Cyril Connolly Birthday & Fun Facts

Cyril Connolly Birthday Highlights

Birth Name

Cyril Vernon Connolly

Place Of Birth

Coventry, UK

Age

120 years old

Birth Date

September 10 1903

Cyril Connolly Facts

Child Star?

no

Occupation

Literary Critic, Writer

Education & Qualifications

Balliol College

Current Partner

Deirdre Craven

Children

Cressida Connolly, Matthew Connolly

Parents

Muriel Maud Vernon, Matthew William Kemble Connolly

Cyril Connolly was born Cyril Vernon Connolly on September 10, 1903, in Coventry, United Kingdom.

He was a popular writer and literary critic. Connolly was the only child of his parents, Muriel Maud Vernon and Matthew William Kemble Connolly.

Cyril Connolly grew up to be an English writer, popular as a critic and a journalist. He was the founder and editor of the popular magazine Horizon. This was an influential magazine with contemporary literature and ideas in the United Kingdom, making it quite a well-known piece of work. Cyril was a literary critic who had studied at the Balliol College of Oxford University.

He graduated in history, and his years at Oxford are known for his immense travels and experiences of making new friends. Cyril Connolly had idiosyncratic views about life and his experiences, and he stated them gracefully in his writings with a hint of wit. Read on to learn more about Cyril Connolly, a writer and a literary critic from England.

What was Cyril Connolly's net worth?

Cyril Connolly was a 20th-century literary critic, and he made a good living by the end of his life with his literary career. However, his net worth is not known.

How much did Cyril Connolly earn per year?

Cyril Connolly's annual income is not known as there is no record available about his earnings per year on the internet.

How tall was Cyril Connolly?

The height of Cyril Connolly is not known.

How old was Cyril Connolly?

Cyril Connolly was born on September 10, 1903, in Coventry, United Kingdom. He died on November 26, 1974, and was 71 years old at the time of his death.

Cyril Connolly's father was Matthew William Kemble Connolly, who was a British army officer. His mother was Muriel Maud Vernon, an Anglo-Irish. Due to his father's postings, Connolly's childhood was spent in three different locations including South Africa, Dublin, and Somerset. He lived at the Clontarf Castle in Dublin with his maternal family and at Bath, Somerset, with his paternal family.

He studied at the St Cyprian's School in Eastbourne, where he met his school friend George Orwell and got acquainted with Cecil Beaton. Cyril Connolly was quite a scholar and a favorite of the headmistress. Orwell and Beaton helped him understand character, intelligence, and sensibility, respectively.

Later in 1919, he got a scholarship at Eton College, where he earned respect as an intellectual being, and his experiences here helped him form the basis for his autobiography 'Enemies Of Promise'. His college group consisted of Anthony Powell, Brian Howard, Henry Green, Robert Byron, Harold Acton, and the like scholars. In 1922, he received the Rosebery History Prize and Brackenbury History scholarship that got him admission to Balliol College, Oxford.

Before starting at Oxford, Cyril Connolly toured Hungary, Germany, and Austria. At Balliol, for most of his college years, Cyril Connolly traveled to explore France, London, Italy, Naples, Greece, Minehead, French Alps, and Spain. It was during this period that he made new friends like Patrick Balfour, Peter Quennell, and Henry Yorke. In 1925, he graduated in literary history from Balliol with a third-class degree and struggled a lot to get a job.

Who was Cyril Connolly's partner?

Cyril Connolly was married thrice in his life. His first marriage was with Jean Bakewell, who left him in 1939. Cyril Connolly was then married to Barbara Skelton as his second wife in 1950, but they both separated in 1959 due to unknown reasons.

Cyril was then married to Deirdre Craven in 1959, who was his third wife. Deirdre was the granddaughter of the 1st Viscount Craigavon James Craig. She and Cyril both had two daughters, namely Cressida Connolly and Matthew Connolly. Dierdre and Cyril lived together until Cyril's death in 1974, after which she remarried poet and writer Peter Levi in the same year.

Best Known For…

Cyril Connolly is a literary critic who started his career in 1926 after graduating from Oxford. Initially, Cyril faced quite some struggle in landing a worthwhile job. Between 1925-1926, his friends and his family members helped him pay off his debt. Later in April 1926, he took up a post of a secretory to Pearsall Smith, who paid him eight pounds per week. In August 1926, Cyril Connolly met Desmond McCarthy, who was a literary editor for New Statesmen, and he invited Cyril to write book reviews for the magazine. His first review was for Elizabeth Bowen on her work 'The Hotel'. He soon started writing pieces for various publications under pseudonyms or his name.

During this period, Cyril Connolly traveled across Eastern Europe during all this while he was working on three books: 'Humane Killer', 'The English Malady', 'The Rock Pool'. Although, he could complete and publish only one out of these three. 'The Rock Pool' was completed and published in 1936. The book is a satire based on his experiences in south France that describes a convey of dissolute drifters. Later in 1938, Cyril Connolly wrote and published 'Enemies Of Promise', non-fiction with an autobiographical approach. He has tried to explain why and how he couldn't become the best writer who gained a lot of attention from the readers. This book became his literary masterpiece, wherein he described his failures, making them a good lesson for the readers.

In 1940, Cyril Connolly founded Horizon magazine with the financial help of Peter Watson. During World War II, Cyril Connolly wrote a noteworthy collection under the pseudonym Palinurus titled 'The Unquiet Grave'. From 1952, Cyril Connolly also worked as the chief literary critic and book reviewer for The Sunday Times. By far, Cyril Connolly had successfully written and published 16 writings, out of which the best-selling three, namely 'Enemies Of Promise', 'The Rock Pool', and 'The Unquiet Grave' gained him immense recognition. Cyril Vernon Connolly was acknowledged as a writer only after his work, 'Enemies Of Promise', which was published in 1938. He received this recognition very late in his career.

Cyril Connolly's Hobbies And Interests

Cyril Connolly was an avid reader and a wonderfully passionate writer. His library is comprised of over 8,000 books, and his written papers are today housed at Oklahoma's University of Tulsa.

Apart from literature and connected things, the life history of Cyril Connolly clearly states his love for traveling, exploring, observing new places, and his interest in meeting new people.

• During his years of meeting new people, Cyril Connolly had also met Virginia Woolf and her husband along with Elizabeth Bowen. However, Cyril Connolly and Virginia Woolf hated each other in the first instance.
• Cyril Connolly had two daughters, of which Cressida Connolly turned out to be a famous critic, writer, and biographer just like himself.
• Cyril Connolly died suddenly on November 26, 1974. He is buried at Sussex in the Berwick churchyard.
• Cyril Connolly has been referred to or mentioned many times in popular culture. Some of his mentions were in novels by Donna Tartt, Elaine Dundy, Michael Nelson, Mordecai Richler, Ian Russell McEwan, and many more such people.

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