| Admin/Biog History | James Pope-Hennessy (1916-1974) was a British biographer and travel writer. He was the brother of John Pope-Hennessy, a contemporary of Nicolson's at Balliol College, Oxford.
James Pope-Hennessy was also educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Nicolson's brother, Nigel. Pope-Hennessy decided to become a writer and left Oxford in 1937 without taking his degree. He won the Hawthornden Prize in 1939 and became involved in a circle of notable literary figures including Harold Nicolson, Raymond Mortimer and James Lees-Milne. Although he rarely socialised with Nicolson directly, his acquaintance with Nigel and Harold Nicolson meant that their paths regularly crossed.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, James Pope-Hennessy enlisted - alongside Nicolson - as a private in an anti-aircraft battery under the command of Sir Victor Cazalet. The letters in the archive relate almost exclusively to this period.
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| Description | Includes:
-letter, dated 9 November 1936, concerning Nigel and Harold Nicolson; An Heraldic Exhibition at the City Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham and a new Arts Club at Oxford
-three letters, dated 1940s, concerning Pope-Hennessy's enrolment in Victor Cazalet's Anti-Aircraft Battery; his request for a commission (after being 'galvanised' at the sight of James Lees-milne in the Irish Guards uniform) and his subsequent request for help returning to battery Headquarters. Also concerns a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Christie's; Pope-Hennessy's falling out with Harold Nicolson; and various mutual friends
-letter, sent 13 November 1941, accepting an invitation to a party; proposing an indiscretion with Nicolson's 'Liberal friend; and comparing Oxford and Cambridge Universities |