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Louis Golding | |
|---|---|
 Golding in 1954 | |
| Born | (1895-11-19)19 November 1895 Manchester, England |
| Died | 9 August 1958(1958-08-09) (aged 62) London, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | The Queen's College, Oxford |
Louis Golding (19 November 1895 – 9 August 1958) was an English writer, famous in his time especially for his novels, though he is now largely neglected; he wrote also short stories, essays, fantasies, travel books, and poetry.
Born inManchester,Lancashire into aUkrainian-Jewish family, Golding was educated atManchester Grammar School andQueen's College, Oxford.[1] He used his Manchester background (as 'Doomington') and Jewish themes in his novels, the first of which was published while he was still an undergraduate (his student time was interrupted by service inWorld War I). Golding describedEdgar Allan Poe andAlfred, Lord Tennyson as influences on his poetry.[1]
His novelMagnolia Street was a bestseller of 1932; it is based on theHightown area of Manchester, as it was in the 1920s.[1] It features, authentically enough, a street divided into 'gentile' and 'Jewish' sides.[1] It was a 1939 play forCharles B. Cochran in an adaptation by Golding andA. E. Rawlinson, and was also filmed asMagnolia Street Story. Magnolia Street was also dramatised by Allan Prior as a BBC Television series of the same name in 1961, which ran for 6 episodes.
Golding described his politics as "strongly to the left".[1] In 1932, the Hogarth Press published Golding'sA Letter to Adolf Hitler, an attack onanti-Semitism andNazism.[2] In 1940, Golding also criticized theSoviet Invasion of Finland.[1]
Boucher andMcComas namedHoney for the Ghost the best supernatural novel of 1949, saying it "begins with infinite leisure but builds to an incomparable climactic terror."[3]
Film screenplays on which Golding collaborated included that of thePaul Robeson filmThe Proud Valley (1940); this work with Robeson may have led to his later visa problems with the U.S. authorities. He also was involved in the script ofthe 1944 film of his novelMr. Emmanuel.[4]
Golding employedGillian Freeman as a literary secretary. Freeman later became a novelist and screenwriter, often using her time with Golding as inspiration for her work.[5]
He died from carcinoma of the pancreas atSt George's Hospital, London, three weeks after an operation.[6]
