Queer Places:
Wixenford School, Ludgrove, Wokingham RG40 3AB, Regno Unito
Eton College, Windsor SL4 6DW, Regno Unito
University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PA
Villa La Pietra, Via Bolognese, 120, 50139 Firenze FI, Italia
Cimitero Evangelico agli Allori, Via Senese, 184, 50124 Firenze FI, Italia
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton
CBE (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and
aesthete. He wrote fiction, biography, and autobiography. During his stay in
China, he studied Chinese language, traditional drama, and poetry, some of
which he translated. He was a member of the Hypocrites'
Club. Talking about Harold Acton and the club, Emlyn Williams in his autobiography George (1961) said: "He's the Oxford aesthete, [...] he belongs to the Hypocrites' Club with Brian Howard and Robert Byron and Evelyn Waugh."[8]
He was born near Florence, Italy, of a prominent Anglo-Italian family. At
Eton
College, he was a founding member of the
Eton Arts Society before going up to
Oxford to read Modern Greats at Christ Church. He co-founded the avant
garde magazine The Oxford Broom and mixed with many intellectual and
literary figures of the age, including Evelyn Waugh, who based the character
of Anthony Blanche in
Brideshead Revisited partly on him. Between the wars, Acton lived in
Paris, London, and Florence, proving most successful as a historian, his
magnum opus being a 3-volume study of the Medicis and the Bourbons.
At Oxford Acton was part of the Railway Club, which included:
Henry Yorke,
Roy Harrod,
Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath,
David Plunket Greene,
Edward
Henry Charles James Fox-Strangways, 7th Earl of Ilchester,
Brian Howard,
Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse,
John Sutro,
Hugh Lygon,
Harold Acton,
Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne,
Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross,
Mark
Ogilvie-Grant,
John Drury-Lowe.[3]
After serving as an
RAF liaison officer in the Mediterranean, he returned to Florence,
restoring his childhood home La Pietra to its earlier glory. Acton was
knighted in 1974 and died in Florence, leaving La Pietra to
New York University.
Acton was Catholic;[17]:151f
[18]
his cultural and historical commitment to the Church remained unchanged
throughout his life. Acton's name was first on a petition submitted to Rome in
1971 by British cultural élite, requesting that the traditional Latin rite of
the Mass not be abrogated in England.[17]:359
[18]
His mother, the heiress Hortense Lenore Mitchell, a dominating personality in
his life who lived on until the age of 90, did not make life easy for him but
he still remained the devoted and admiring son.[13]
After Acton's death, in reply to a magazine article that speculated both
about the probable suicide of Acton's brother and about Acton's homosexuality,
author
A.N. Wilson remarked, "To call him homosexual would be to misunderstand
the whole essence of his being" and that "He was more asexual than anything
else".[19]
The article, by American writer
David Plante, described Acton's time at Oxford as a "virile
aesthete-dandy," but noted that while in China during the 1930s Acton's
predilection for boys led to a classified government document describing him
as a "scandalous debauchee," and prevented the possibility of his serving in
the intelligence services there, when war broke out. Plante also described the
young men whom Acton welcomed to La Pietra, including Alexander Zielcke, a
German photographer and artist who was Acton's lover for the last twenty-five
years of his life.[19]
Railway Club at Oxford, conceived by John Sutro, dominated by Harold Acton. (Left to right) Back: Henry Yorke, Roy Harrod, Henry Weymouth, David Plunket Greene, Harry Stavordale, Brian Howard. Middle row: Michael Rosse, John Sutro, Hugh Lygon, Harold Acton, Bryan Guinness, Patrick Balfour, Mark Ogilvie-Grant, Johnny Drury-Lowe. Front: porters.
.JPG "external image III_Villa%20La%20Pietra,%20Firenze,%20Italy%20(2).JPG")
.JPG "external image III_Cimitero%20Evangelico%20agli%20Allori,%20Firenze,%20Italy_2%20(2).JPG")
When Acton died he left Villa La Pietra to
New York University.[20]
In leaving his family’s property and collection to New York University, Acton
expressed his desire that the estate be used as a meeting place for students,
faculty, and guests who might study, teach, write and do research, and as a
centre for international programs.[20]
Following his death,
DNA testing confirmed the existence of a half-sister born out of wedlock,
whose heirs have gone to court to challenge Acton's $500 million bequest to
New York University.[21]
Acton was buried beside his parents and brother, William Acton,, in the Roman Catholic
section of the
Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori in the southern suburb of
Florence,
Galluzzo
(Italy).
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