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William Alexander GerhardieOBEFRSL (21 November 1895 – 15 July 1977)[1] was an Anglo-Russian novelist and playwright. His first novel,Futility (1922), drew on his experiences of fighting the Bolsheviks in pre-revolutionary Russia.
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Gerhardie (orGerhardi – he added the "e" in later years) was born atSt Petersburg,Russia, the fifth of six children of Charles Alfred Gerhardi (1864–1925), a British expatriate industrialist, and his wife Clara Annie (1869–1948), daughter of John Wadsworth. He was educated at the SanktAnnenschule and Deutsche Reformierte Kirchenschule in St Petersburg, before completing his education in England atWorcester College, Oxford.[2]
In 1915, during theFirst World War he enlisted in theRoyal Scots Greys and trained in England while applying for a commission as an officer. After commissioning in 1916 he was posted to the staff of the British Military Attaché at Petrograd (as his birth city was then renamed) until 1918.[3] During that period he witnessed the development of the1917 Revolution which ruined his father who escaped Russia to exile in England having been allowed out through being identified with the (already dead) British socialistKeir Hardie.[2]
During theAllied intervention in the Russian Civil War following the revolution he was attached to the 3rd Battalion of theScots Guards[3] and served on the British Military Mission to the White Russian forces inSiberia. He was demobilised with the rank of captain in 1920, having been mentioned in despatches, appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and awarded theImperial RussianOrder of St Stanislaus and theCzechoslovak War Cross.[2][3]
Gerhardie was one of the most critically acclaimed English novelists of the 1920s (Evelyn Waugh told him, "I have talent, but you have genius.")H. G. Wells also championed his work. His first novel,Futility, was written while he was atOxford University and drew on his experiences in Russia fighting (or attempting to fight) theBolsheviks, along with his childhood experiences visiting pre-revolutionary Russia. Some say[who?] that it was the first work in English to explore fully the theme of "waiting", later made famous bySamuel Beckett inWaiting for Godot, but it is probably more apt to recognize a common comic nihilism between those two figures. His next novel,The Polyglots, is probably his masterpiece (although some argue forDoom). Again it deals with Russia (Gerhardie was strongly influenced by the tragi-comic style of Russian writers such asAnton Chekhov, about whom he wrote a study while in college).
He collaborated withHugh Kingsmill on the biographyThe Casanova Fable, his friendship with Kingsmill being both a source of conflict over women and a great intellectual stimulus.
In theSecond World War, Gerhardie served in the Officers Emergency Reserve and from 1942 to 1945 he worked with theBBC in its European Division, where he was first editor of the "English by Radio" language programme.[3]
After that war Gerhardie's star waned, and he became unfashionable. Although he continued to write, he published no new work after 1939. After a period of poverty-stricken oblivion, he lived to see two "definitive collected works" published by Macdonald in 1947–1949, revised in 1970–1974 with prefaces byMichael Holroyd who consistently championed his work. He was made a fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature in 1975.[4] After his death, an idiosyncratic study of world history between 1890 and 1940 was discovered among his papers, which was edited by Holroyd andRobert Skidelsky and published asGod's Fifth Column. More recently, both Prion and New Directions Press have been reissuing his works.
Gerhardie lived the last 37 years of his life in the West End of London in increasing seclusion. He died at theMiddlesex Hospital in June 1977 aged 81. After cremation his ashes were scattered inRegent's Park, at a gathering that included the writersOlivia Manning andJ. G. Farrell.[4]
Asked how to say his name, he told theLiterary Digest it was "pronouncedjer (asGer inGerald)hardy, with the accent on thea:jer-har'dy. This is the way I and my relatives pronounce it, though I am told it is incorrect. Philologists are of the opinion that it should be pronounced with theg as inGertrude. I believe they are right. I, however, cling to the family habit of mispronouncing it. But I do so without obstinacy. If the world made it worth my while I would side with the multitude."[5]
The contemporary British novelistWilliam Boyd has identified Gerhardie, along withCyril Connolly, as key inspirations for the central character (the writer Logan Mountstuart) in his 2002 novelAny Human Heart.[6] A television adaptation was released in the UK in 2010, and in the US in 2011.
