Man of Letters: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Literary Impresario Rupert Hart-Davis

Rupert Hart-Davis was the quintessential man of letters, standing at the heart of twentieth-century Britain's storied literary and cultural scenes. He is, perhaps, most famous for his best-selling six volume collection of correspondence with mentor George Lyttelton, though the Hart-Davis/Lyttelton letters only scratch the surface of a truly fascinating life. From Sir Laurence Olivier and ex-wife Countess Dame Peggy Ashcroft to T. S. Eliot, Paul Robeson, and Somerset Maugham; Rupert Hart-Davis not only knew everyone, but also edited or published nearly everyone in one of the livelier lives of the mind on record. Tracing the entirety of Hart-Davis's life, which spanned almost all of the twentieth century, Philip Ziegler, acclaimed biographer of poet Osbert Sitwell, offers a delightfully entertaining biography intended for anyone interested in the goings-on of cultural and artistic circles. From literature to academia to the stage and screen, Rupert Hart-Davis was a cultural bon vivant and as genuinely fascinating a figure as the celebrities who surrounded him. Man of Letters is not only the portrait of a quintessential and star-studded twentieth-century life of letters, but of a way of living that will never be seen again.