the first Professor of Spanish at Trinity College in 1926; his position covered both Spanish and Italian (there was an earlier "Professorship of Modern Languages" created in 1776 also covering both Italian and Spanish ). One of his pupils at Trinity was Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
who, however later took as his mentor, Thomas Rudmose-Brown, Professor of Modern Languages (French), described as "equally colourful" and probably more compatible.
As Starkie suffered with chronic asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
throughout his life, he was sent to the warmer climate of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
where he joined the Y.M.C.A. providing entertainment for the British troops. After the armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
in November, 1918, in the town of Montebello Vicentino
Montebello Vicentino
Montebello Vicentino is a town and comune in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, northern Italy. It is west of the SP31 provincial road.-Sources:*...
, he befriended five Hungarian Gypsy prisoners of war and aided them in acquiring wood to construct makeshift fiddles. To one of them, Farkas, he became a bloodbrother and he swore that he would someday visit Farkas in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and mix with the Gypsy's tribe. This oath would later haunt him and affect the course of his life. While on tour in Northern Italy he met Italia Augusta Porchietti, an Italian Red Cross
Italian Red Cross
The Italian Red Cross is the Italian national Red Cross society that has its origin in the Comitato dell'Associazione Italiana per il soccorso ai feriti ed ai malati in guerra that was formed in Florence in 1863, and in Milan on June 15, 1864. Other committees were formed later...
nurse and amateur opera singer who was singing to patients and wounded soldiers at a hospital ward in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
. They were married on August 10, 1921 and had a son, Landi William, and a daughter, Alma Delfina.
Abbey Theatre
After the publication of his book on Luigi PirandelloLuigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
, Starkie became a director of the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
in 1927 at the invitation of W.B. Yeats. Recent productions had been fraught with controversy, and one of his roles was to act as arbitor among the factions. In 1928, while Starkie was away in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Yeats, along with Lady Gregory
Augusta, Lady Gregory
Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory , born Isabella Augusta Persse, was an Irish dramatist and folklorist. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of...
and Lennox Robinson
Lennox Robinson
Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson was an Irish dramatist, poet and theatre producer and director who was involved with the Abbey Theatre....
, the other two board members, rejected Seán O'Casey's
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...
fourth play, The Silver Tassie
The Silver Tassie (play)
The Silver Tassie is a four-act Expressionist play about the First World War, written between 1927 and 1928 by the Irish playwright Seán O'Casey. It was O'Casey's fourth play and attacks imperialist wars and the suffering that they cause. O'Casey described the play as "A generous handful of stones,...
, his lament of the First World War. When he returned to Dublin he voiced his disagreement with the other board members saying that, "This play was written with the purpose of showing the useless brutality of war and the public should be allowed to judge it for themselves. O'Casey is groping for a new kind of drama and the Abbey should produce the play". In light of his previous successes at the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
the rejection caused much controversy and O'Casey severed his relations with the theatre and took the play 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...
where it premiered on October 11, 1929 at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
with Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
and Barry Fitzgerald
Barry Fitzgerald
Barry Fitzgerald was an Irish stage, film and television actor.-Life:He was born William Joseph Shields in Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland. He is the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields. He went to Skerry's College, Dublin, before going on to work in the civil service, while...
under the direction of Raymond Massey
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...
. To many observers the loss of O'Casey marked the beginning of a decline in the fortunes of the Abbey that has continued to the present day. At the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the British were eager to send Catholics down to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
as their representatives, and so the Irish-Catholic, fiddle-playing Starkie was sent to Madrid as the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
representative, which took him away from the theatre and nightlife of Dublin, and into World War II Spain
Spain in World War II
The Spanish State under General Franco was officially non-belligerent during World War II. This status, although not recognised by international law, was intended to express the regime's sympathy and material support for the Axis Powers, to which Spain offered considerable material, economic, and...
. He resigned from the Abbey Theatre on September 17, 1942 and on the same day he accepted the invitation of Hilton Edwards
Hilton Edwards
Hilton Edwards was an English-born Irish actor and theatrical producer. He was the son of Thomas George Cecil Edwards and Emily Edwards ....
and Micheál MacLiammóir
Micheál MacLiammóir
Micheál Mac Liammóir , born Alfred Willmore, was an English-born Irish actor, dramatist, impresario, writer, poet and painter. Mac Liammóir was born to a Protestant family living in the Kensal Green neighbourhood of London....
to be on the board of directors at the Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
.
He was one of the founders of the Centre International des Études Fascistes (CINEF). Its only publication, A Survey of Fascism (1928), had an article by him, Whither is Ireland Heading - Is It Fascism? Thoughts on the Irish Free State? During the 1930s, along with George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and W.B. Yeats he was an apologist for Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, whom he had interviewed in 1927. In general terms he was influenced by the Irish poet and mystic George William Russell
George William Russell
George William Russell who wrote under the pseudonym Æ , was an Irish nationalist, writer, editor, critic, poet, and painter. He was also a mystical writer, and centre of a group of followers of theosophy in Dublin, for many years.-Organisor:Russell was born in Lurgan, County Armagh...
(AE) in his writing on co-operatives. He travelled to Abyssinia
Ethiopian Empire
The Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia, covered a geographical area that the present-day northern half of Ethiopia and Eritrea covers, and included in its peripheries Zeila, Djibouti, Yemen and Western Saudi Arabia...
in 1935 and later wrote in favour of the Italian campaign there, opposing Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
's call for sanctions
International sanctions
International sanctions are actions taken by countries against others for political reasons, either unilaterally or multilaterally.There are several types of sanctions....
, fearing they would further isolate Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and drive Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
into an alliance with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. However soon after his appointment in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
his wife dropped her first name "Italia" to avoid being branded an agent of Mussolini.
British Institute, Madrid
Sent to Spain as the British cultural representative he was the founder and first director of the British Institute in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
(1940–1954), and went on to open branches in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
, Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
and Valencia. The Institute was backed by the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
and through lectures and exhibitions worked to influence Spanish opinion during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and help maintain Spanish neutrality. Upon accepting this position he made a promise to Lord George Lloyd not to write any new books and to put the Raggle-Taggle Gypsies to rest for the duration of the war. However, Spain, owing to her non-belligerent status, became an asylum for refugees
Right of asylum
Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...
from all over Europe, so his promise to curtail hobnobbing with Gypsies became impractical. The Institute stood apart from the 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...
Embassy which, like most embassies, tended to be stand-offish toward their local nationals. It was in itself an embassy to the survivors of Spain's
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
intellectual eclipse following the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. One Starkie's early triumphs was organizing a recital by the Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
pianist Rudolf Firkušný
Rudolf Firkusny
- Life :Born in Moravian Napajedla, Firkušný started his musical studies with the composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk, and the pianist Vilém Kurz. Later he studied with Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. He began performing on the continent of Europe in the 1920s, and made his debuts in London in...
who, in October, 1940, was passing through Madrid on his way to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Finding a grand piano for Firkušný in war-torn Madrid was no easy task, but Starkie was able to locate a new Steinway
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
and the concert went ahead bringing together a significant gathering of Madrid Society as well as representatives from the American Embassy and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian, Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
Ministers. In May, 1943, the actor Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard may refer to:*Leslie Howard , English stage performer who became star of Hollywood films during 1930s*Leslie Howard , Australian-born British pianist and composer...
came to Madrid to present a lecture on Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
in which he showed similarities between the play and the actions of Adolf Hitler. On his return trip 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...
from Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
the plane on which he was traveling, BOAC Flight 777
BOAC Flight 777
BOAC Flight 777-A, a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation civilian airline flight on 1 June 1943 from Portela Airport in Lisbon, Portugal, to Whitchurch Airport near Bristol, United Kingdom, was attacked by eight German Junkers Ju 88s and crashed into the Bay of Biscay, killing 17 "souls...
, was shot down by the German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
over the Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...
. Among the 4 crew and 13 passengers who perished was the prominent Jewish activist Wilfrid B. Israel
Wilfrid B. Israel
Wilfrid B. Israel was a German-born Jew who played an important role in the Kindertransport and the rescue of Jews in the Holocaust. He was killed when his plane was shot down by the Nazis. -Biography:...
, Francis German Cowlrick and Gordon Thomas MacLean, all of whom had lunched together at the Madrid British Institute the week before. On any one evening one could count on finding in the Institute at Calle Almagro 5, a great novelist such as Pío Baroja
Pío Baroja
Pío Baroja y Nessi was a Spanish Basque writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation of '98. He was a member of an illustrious family, his brother Ricardo was a painter, writer and engraver, and his nephew Julio Caro Baroja, son of his younger sister Carmen, was a well known...
, a rising star like Camilo José Cela
Camilo José Cela
Camilo José Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquis of Iria Flavia was a Spanish novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature "for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability".-Biography:Cela published his...
(Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
, 1989), that prince of essayists, Azorín
José Martínez Ruiz
José Augusto Trinidad Martínez Ruíz, also known as Azorín , was a Spanish writer and literary critic.-Early life and education:Martínez Ruiz was born in Monovar, Alicante in 1873...
, composers like Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez , commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success...
and painters such as Ignacio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta was a Basque Spanish painter, born in Eibar, near the monastery of Loyola. He was the son of metalworker and damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the organizer and director of the royal armoury in Madrid.-Biography:In his youth, he drew and worked in his father's...
. He left behind him a thriving institute which now has a school of more than 2,000 students. During the war he also helped organize and operate an escape route across the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
for British airmen shot down over France. Walter and Augusta also allowed their large flat at number 24 Calle del Prado to be used as a safe house
Safe house
In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger...
for escaping prisoners of war and Jewish refugees
Jewish refugees
In the course of history, Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought asylum from antisemitism numerous times...
.
He was professor of comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
at the University of Madrid
University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid is a public university in Madrid, Spain, and one of the oldest universities in the world.The University of Madrid may also refer to:* The Autonomous University of Madrid, a public university founded in 1968...
, from 1947 to 1956. After he retired from the British Institute he accepted a university position in the United States. It was his third American tour, taking him to the University of Texas, Austin (1957–58), New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(1959), Kansas University (1960), Colorado University (1961), and finally to the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
(1961–70) where as Professor-in-Residence he was assigned to lecture in six Departments (English, Folklore-Mythology, Italian, Music, Spanish-Portuguese, and Theatre).
After his retirement from U.C.L.A. he returned with his wife, Italia Augusta, to live in Madrid. After suffering from a severe cardiac asthma attack he died on November 2, 1976. Italia followed him six months later on May 10, 1977. They are buried in the British Cemetery in Madrid.
The academic Enid Starkie
Enid Starkie
Enid Mary Starkie CBE, Litt.D , was an Irish literary critic, known for her biographical works on French poets. She was a Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, and Lecturer and then Reader in the University.-Early life:She was the eldest daughter of Rt. Hon...
was his sister.
Writings
He won fame for his travels and was profiled by Time Magazine as a modern-day 'gypsy'. He published accounts of his experiences as a university vacation vagabond following the trail of the Gypsies in Raggle Taggle, subtitled "Adventures with a fiddle in Hungary and Roumania" and sequels, Spanish Raggle Taggle and Don Gypsy which are picaresque accounts in the tradition of George BorrowGeorge Borrow
George Henry Borrow was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences around Europe. Over the course of his wanderings, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe. They figure prominently in his work...
, with frontispieces by Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...
. His observations of Gypsy life, while more anecdotal than scholarly, provide rich insights into these shadowy, nomadic people. Just as important Starkie's life serves as an example. As Julian Moynahan said in reviewing Scholars and Gypsies for The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
(November 24, 1963): "Many lives have been more interesting and enviable in the telling than the living, but not so here. Emerging from the shadow of a somewhat blighted inheritance, Walter Starkie chose and enjoyed a lifelong freedom which most of us throw away with both hands on the day we leave school and take our first jobs." He was the President of the Gypsy Lore Society
Gypsy Lore Society
The Gypsy Lore Society was founded in Great Britain in 1888 to unite persons interested in the history and lore of Gypsies and rovers and to establish closer contacts among scholars studying aspects of such cultures. David MacRitchie was one of its founders and he worked with Francis Hindes Groome...
from 1962 to 1973.
In addition to publishing a 1964 translation of plays from the Spanish Golden Age
Spanish Golden Age
The Spanish Golden Age is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise and decline of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. El Siglo de Oro does not imply precise dates and is usually considered to have lasted longer than an actual century...
in the Modern Library
Modern Library
The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
volume as Eight Spanish Plays of the Golden Age, he published an abridged
Abridgement
Abridgement or abridgment is a term defined as "shortening" or "condensing" and is most commonly used in reference to the act of reducing a written work, typically a book, into a shorter form...
translation of Don Quixote in hardcover
Hardcover
A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
for Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
in London in 1954. Illustated with engravings done by Gustave Doré
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
in 1863 for the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
translation, Starkie's biographical introduction of Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
was 160 pages long. When the abridgement
Abridgement
Abridgement or abridgment is a term defined as "shortening" or "condensing" and is most commonly used in reference to the act of reducing a written work, typically a book, into a shorter form...
was reprinted in paperback by Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
for the United States in 1957 his new introduction was shortened to only 7 pages. Later, Starkie published his complete and unabridged version of his translation of Don Quixote for New American Library
New American Library
New American Library is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948; it produced affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works, as well as popular, pulp, and "hard-boiled" fiction. Non-fiction, original, and hardcopy issues were also produced.Victor Weybright and Kurt...
in 1964. Written in contemporary English, both have been in print since their publications, and are considered highly accurate, but Starkie does occasionally put Irish slang and phrase construction
Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English is the dialect of English written and spoken in Ireland .English was first brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion of the late 12th century. Initially it was mainly spoken in an area known as the Pale around Dublin, with Irish spoken throughout the rest of the country...
(e.g. the phrase "I'm thinking", instead of "I think", and the oath "Bad 'cess to you!") into the mouths of its peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
characters. This is a trait he repeats in his translation of The Mask, a brief one-acter by Lope de Rueda
Lope de Rueda
Lope de Rueda was a Spanish dramatist and author, regarded by some as the best of his era. A very versatile writer, he also wrote comedies, farces, and pasos...
published in Eight Spanish Plays of the Golden Age.
Works
- Jacinto BenaventeJacinto BenaventeJacinto Benavente y Martínez was one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922....
(1924) - Luigi PirandelloLuigi PirandelloLuigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
(1926) - Raggle-Taggle: Adventures with a Fiddle in Hungary and Romania (1933)
- Spanish Raggle-Taggle: Adventures with a Fiddle in Northern Spain (1934)
- Don Gypsy: Adventures with a Fiddle in Barbary, Andulusia and La Mancha (1936)
- The Waveless Plain: An Italian Autobiography (1938)
- Grand Inquisitor (1940)
- Semblanza de CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
y ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
(1946) - In Sara's Tents (1953)
- Conferencia conmemorativa Eugene O'Neill (1954)
- The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. JamesWay of St. JamesThe Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried....
(1957) - Spain: A Musician's Journey Through Time and Space (1958)
- Scholars and Gypsies: An Autobiography (1963)
- Homage to YeatsWilliam Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, 1865-1965: Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar (1965)
Works translated
- Tiger Juan - Ramon Perez de AyalaRamón Pérez de AyalaRamón Pérez de Ayala was a Spanish writer. He was the Spanish ambassador to England and voluntarily exiled himself to South America because of the Spanish Civil War .-Background:...
(1933) - The Spaniards in their History - Ramon Menendez PidalRamón Menéndez PidalRamón Menéndez Pidal was a Spanish philologist and historian. He worked extensively on the history of the Spanish language and Spanish folklore and folk poetry. One of his main topics was the history and legend of The Cid....
(1950) - Tower of Ivory - Rodolfo Fonseca (1953)
- This is Spain - Ignacio Olagüe (1954)
- Don Quixote - Miguel de CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
(1954 abridged, and 1964 unabridged) - The Deceitful Marriage and other Exemplary Novels - CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
(1963) - Eight Spanish Plays of the Golden Age (1964)
Decorations
- Knight of the Order of Alfonso XII, (1929)
- Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, (1931)
- Knight of the Order of the Crown of ItalyOrder of the Crown of ItalyThe Order of the Crown of Italy was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861...
, (1933) - Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, (1948) - Knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
- Commander of the Order of St Michael and St GeorgeOrder of St Michael and St GeorgeThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, (1954)