Shane Leslie (1885-1971): A Critical Biography

In my application I try to sketch a biography project relating to the Anglo-Irishman Sir Shane Leslie (1885-1971), Irish nationalist, writer and biographer, man of letters, journalist, Celtologist, folklorist, and lecturer, on which I have been working since October 2003. This will be based mainly on two large family archives in Dublin and Washington, but also on complementary archives in the UK, Ireland and the United States. The six chapters of the biography develop a theoretical framework with particular emphasis on biography and intercultural phenomena, multiple identities, psychobiography and a concise comparative analysis of Victorian biography and the "new biography" beginning with Lytton Strachey. At the same time, elaborate and in some cases detailed thematic structures, which are central to Leslie`s life and works, are developed in the outline. As a matter of fact, such a biography has been declared a desideratum for some time, but can only be written now that all the family papers are accessible. Not only was Leslie endowed with an unusually complex personality profile; he also grew up and matured in periods of profound political and cultural changes. In addition, he presents himself in innumerable contacts with important persons from politics (he was a first cousin of Winston S. Churchill), people from the British and Irish establishments, literature, the arts, and representatives of the churches. Chapter 2 is central to Leslie`s aspirations as an Irish nationalist, who, at the same time, believed in the context of constitutional home rule, in Ireland`s links with the British empire. Leslie`s involvement in Anglo-Irish-American relations against the background of World War I and the American eventual engagement will be presented at some length and hopefully open up a few new perspectives. Particularly in chapters 2 and 6 a large amount of background studies will be integrated in the archival material. The last chapter in the biography attempts not only a first evaluation of Leslie`s creative output, but also reveals many links with contemporary literature. The fact that this biography concentrates on a writer who himself practised the art of biography appears to add another interesting facet. In chapter 3 Leslie`s position as a Catholic convert, editor of an intellectual periodical, church historian with links to various Catholic hierarchies is discussed against the background of the London power base of the Catholic Church, with its conspicuous assembly of brilliant converts in the first half of the twentieth century, who nevertheless were a minority culture in the context of mainstream secularization and modernism. While chapter 4 correlates Leslie and post-Edwardian residual splendor in metropolis and rural niches, some of it with a light anecdotal touch, in chapter 5 I will attempt to write about Leslie`s bibliophile aspirations and his involvement in the transfer of folios, quartos and MSS etc from English and Irish country houses to America when, owing to his links eith the British aristocracy, he acted as an agent for the bookdealer and bibliographer Dr. A.W.S. Rosenbach. This section may in fact attract wider attention, since it throws some new light on the phenomenon of the rare book trade in a period of England`s economic decline in the thirties of the twentieth century.

In my application I try to sketch a biography project relating to the Anglo-Irishman Sir Shane Leslie (1885-1971), Irish nationalist, writer and biographer, man of letters, journalist, Celtologist, folklorist, and lecturer, on which I have been working since October 2003. This will be based mainly on two large family archives in Dublin and Washington, but also on complementary archives in the UK, Ireland and the United States. The six chapters of the biography develop a theoretical framework with particular emphasis on biography and intercultural phenomena, multiple identities, psychobiography and a concise comparative analysis of Victorian biography and the "new biography" beginning with Lytton Strachey. At the same time, elaborate and in some cases detailed thematic structures, which are central to Leslie`s life and works, are developed in the outline. As a matter of fact, such a biography has been declared a desideratum for some time, but can only be written now that all the family papers are accessible. Not only was Leslie endowed with an unusually complex personality profile; he also grew up and matured in periods of profound political and cultural changes. In addition, he presents himself in innumerable contacts with important persons from politics (he was a first cousin of Winston S. Churchill), people from the British and Irish establishments, literature, the arts, and representatives of the churches. Chapter 2 is central to Leslie`s aspirations as an Irish nationalist, who, at the same time, believed in the context of constitutional home rule, in Ireland`s links with the British empire. Leslie`s involvement in Anglo-Irish-American relations against the background of World War I and the American eventual engagement will be presented at some length and hopefully open up a few new perspectives. Particularly in chapters 2 and 6 a large amount of background studies will be integrated in the archival material. The last chapter in the biography attempts not only a first evaluation of Leslie`s creative output, but also reveals many links with contemporary literature. The fact that this biography concentrates on a writer who himself practised the art of biography appears to add another interesting facet. In chapter 3 Leslie`s position as a Catholic convert, editor of an intellectual periodical, church historian with links to various Catholic hierarchies is discussed against the background of the London power base of the Catholic Church, with its conspicuous assembly of brilliant converts in the first half of the twentieth century, who nevertheless were a minority culture in the context of mainstream secularization and modernism. While chapter 4 correlates Leslie and post-Edwardian residual splendor in metropolis and rural niches, some of it with a light anecdotal touch, in chapter 5 I will attempt to write about Leslie`s bibliophile aspirations and his involvement in the transfer of folios, quartos and MSS etc from English and Irish country houses to America when, owing to his links eith the British aristocracy, he acted as an agent for the bookdealer and bibliographer Dr. A.W.S. Rosenbach. This section may in fact attract wider attention, since it throws some new light on the phenomenon of the rare book trade in a period of England`s economic decline in the thirties of the twentieth century.