Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Title	Knight Bachelor
Awarded by	the Queen of the United Kingdom
For	At the monarch's pleasure
Status	Currently constituted
Head title	Sovereign
Head	HM The Queen
Grades	Knight
Date	11th century
Higher	Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Lower	Lower level judges, et al.
Image2
Caption2	Ribbon for a Knight Bachelor }}

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry. Knights Bachelor are the most ancient sort of British knight (the rank existed during the reign of King Henry III (1216-1272)), but Knights Bachelor rank below knights of the various orders. There is no female counterpart; women deserving an honour of this rank are appointed Dame Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) instead.

Criteria

It is generally awarded for public service; amongst its recipients are all male judges of the High Court of England and Wales. It is possible to be a Knight Bachelor and a junior member of an order of chivalry without being a knight of that order; this situation has become rather common, especially among those recognised for achievements in entertainment. For instance, Sir Elton John and Sir Christopher Lee are ''Commanders of the Order of the British Empire'' (CBE), Sir Patrick Stewart is an ''Officer of the Order of the British Empire'' (OBE), and Sir Paul McCartney is a ''Member of the Order of the British Empire'' (MBE). None of them would be entitled to the honorific "Sir" by virtue of their O.B.E. honours. However, all are also Knights Bachelor and thus each may preface their name with that title.

Honorifics and post-nominals

Like other knights, Knights Bachelor are styled "Sir". Since they are not knights of any order of chivalry, there is no post-nominal associated with the award. However, when the style "Sir" is awkward or incomplete due to a subsequent appointment, recipients may sometimes use the word "Knight" or "Kt" (note the lowercase 't', which distinguishes it from "KT", the post-nominals of a Knight of the Thistle) after their name in formal documents to signify that they have the additional honour. This style is often adopted by Knights Bachelor who are also peers, baronets or knights of the various statutory orders (e.g. Sir William Boulton, Bt., Kt.).

Insignia

Until 1926 Knights Bachelor had no insignia which they could wear, but in that year King George V issued a Warrant authorising the wearing of a badge on all appropriate occasions. The Knights Bachelor badge may be worn on all such occasions upon the left side of the coat or outer garment of those upon whom the degree of Knight Bachelor has been conferred. Measuring 2 inches in length and 1 inches in width, it is described in heraldic terms as follows:

Upon an oval medallion of vermilion, enclosed by a scroll a cross-hilted sword belted and sheathed, pommel upwards, between two spurs, rowels upwards, the whole set about with the sword belt, all gilt.

In 1974, Queen Elizabeth II issued a further warrant authorising the wearing on appropriate occasions of a neck badge, slightly smaller in size, and in miniature. In 1988 a new certificate of authentication, a knight's only personal documentation, was designed by the College of Arms.

Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor

The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor was founded for the maintenance and consolidation of the Dignity of Knights Bachelor in 1908, and obtained official recognition from the Sovereign in 1912. The Society keeps records of all Knights Bachelor, in their interest.

See also

Bachelor

Knight banneret

Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood

British honours system: Knighthood

Notes

References

Insignia of knight bachelors - Website of the Imperial Society of Knight Bachelors

The UK Honours System- Website UK Government

Debrett's

ar:لقب فارس ca:Knight Bachelor de:Knight Bachelor et:Knight Bachelor fa:لقب شوالیه fr:Knight Bachelor it:Knight Bachelor hu:Knight Bachelor nl:Knight Bachelor no:Knight Bachelor pt:Cavaleiro Celibatário ru:Рыцарь-бакалавр simple:Knight Bachelor uk:Лицар-бакалавр zh:下級勳位爵士

Coordinates

3°8′51″N101°41′36″N

{{infobox writer | name

Salman Rushdie | image Salman Rushdie 2011 Shankbone.JPG | caption Rushdie at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival ''Vanity Fair'' party | pseudonym | birth_name Ahmed Salman Rushdie | birth_date June 19, 1947 | birth_place Bombay, British India | death_date | death_place | alma_mater King's College, Cambridge | occupation Novelist, essayist | nationality British Indian | ethnicity Kashmiri | period | genre Magic Realism, satire, post-colonialism | subject Criticism, travel writing | movement | spouse Clarissa Luard (1976–1987)Marianne Wiggins (1988–1993)Elizabeth West (1997–2004)Padma Lakshmi (2004–2007) | influences Günter Grass, Gabriel García Márquez, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas Pynchon, Mikhail Bulgakov, Franz Kafka, Saul Bellow | influenced Zadie Smith, Homi K. Bhabha, Taslima Nasrin, Christopher Hitchens | signature | website }}

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (, ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-British novelist and essayist. His second novel, ''Midnight's Children'' (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism mixed with historical fiction, and a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western worlds.

His fourth novel, ''The Satanic Verses'' (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, drawing protests from Muslims in several countries. Some of the protests were violent, in which death threats were issued to Rushdie, including a ''fatwā'' against him by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on February 14, 1989.

He was appointed a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to literature" in June 2007. He holds the rank ''Commandeur'' in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. He began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University in 2007. In May 2008 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked Rushdie thirteenth on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". His latest novel is ''Luka and the Fire of Life'', published in November 2010. In 2010, he announced that he has begun writing his memoirs.

Personal life

The only son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a University of Cambridge-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher, Rushdie was born in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), India, into a Muslim family of Kashmiri descent. He was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Rugby School, and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied history.

Rushdie has been married four times. He was married to his first wife Clarissa Luard from 1976 to 1987 and fathered a son, Zafar. His second wife was the American novelist Marianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993. His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West; they have a son, Milan. In 2004, he married the Indian American actress and model Padma Lakshmi, the host of the American reality-television show ''Top Chef''. The marriage ended on 2 July 2007, with Lakshmi indicating that it was her desire to end the marriage. In 2008 the Bollywood press romantically linked him to the Indian model Riya Sen, with whom he was otherwise a friend. In response to the media speculation about their friendship, she simply stated "I think when you are Salman Rushdie, you must get bored with people who always want to talk to you about literature."

In 1999, Rushdie had an operation to correct ptosis, a tendon condition that causes drooping eyelids and that, according to him, was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said.

Career

Copywriter

Rushdie's first career was as a copywriter, working for advertising agencies Ogilvy & Mather, where he came up with "irresistibubble" for Aero and "Naughty but Nice" for cream cakes, and Ayer Barker for whom he wrote the memorable line "That'll do nicely" for American Express. It was while he was with Ogilvy's that he wrote ''Midnight's Children'', before becoming a full-time writer.

Major literary work

His first novel, ''Grimus'', a part-science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary critics. His next novel, ''Midnight's Children'', catapulted him to literary notability. It significantly shaped the course that Indian writing in English followed over the next decade, and is regarded by many as one of the great books of the last 100 years. This work won the 1981 Booker Prize and, in 1993 and 2008, was awarded the Best of the Bookers as the best novel to have received the prize during its first 25 and 40 years. ''Midnight's Children'' follows the life of a child, born at the stroke of midnight as India gained its independence, who is endowed with special powers and a connection to other children born at the dawn of a new and tumultuous age in the history of the Indian sub-continent and the birth of the modern nation of India. The character of Saleem Sinai has been compared to Rushdie.

After ''Midnight's Children'', Rushdie wrote ''Shame'' (1983), in which he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan, basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. ''Shame'' won France's ''Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger'' (Best Foreign Book) and was a close runner-up for the Booker Prize. Both these works of postcolonial literature are characterised by a style of magic realism and the immigrant outlook that Rushdie is very conscious of as a member of the Indian diaspora.

Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book about Nicaragua in the 1980s, ''The Jaguar Smile'' (1987). The book has a political focus and is based on his first-hand experiences and research at the scene of Sandinista political experiments.

His most controversial work, ''The Satanic Verses'', was published in 1988 (see section below). Rushdie has published many short stories, including those collected in ''East, West'' (1994). ''The Moor's Last Sigh'', a family epic ranging over some 100 years of India's history was published in 1995. ''The Ground Beneath Her Feet'' (1999) presents an alternative history of modern rock music. The song of the same name by U2 is one of many song lyrics included in the book, hence Rushdie is credited as the lyricist. He also wrote "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" in 1990.

Rushdie has had a string of commercially successful and critically acclaimed novels. His 2005 novel ''Shalimar the Clown'' received, in India, the prestigious Hutch Crossword Book Award, and was, in Britain, a finalist for the Whitbread Book Awards. It was shortlisted for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

In his 2002 non-fiction collection ''Step Across This Line'', he professes his admiration for the Italian writer Italo Calvino and the American writer Thomas Pynchon, among others. His early influences included James Joyce, Günter Grass, Jorge Luis Borges, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Lewis Carroll. Rushdie was a personal friend of Angela Carter and praised her highly in the foreword for her collection ''Burning your Boats''.

Other activities

Rushdie has quietly mentored younger Indian (and ethnic-Indian) writers, influenced an entire generation of Indo-Anglian writers, and is an influential writer in postcolonial literature in general. He has received many plaudits for his writings, including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature, the Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and the Writer of the Year Award in Germany and many of literature's highest honours. Rushdie was the President of PEN American Center from 2004 to 2006.

He opposed the British government's introduction of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, something he writes about in his contribution to ''Free Expression Is No Offence'', a collection of essays by several writers, published by Penguin in November 2005.

In 2006, Rushdie joined the Emory University faculty as Distinguished Writer in Residence for a five-year term. Though he enjoys writing, Salman Rushdie says that he would have become an actor if his writing career had not been successful. Even from early childhood, he dreamed of appearing in Hollywood movies (which he later realized in his frequent cameo appearances).

Rushdie includes fictional television and movie characters in some of his writings. He had a cameo appearance in the film ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' based on the book of the same name, which is itself full of literary in-jokes. On 12 May 2006, Rushdie was a guest host on ''The Charlie Rose Show'', where he interviewed Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, whose 2005 film, ''Water'', faced violent protests. He appears in the role of Helen Hunt's obstetrician-gynecologist in the film adaptation (Hunt's directorial debut) of Elinor Lipman's novel ''Then She Found Me''. In September 2008, and again in March 2009, he appeared as a panelist on the HBO program "Real Time With Bill Maher".

Rushdie is currently collaborating on the screenplay for the cinematic adaptation of his novel ''Midnight's Children'' with noted director Deepa Mehta. The film will be called ''Midnight's Children''. While casting is still in progress, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, and Irrfan Khan are confirmed as participating in the film. Mehta has stated that production will begin in September, 2010.

Rushdie announced in June 2011 that he had written the first draft of a script for a new television series for the U.S. cable network Showtime, a project on which he will also serve as an executive producer. The new series, to be called ''The Next People'', will be, according to Rushie, "a sort of paranoid science-fiction series, people disappearing and being replaced by other people." The idea of a television series was suggested by his U.S. agents, said Rushdie, who felt that television would allow him more creative control than feature film. ''The Next People'' is being made by the British film production company Working Title, the firm behind such projects as ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' and ''Shaun of the Dead''.

Rushdie is a member of the advisory board of The Lunchbox Fund , a non-profit organization which provides daily meals to students of township schools in Soweto of South Africa. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America, an advocacy group representing the interests of atheistic and humanistic Americans in Washington, D.C. In November 2010 he became a founding patron of Ralston College, a new liberal arts college that has adopted as its motto a Latin translation of a phrase ("free speech is life itself") from an address he gave at Columbia University in 1991 to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

''The Satanic Verses'' and the ''fatwā''

The publication of ''The Satanic Verses'' in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. The title refers to a disputed Muslim tradition that is related in the book. According to this tradition, Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (''sura'') to the Qur'an accepting three goddesses who used to be worshipped in Mecca as divine beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying the devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of the Archangel Gibreel. The book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities. (11 total: India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore ,Venezuela and Pakistan)

On 14 February 1989, a ''fatwā'' requiring Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam" (chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety). A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for several years. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.

The publication of the book and the ''fatwā'' sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed. Many more people died in riots in Third World countries. Despite the danger posed by the fatwā, Rushdie made a public appearance at London's Wembley Stadium on 11 August 1993 during a concert by U2. In 2010, U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled that "[lead vocalist] Bono had been calling Salman Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour. When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted. You [could] tell from [drummer] Larry Mullen, Jr.'s face that we weren't expecting it. Salman was a regular visitor after that. He had a backstage pass and he used it as often as possible. For a man who was supposed to be in hiding, it was remarkably easy to see him around the place."

On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie."

Hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence. In early 2005, Khomeini's ''fatwā'' was reaffirmed by Iran's current spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid. Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the ''fatwā'' on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it, and the person who issued it – Ayatollah Khomeini – has been dead since 1989.

Rushdie has reported that he still receives a "sort of Valentine's card" from Iran each year on 14 February letting him know the country has not forgotten the vow to kill him. He said, "It's reached the point where it's a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat." Despite the threats on Rushdie, he has publicly said that his family has never been threatened and that his mother (who lived in Pakistan during the later years of her life) even received outpourings of support.

A former bodyguard to Rushdie, Ron Evans, planned to publish a book recounting the behaviour of the author during the time he was in hiding. Evans claimed that Rushdie tried to profit financially from the ''fatwa'' and was suicidal, but Rushdie dismissed the book as a "bunch of lies" and took legal action against Ron Evans, his co-author and their publisher. On 26 August 2008 Rushdie received an apology at the High Court in London from all three parties.

Failed assassination attempt and Hezbollah's comments

On 3 August 1989, while Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was priming a book bomb loaded with RDX explosives in a hotel in Paddington, Central London, the bomb exploded prematurely, destroying two floors of the hotel and killing Mazeh. A previously unknown Lebanese group, the Organization of the Mujahidin of Islam, said he died preparing an attack "on the apostate Rushdie". There is a shrine in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery for Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh that says he was "Martyred in London, 3 August 1989. The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie." Mazeh's mother was invited to relocate to Iran, and the Islamic World Movement of Martyrs' Commemoration built his shrine in the cemetery that holds thousands of Iranian soldiers slain in the Iran–Iraq War. During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's ''fatwā'' against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so. I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour and we have to be ready to do anything for that." James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation testified before the United States Congress that a "March 1989" explosion in Britain was a Hezbollah attempt to assassinate Rushdie that failed when a bomb exploded prematurely, killing a Hezbollah activist in London.

''International Guerillas''

In 1990, soon after the publication of ''The Satanic Verses'', a Pakistani film entitled ''International Gorillay'' (''International Guerillas'') was released that depicted Rushdie as plotting to cause the downfall of Pakistan by opening a chain of casinos and discos in the country. The film was popular with Pakistani audiences, and it "presents Rushdie as a Rambo-like figure pursued by four Pakistani guerrillas". The British Board of Film Classification refused to allow it a certificate, as "it was felt that the portrayal of Rushdie might qualify as criminal libel, causing a breach of the peace as opposed to merely tarnishing his reputation." This move effectively banned the film in Britain outright. However, two months later, Rushdie himself wrote to the board, saying that while he thought the film "a distorted, incompetent piece of trash", he would not sue if it were released. He later said, "If that film had been banned, it would have become the hottest video in town: everyone would have seen it". While the film was a great hit in Pakistan, it went virtually unnoticed in the West.

Knighthood

Rushdie was knighted for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 16 June 2007. He remarked, "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way." In response to his knighthood, many nations with Muslim majorities protested. Parliamentarians of several of these countries condemned the action, and Iran and Pakistan called in their British envoys to protest formally. Controversial condemnation issued by Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq was in turn rebuffed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ironically, their respective fathers Zia-ul-Haq and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been earlier portrayed in Rushdie's novel ''Shame''. Mass demonstrations against Rushdie's knighthood took place in Pakistan and Malaysia. Several called publicly for his death. Some non-Muslims expressed disappointment at Rushdie's knighthood, claiming that the writer did not merit such an honour and there were several other writers who deserved the knighthood more than Rushdie.

Al-Qaeda has condemned the Rushdie honour. The Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is quoted as saying in an audio recording that Britain's award for Indian-born Rushdie was "an insult to Islam", and it was planning "a very precise response."

Religious and political beliefs

Rushdie came from a Muslim family but says that he was never really religious. In 1990, in the "hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him," he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world. However, Rushdie later said that he was only "pretending".

His books often focus on the role of religion in society and conflicts between faiths and between the religious and those of no faith.

Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th century. Rushdie calls for a reform in Islam in a guest opinion piece printed in ''The Washington Post'' and ''The Times'' in mid-August 2005. Excerpts from his speech:

Rushdie supported the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading the leftist Tariq Ali to label Rushdie and other "warrior writers" as "the belligerati'". He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, but was a vocal critic of the 2003 war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.

In the wake of the 'Danish Cartoons Affair' in March 2006—which many considered an echo of the death threats and ''fatwā'' that followed publication of ''The Satanic Verses'' in 1989 – Rushdie signed the manifesto 'Together Facing the New Totalitarianism', a statement warning of the dangers of religious extremism. The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning French weekly ''Charlie Hebdo'' in March 2006.

In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by the then-Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw, who criticised the wearing of the niqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said, "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on Straw's side."

The Marxist critic Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work, attacked him for his positions, saying he "cheered on the Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan". However, Eagleton subsequently apologized for having misrepresented Rushdie's views.

At an appearance at 92nd Street Y, Rushdie expressed his view on copyright when answering a question whether he had considered copyright law a barrier (or impediment) to free speech.

When Amnesty International (AI) suspended human rights activist Gita Sahgal for saying to the press that she thought AI should distance itself from Moazzam Begg and his organization, Rushdie said:

Amnesty ... has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.

Bibliography

Novels

''Grimus'' (1975)

''Midnight's Children'' (1981)

''Shame'' (1983)

''The Satanic Verses'' (1988)

''The Moor's Last Sigh'' (1995)

''The Ground Beneath Her Feet'' (1999)

''Fury'' (2001)

''Shalimar the Clown'' (2005)

''The Enchantress of Florence'' (2008)

Collections

''Homeless by Choice'' (1992, with R. Jhabvala and V. S. Naipaul)

''East, West'' (1994)

''The Best American Short Stories'' (2008, as Guest Editor)

Children's Books

''Haroun and the Sea of Stories'' (1990)

''Luka and the Fire of Life'' (2010)

Essays and Non-Fiction

''The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey'' (1987)

"In Good Faith", GRANTA, 1990

''Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991'' (1992)

"Mohandas Gandhi." TIME, 13 April 1998.

"Imagine There Is No Heaven." , extracted contribution from Letters to the Six Billionth World Citizen, a UN sponsored publication in English by Uitgeverij Podium, Amsterdam. ''The Guardian'', 16 October 1999.

''Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992 - 2002'' (2002)

"A fine pickle." ''The Guardian'', 28 February 2009.

Awards

Aristeion Prize (European Union)

Arts Council Writers' Award

Author of the Year (British Book Awards)

Author of the Year (Germany)

Booker Prize for Fiction

Booker of Bookers for the best novel among the Booker Prize winners for Fiction awarded at its 25th anniversary (in 1993)

The Best of the Booker awarded to commemorate the Booker Prize's 40th anniversary (in 2008), winner by public vote

Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)

English-Speaking Union Award

Honorary Patron, University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.

Hutch Crossword Book Award (India)

India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award (USA)

James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction)

Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Sweden)

Mantua Prize (Italy)

James Joyce Award – University College Dublin

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Honorary Professorship

Chapman University Honorary Doctorate – Doctor of Humane Letters

Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Cultural Humanism (Harvard University)

Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy)

Prix Colette (Switzerland)

Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger

St. Louis Literary Award – Saint Louis University

State Prize for Literature (Austria)

Whitbread Novel Award (twice)

Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Children's Fiction

See also

Blitcon, British literary conservatives

Censorship in South Asia

Critical Studies on Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children

International PEN

List of fatwas

MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism—an open letter he co-signed regarding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

Norwegian author Axel Jensen and his collection of essays, ''God Does Not Read Novels: A Voyage in the World of Salman Rushdie'' (1994), in defence of free speech

''The Butterfly Hunter''

The Satanic Verses controversy

Notes

References

External links

Salman Rushdie official website

Article archive at Journalisted

Contemporary writers: Salman Rushdie. British Council: Arts

''New York Times'' special feature on Rushdie, 1999

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Category:Booker Prize winners Category:British Book Award winners Category:British humanists Category:British novelists Category:British people of Indian descent Category:Censorship in Islam Category:Copywriters Category:Criticism of Islam Category:Emory University faculty Category:Patrons of Ralston College Category:Fatwas Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Indian expatriates Category:Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Islam-related controversies Category:Kashmiri people Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Magic realism writers Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Category:Old Rugbeians Category:Opposition to Islam in Asia Category:People from Mumbai Category:Postcolonial literature Category:Postmodern writers Category:Indian former Muslims Category:Austrian State Prize for European Literature winners

ar:سلمان رشدي ast:Salman Rushdie az:Salman Rüşdi bn:সালমান রুশদি be:Салман Рушдзі be-x-old:Салман Рушдзі bg:Салман Рушди ca:Salman Rushdie cs:Salman Rushdie cy:Salman Rushdie da:Salman Rushdie de:Salman Rushdie es:Salman Rushdie eo:Salman Rushdie fa:سلمان رشدی fr:Salman Rushdie gl:Salman Rushdie ko:살만 루슈디 hi:सलमान रुशदी hr:Salman Rushdie id:Salman Rushdie is:Salman Rushdie it:Salman Rushdie he:סלמאן רושדי kn:ಸಲ್ಮಾನ್ ರಶ್ದಿ ka:სალმან რაშდი ku:Salman Rushdie la:Salman Rushdie lv:Salmans Rušdi lt:Salman Rushdie hu:Salman Rushdie mk:Салман Ружди ml:സൽമാൻ റഷ്ദി mr:सलमान रश्दी ms:Salman Rushdie nl:Salman Rushdie ja:サルマン・ラシュディ no:Salman Rushdie nn:Salman Rushdie pl:Salman Rushdie pt:Salman Rushdie ro:Salman Rushdie ru:Рушди, Салман sa:सलमान रश्दी simple:Salman Rushdie sk:Salman Rushdie sr:Salman Ruždi sh:Salman Rushdie fi:Salman Rushdie sv:Salman Rushdie ta:சல்மான் ருஷ்டி te:సల్మాన్ రష్దీ th:ซัลมัน รัชดี tr:Salman Rüşdi uk:Салман Рушді vi:Salman Rushdie zh-classical:西爾門·拉什迪 yi:סאלמאן ראשדי yo:Salman Rushdie zh:薩爾曼·魯西迪

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
name	Aldous Huxley
alt	Blurry monochrome head-and-shoulders portrait of Aldous Huxley, facing viewer's right, chin a couple of inches above hand
birth name	Aldous Leonard Huxley
birth date	July 26, 1894
birth place	Godalming, Surrey,England
death date	November 22, 1963
death place	Los Angeles, California,United States
resting place	Compton, Surrey,England
occupation	Writer (fiction & non-fiction)
notableworks	''Brave New World'', ''Island'', ''Point Counter Point'', ''The Doors of Perception''
influences	Swami Prabhavananda, J. Krishnamurti, F. Matthias Alexander, Yevgeny Zamyatin, William Blake, Charles Dickens, H. G. Wells, Thomas Traherne
influenced	Christopher Isherwood, Michel Houellebecq, Jim Morrison, George Orwell, Huston Smith, Kurt Vonnegut
signature	Aldous Huxley signature.svg }}

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including ''Brave New World'' and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine ''Oxford Poetry'', and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Huxley spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.

Aldous Huxley was a humanist and pacifist, and he was latterly interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism. He is also well known for advocating and taking psychedelics.

By the end of his life Huxley was considered, in some academic circles, a leader of modern thought and an intellectual of the highest rank, and highly regarded as one of the most prominent explorers of visual communication and sight-related theories as well.

Early life

Aldous Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, UK, in 1894. He was the third son of the writer and schoolmaster Leonard Huxley and his first wife, Julia Arnold, who founded Prior's Field School. Julia was the niece of poet and critic Matthew Arnold and the sister of Mrs. Humphrey Ward. Aldous was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, the zoologist, agnostic and controversialist ("Darwin's Bulldog"). His brother Julian Huxley and half-brother Andrew Huxley also became outstanding biologists. Aldous had another brother, Noel Trevelyan (1891–1914), who committed suicide after a period of clinical depression.

Huxley began his learning in his father's well-equipped botanical laboratory, then continued in a school named Hillside. His teacher was his mother who supervised him for several years until she became terminally ill. After Hillside, he was educated at Eton College. Huxley's mother died in 1908 when he was 14. In 1911, he suffered an illness (keratitis punctata) which "left [him] practically blind for two to three years". Aldous's near-blindness disqualified him from service in the First World War. Once his eyesight recovered sufficiently, he was able to study English literature at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1916 he edited ''Oxford Poetry'' and later graduated with first class honours. His brother Julian wrote,

I believe his blindness was a blessing in disguise. For one thing, it put paid to his idea of taking up medicine as a career... His uniqueness lay in his universalism. He was able to take all knowledge for his province.

Following his education at Balliol, Huxley was financially indebted to his father and had to earn a living. He taught French for a year at Eton, where Eric Blair (later to become George Orwell) and Stephen Runciman were among his pupils, but was remembered as an incompetent and hopeless teacher who couldn’t keep discipline. Nevertheless, Blair and others were impressed by his use of words. For a short while in 1918, he was employed acquiring provisions at the Air Ministry.

Significantly, Huxley also worked for a time in the 1920s at the technologically-advanced Brunner and Mond chemical plant in Billingham, Teesside, and the most recent introduction to his famous science fiction novel ''Brave New World'' (1932) states that this experience of "an ordered universe in a world of planless incoherence" was one source for the novel.

Career

Huxley completed his first (unpublished) novel at the age of 17 and began writing seriously in his early 20s. His first published novels were social satires, beginning with ''Crome Yellow'' (1921).

Bloomsbury set

During the First World War, Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor, home of Lady Ottoline Morrell, working as a farm labourer. Here he met several Bloomsbury figures including Bertrand Russell and Clive Bell. Later, in ''Crome Yellow'' (1921) he caricatured the Garsington lifestyle. In 1919 he married Maria Nys, a Belgian woman he met at Garsington; they had one son. The family lived in Italy part of the time in the 1920s, where Huxley would visit his friend D. H. Lawrence. Following Lawrence's death in 1930, Huxley edited Lawrence's letters (1933).

Works of this period included important novels on the dehumanising aspects of scientific progress, most famously ''Brave New World'', and on pacifist themes (for example, ''Eyeless in Gaza''). In ''Brave New World'' Huxley portrays a society operating on the principles of mass production and Pavlovian conditioning. Huxley was strongly influenced by F. Matthias Alexander and included him as a character in ''Eyeless in Gaza''.

Starting from this period, Huxley began to write and edit non-fiction works on pacifist issues, including ''Ends and Means'', ''An Encyclopedia of Pacifism'', and ''Pacifism and Philosophy'', and was an active member of the Peace Pledge Union.

The U.S.

In 1937, Huxley moved to Hollywood, with his wife Maria, son Matthew, and friend Gerald Heard. He lived in the U.S., mainly in southern California, until his death, but also for a time in Taos, New Mexico, where he wrote ''Ends and Means'' (published in 1937). In this work he examines the fact that although most people in modern civilisation agree that they want a world of "liberty, peace, justice, and brotherly love", they have not been able to agree on how to achieve it.

Heard introduced Huxley to Vedanta (Veda-Centric Hinduism), meditation, and vegetarianism through the principle of ahimsa. In 1938 Huxley befriended J. Krishnamurti, whose teachings he greatly admired. He also became a Vedantist in the circle of Hindu Swami Prabhavananda, and introduced Christopher Isherwood to this circle. Not long after, Huxley wrote his book on widely held spiritual values and ideas, ''The Perennial Philosophy'', which discussed the teachings of renowned mystics of the world. Huxley's book affirmed a sensibility that insists there are realities beyond the generally accepted "five senses" and that there is genuine meaning for humans beyond both sensual satisfactions and sentimentalities.

Huxley became a close friend of Remsen Bird, president of Occidental College. He spent much time at the college, which is in the Eagle Rock neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The college appears as "Tarzana College" in his satirical novel ''After Many a Summer'' (1939). The novel won Huxley that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Huxley also incorporated Bird into the novel.

During this period Huxley earned some Hollywood income as a writer. In March 1938, his friend Anita Loos, a novelist and screenwriter, put him in touch with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who hired Huxley for ''Madame Curie'' which was originally to star Greta Garbo and be directed by George Cukor. (The film was eventually filmed by MGM in 1943 with a different director and stars.) Huxley received screen credit for ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1940) and was paid for his work on a number of other films, including ''Jane Eyre'' (1944).

However, his experience in Hollywood was not a success. When he wrote a synopsis of ''Alice in Wonderland'', Walt Disney rejected it on the grounds that "he could only understand every third word". Huxley's leisurely development of ideas, it seemed, was not suitable for the movie moguls, who demanded fast, dynamic dialogue above all else. For Dick Huemer, during the 1940s, Huxley went to the first of a five meetings' session to elaborate the script of ''Alice in Wonderland'' but never came again. For author John Grant, although the movie's character the Caterpillar displays some characteristics familiar from Huxley's discussion of his experiments with hallucinogens, Huxley's contribution to the movie is nonexistent.

On 21 October 1949, Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', congratulating him on "how fine and how profoundly important the book is". In his letter to Orwell, he predicted:

Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience.

Post World War II

After the Second World War, Huxley applied for United States citizenship. His application was continuously deferred on the grounds that he would not say he would take up arms to defend the U.S. He claimed a philosophical, rather than a religious objection, and therefore was not exempt under the McCarran Act. So, he withdrew his application. Nevertheless, he remained in the country, and in 1959 he turned down an offer of a Knight Bachelor by the Macmillan government. During the 1950s Huxley's interest in the field of psychical research grew keener, and his later works are strongly influenced by both mysticism and his experiences with psychedelic drugs.

In October 1930, the English occultist Aleister Crowley dined with Huxley in Berlin, and to this day rumours persist that Crowley introduced Huxley to peyote on that occasion. He was introduced to mescaline (considered to be the key active ingredient of peyote) by the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in 1953. Through Dr. Osmond, Huxley met millionaire Alfred Matthew Hubbard who would deal with LSD on a wholesale basis. On 24 December 1955, Huxley took his first dose of LSD. Indeed, Huxley was a pioneer of self-directed psychedelic drug use "in a search for enlightenment", famously taking 100 micrograms of LSD as he lay dying. His psychedelic drug experiences are described in the essays ''The Doors of Perception'' (the title deriving from some lines in the book ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'' by William Blake), and ''Heaven and Hell''. Some of his writings on psychedelics became frequent reading among early hippies. While living in Los Angeles, Huxley was a friend of Ray Bradbury. According to Sam Weller's biography of Bradbury, the latter was dissatisfied with Huxley, especially after Huxley encouraged Bradbury to take psychedelic drugs.

Association with Vedanta

Beginning in 1939 and continuing until his death in 1963, Huxley had an extensive association with the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded and headed by Swami Prabhavananda. Together with Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood, and other followers he was initiated by the Swami and was taught meditation and spiritual practices.

In 1944 Huxley wrote the introduction to the "Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God", translated by Swami Prabhavanada and Christopher Isherwood, which was published by The Vedanta Society of Southern California.

From 1941 through 1960 Huxley contributed 48 articles to ''Vedanta and the West'', published by the Society. He also served on the editorial board with Isherwood, Heard, and playwright John van Druten from 1951 through 1962.

Huxley also occasionally lectured at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara Vedanta temples. Two of those lectures have been released on CD: ''Knowledge and Understanding'' and ''Who Are We'' from 1955.

After the publication of ''The Doors of Perception'', Huxley and the Swami disagreed about the meaning and importance of the LSD drug experience, which may have caused the relationship to cool, but Huxley continued to write articles for the Society's journal, lecture at the temple, and attend social functions.

Eyesight

With respect to details about the true quality of Huxley's eyesight at specific points in his life, there are differing accounts. Around 1939, Huxley encountered the Bates Method for better eyesight, and a teacher, Margaret Corbett, who was able to teach him in the method. In 1940, Huxley relocated from Hollywood to a ''ranchito'' in the high desert hamlet of Llano, California, in northernmost Los Angeles County. Huxley then said that his sight improved dramatically with the Bates Method and the extreme and pure natural lighting of the southwestern American desert. He reported that for the first time in over 25 years, he was able to read without glasses and without strain. He even tried driving a car along the dirt road beside the ranch. He wrote a book about his successes with the Bates Method, ''The Art of Seeing'', which was published in 1942 (US), 1943 (UK). It was from this period, with the publication of the generally disputed theories contained in the latter book, that a growing degree of popular controversy arose over the subject of Huxley’s eyesight.

It was, and to a noticeable extent still is, widely held that, for most of his life, since the illness in his teens which left Huxley nearly blind, that his eyesight was exceedingly poor (despite the partial recovery which had enabled him to study at Oxford). For instance, some ten years after publication of ''The Art of Seeing'', in 1952, Bennett Cerf was present when Huxley spoke at a Hollywood banquet, wearing no glasses and apparently reading his paper from the lectern without difficulty: "Then suddenly he faltered—and the disturbing truth became obvious. He wasn't reading his address at all. He had learned it by heart. To refresh his memory he brought the paper closer and closer to his eyes. When it was only an inch or so away he still couldn't read it, and had to fish for a magnifying glass in his pocket to make the typing visible to him. It was an agonising moment."

On the other hand, Huxley's second wife, Laura Archera Huxley, would later emphasise in her biographical account, ''This Timeless Moment'': "One of the great achievements of his life: that of having regained his sight." Here, she portrays the accomplishment as both metaphorical and considerably physiological in nature, attributing that which she cites J. Krishnamurti as naming the spirit of "freedom from the known", which she suggests that Huxley applied, non-exhaustively, in writing ''The Art of Seeing'' and utilising the Bates Method. After revealing a letter she wrote to the ''Los Angeles Times'' disclaiming the label of Huxley as a "poor fellow who can hardly see" by Walter C. Alvarez, she tempers this: "Although I feel it was an injustice to treat Aldous as though he were blind, it is true there were many indications of his impaired vision. For instance, although Aldous did not wear glasses, he would quite often use a magnifying lens." Laura Huxley proceeds to elaborate a few nuances of inconsistency peculiar to Huxley's vision. Her account, in this respect, is discernibly congruent with the following sample of Huxley's own words from ''The Art of Seeing''. "The most characteristic fact about the functioning of the total organism, or any part of the organism, is that it is not constant, but highly variable." Nevertheless, the topic of Huxley’s eyesight continues to endure similar, significant controversy, regardless of how trivial a subject matter it might initially appear.

Personal life

He married Maria Nys (10 September 1899 – 12 February 1955), a Belgian he met at Garsington, in 1919. They had one child, Matthew Huxley (19 April 1920 – 10 February 2005), who had a career as an author, anthropologist, and prominent epidemiologist. In 1955, Maria died of breast cancer.

In 1956 he married Laura Archera (1911–2007), also an author. She wrote ''This Timeless Moment'', a biography of Huxley. In 1960 Huxley himself was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, and in the years that followed, with his health deteriorating, he wrote the Utopian novel ''Island'', and gave lectures on "Human Potentialities" at the Esalen institute, which were fundamental to the forming of the Human Potential Movement.

Death

On his deathbed, unable to speak, Huxley made a written request to his wife Laura for "LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular". According to her account of his death in ''This Timeless Moment'', she obliged with an injection at 11:45 am and another a couple of hours later. He died, aged 69, at 5:20 pm on 22 November 1963, several hours after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Huxley's ashes were interred in the family grave at the Watts Cemetery, home of the Watts Mortuary Chapel in Compton, a village near Guildford, Surrey, England.

Media coverage of Huxley's passing was overshadowed by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on the same day, and the death of the British author C. S. Lewis, who also died on 22 November. This coincidence was the inspiration for Peter Kreeft's book ''Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley''. Huxley's literary legacy continues to be represented by the literary agency headed by Georges Borchardt.

Awards

1939 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''After Many a Summer Dies the Swan''.

1959 Aldous Huxley American Academy of Arts and Letters Award of Merit for ''Brave New World''.

1962 the Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature.

Film adaptations of Huxley's work

1968 ''Point Counter Point'' BBC mini-series by Simon Raven.

1971 ''The Devils'' (Ken Russell) adapted Huxley's ''The Devils of Loudun''.

1998 US TV adaptation of ''Brave New World''

Selected works

Novels

''Crome Yellow'' (1921)

''Antic Hay'' (1923)

''Those Barren Leaves'' (1925)

''Point Counter Point'' (1928)

''Brave New World'' (1932)

''Eyeless in Gaza'' (1936)

''After Many a Summer'' (1939)

''Time Must Have a Stop'' (1944)

''Ape and Essence'' (1948)

''The Genius and the Goddess'' (1955)

''Island'' (1962)

Short story collections

''Limbo'' (1920)

''Mortal Coils'' (1922)

''Little Mexican'' (U.S. title: ''Young Archimedes'') (1924)

''Two or Three Graces'' (1926)

''Brief Candles'' (1930)

''Jacob's Hands: A Fable'' (discovered 1997) co-written with Christopher Isherwood

''Collected Short Stories'' (1944)

Poetry collections

''Oxford Poetry'' (magazine editor) (1916)

''The Burning Wheel'' (1916)

''Jonah'' (1917)

''The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems'' (1918)

''Leda'' (1920)

''Selected Poems'' (1925)

''Arabia Infelix and Other Poems'' (1929)

''The Cicadas and Other Poems'' (1931)

''Collected Poems'' (1971, posthumous)

Essay collections

''On the Margin'' (1923)

''Along the Road'' (1925)

''Essays New and Old'' (1926)

''Proper Studies'' (1927)

''Do What You Will'' (1929)

''Vulgarity in Literature'' (1930)

''Music at Night'' (1931)

''Texts and Pretexts'' (1932)

''The Olive Tree and other essays'' (1936)

''Ends and Means'' (1937)

''Words and their Meanings'' (1940)

''The Art of Seeing'' (1942)

''The Perennial Philosophy'' (1945)

''Science, Liberty and Peace'' (1946)

''Themes and Variations'' (1950)

''The Doors of Perception'' (1954)

''Heaven and Hell'' (1956)

''Adonis and the Alphabet'' (U.S. title: ''Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow'') (1956)

''Collected Essays'' (1958)

''Brave New World Revisited'' (1958)

''Literature and Science'' (1963)

''Moksha: Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience 1931–63'' (1977)

''The Human Situation: Lectures at Santa Barbara, 1959'' (1977)

Screenplays

''Brave New World''

''Ape and Essence''

''Pride and Prejudice'' (Collaboration. 1940)

''Madame Curie'' (Collaboration. 1943)

''Jane Eyre'' (Collaboration with John Houseman. 1944)

''A Woman's Vengeance'' 1947

Original screenplay for Disney's animated ''Alice in Wonderland'' 1951 (rejected) ''Eyeless in Gaza'' BBC Mini-series (Collaboration with Robin Chapman. Aired 1971)

Travel books

''Along The Road: Notes and essays of a tourist'' (1925)

''Jesting Pilate: The Diary of a Journey'' (1926)

''Beyond the Mexique Bay: A Traveller's Journey'' (1934)

Children's fiction

''The Crows of Pearblossom'' (1967)

''The Travails and Tribulations of Geoffrey Peacock'' (1967)

Drama

''The Discovery'' (adapted from Francis Sheridan, 1924)

''The World of Light'' (1931)

''Mortal Coils – A Play.'' (Stage version of ''The Gioconda Smile'', 1948)

''The Genius and the Goddess'' (stage version, co-written with Betty Wendel, 1958)

''The Ambassador of Captripedia'' (1967)

''Now More Than Ever'' (Huxley's lost play discovered in 2000 in the University of Münster, Germany's Department of English Literature)

Articles written for ''Vedanta and the West''

Distractions (1941)

Distractions II (1941)

Action and Contemplation (1941)

An Appreciation (1941)

The Yellow Mustard (1941)

Lines (1941)

Some Reflections of the Lord's Prayer (1941)

Reflections of the Lord's Prayer (1942)

Reflections of the Lord's Prayer II (1942)

Words and Reality (1942)

Readings in Mysticism (1942)

Man and Reality (1942)

The Magical and the Spiritual (1942)

Religion and Time (1943)

Idolatry (1943)

Religion and Temperament (1943)

A Note on the Bhagavatam (1943)

Seven Meditations (1943)

On a Sentence From Shakespeare (1944)

The Minimum Working Hypothesis (1944)

From a Notebook (1944)

The Philosophy of the Saints (1944)

That Art Thou (1945)

That Art Thou II (1945)

The Nature of the Ground (1945)

The Nature of the Ground II (1945)

God In the World (1945)

Origins and Consequences of Some Contemporary Thought-Patterns (1946)

The Sixth Patriarch (1946)

Some Reflections on Time (1946)

Reflections on Progress (1947)

Further Reflections on Progress (1947)

William Law (1947)

Notes on Zen (1947)

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread (1948)

A Note on Gandhi (1948)

Art and Religion (1949)

Foreword to an Essay on the Indian Philosophy of Peace (1950)

A Note on Enlightenment (1952)

Substitutes for Liberation (1952)

The Desert (1954)

A Note on Patanjali (1954)

Who Are We? (1955)

Foreword to the Supreme Doctrine (1956)

Knowledge and Understanding (1956)

The "Inanimate" is Alive (1957)

Symbol and Immediate Experience (1960)

Other

''Pacifism and Philosophy'' (1936)

''An Encyclopedia of Pacifism'' (editor, 1937)

''Grey Eminence'' (1941)

''The Devils of Loudun'' (1953)

''The Politics of Ecology'' (1962) (text)

''Selected Letters'' (2007)

Bibliography

Charles J. Rolo (ed.),''The World of Aldous Huxley'', Grosset Universal Library, 1947.

John Atkins, ''Aldous Huxley: A Literary Study'', J. Calder, 1956

Nicholas Murray, ''Aldous Huxley'', Macmillan, 2003, ISBN 0312302375

Laura Archera Huxley, ''This Timeless Moment'', Celestial Arts, 2001, ISBN 0890879689

Sybille Bedford, ''Aldous Huxley: A Biography'', Harper and Row, 1974, rev. ed., Ivan R. Dee, 2002 ISBN 1566634547

James Sexton (ed.), ''Aldous Huxley: Selected Letters'', Ivan R. Dee, 2007, ISBN 1566636292

David King Dunaway, ''Huxley in Hollywood'', HarperCollins 1990, ISBN 0385415915

Aldous Huxley, ''The Human Situation: Aldous Huxley Lectures at Santa Barbara 1959'', Flamingo Modern Classic, 1994, ISBN 0006547327

Conrad Watt (ed.), ''Aldous Huxley'', Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0415159159

Dana Sawyer, ''Aldous Huxley'', Crossroad Publishing Co., 2002, ISBN 0824519872

Jerome Meckier, ''Aldous Huxley: modern satirical novelist of ideas'', Firchow and Nugel editors, LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2006, ISBN 3825896683

References

External links

Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery

BBC discussion programme ''In our time'': "Brave New World". Huxley and the novel. 9 April 2009. (Audio, 45 mins)

BBC ''In their own words'' series. 12 October 1958. (Video, 12 mins).

UC Berkeley, 20 March 1962)">"The Ultimate Revolution" (talk at UC Berkeley, 20 March 1962)

Huxley interviewed on ''The Mike Wallace interview'' 18 May 1958. (Video)

Centre for Huxley Research

Category:19th-century English people Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:British people of Cornish descent Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Consciousness researchers and theorists Category:Deaths from laryngeal cancer Category:Duke University faculty Category:English essayists Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English humanists Category:English novelists Category:English pacifists Category:English poets Category:English satirists Category:English science fiction writers Category:English short story writers Category:English travel writers Category:English vegetarians Category:Huxley family Category:People associated with the Human Potential Movement Category:People from Godalming Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Psychedelic drug advocates Category:Western mystics Category:Writers from Los Angeles Category:1894 births Category:1963 deaths

ar:ألدوس هكسلي an:Aldous Huxley az:Oldos Haksli zh-min-nan:Aldous Huxley bs:Aldous Huxley bg:Олдъс Хъксли ca:Aldous Huxley cs:Aldous Huxley cy:Aldous Huxley da:Aldous Huxley de:Aldous Huxley es:Aldous Huxley eo:Aldous Huxley eu:Aldous Huxley fa:آلدوس هاکسلی fr:Aldous Huxley fy:Aldous Huxley ga:Aldous Huxley gl:Aldous Huxley hi:ऐल्डस हक्स्ले ko:올더스 헉슬리 hy:Օլդոս Հաքսլի hr:Aldous Huxley io:Aldous Huxley it:Aldous Huxley he:אלדוס האקסלי ka:ოლდოს ჰაქსლი la:Aldous Huxley lv:Oldess Hakslijs lb:Aldous Huxley lt:Aldous Huxley hu:Aldous Huxley mk:Алдус Хаксли nl:Aldous Huxley ja:オルダス・ハクスリー no:Aldous Huxley nn:Aldous Huxley oc:Aldous Huxley pl:Aldous Huxley pt:Aldous Huxley ro:Aldous Huxley ru:Хаксли, Олдос Леонард simple:Aldous Huxley sk:Aldous Huxley sl:Aldous Huxley sr:Олдус Хаксли sh:Aldous Huxley fi:Aldous Huxley sv:Aldous Huxley th:อัลดัส ฮักซลีย์ tg:Олдос Ҳакслӣ tr:Aldous Huxley uk:Олдос Хакслі vi:Aldous Huxley zh:奥尔德斯·赫胥黎

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Name	Sir Charles Kingsford Smith
Full name	Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith
Nickname	Smithy
Birth date	February 09, 1897
Birth place	Hamilton, Brisbane, Queensland
Death date	November 08, 1935
Death place	Sea off Burma
Death cause	Crashed in the sea off Burma
Nationality	British subject Australian
Known for	First non-stop crossing of the Australian mainlandTrans-Pacific flightEngland to Australia air race
Air force	Australian Flying CorpsRoyal Flying CorpsRoyal Air Force
Battles	World War I Gallipoli Campaign Western Front
Rank	Captain (substantive)Air Commodore (honorary)
Awards	Knight BachelorMilitary CrossAir Force Cross }}

Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith MC, AFC (9 February 1897 – 8 November 1935), often called by his nickname ''Smithy'', was an early Australian aviator. In 1928, he earned global fame when he made the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia. He also made the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, the first flights between Australia and New Zealand, and the first eastward Pacific crossing from Australia to the United States. He also made a flight from Australia to London, setting a new record of 10.5 days.

Early life

Charles Edward Kingsford Smith was born on 9 February 1897 in Hamilton (a suburb of Brisbane), Queensland, Australia, and was the youngest of seven children of William Charles Smith (1852–1930), a bank manager, and Catherine Mary Kingsford (1857–1938), daughter of Richard Ash Kingsford, a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. Like his siblings, Charles's birth was registered with the surname Smith. However, his parents found having such a common name as Smith too confusing and so adopted the use of "Kingsford Smith" as the family surname.

From 1903 to 1907, he and his family lived in Vancouver, Canada.

On 2 January 1907 young Charles Kingsford Smith was rescued from certain drowning at Sydney's famous Bondi Beach by bathers who, just seven weeks later, were responsible for founding the world's first official surf life saving group at Bondi Beach on 21 February 1907, at a meeting held at the Royal Hotel Bondi Beach.

Upon returning to Australia, he attended St Andrew's Cathedral School in Sydney where he was a treble chorister in the cathedral choir. He then studied electrical engineering at Sydney Technical College (now known as Sydney Technical High School).

Charles Kingsford Smith was twice married. His first marriage was to Thelma Eileen Corboy (1901–1990) on 6 June 1923 at the Marble Bar Registrar's Office in Western Australia. They were divorced in 1928. His second marriage was to Mary Powell (1910–1997) on 10 December 1930 at Scots' Church, Melbourne. Charles and Mary and had one son, Charles Arthur Kingsford Smith who was born on 22 December 1932. The family resided at Darling Point in Sydney.

World War I and early flying experience

At 16, Kingsford Smith became an engineering apprentice with the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. In 1915, he enlisted for duty in the 1st AIF (Australian Army) and served at Gallipoli. Initially, he performed duty as a motorcycle despatch rider, before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps, earning his pilot's wings in 1917.

In August 1917, while serving with No. 23 Squadron, Kingsford Smith was shot down and received injuries which required amputation of a large part of his left foot. He was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry in battle. As his recovery was predicted to be lengthy, Kingsford Smith was permitted to take leave in Australia where he visited his parents. Returning to England, Kingsford Smith was assigned to instructor duties and promoted to Captain.

On 1 April 1918, along with other members of the Royal Flying Corps, Kingsford Smith was transferred to the newly established Royal Air Force. On being demobilised in England, in early 1919, he joined Tasmanian Cyril Maddocks, to form Kingsford Smith, Maddocks Aeros Ltd., flying a joy-riding service mainly in the North of England, during the summer of 1919, initially using surplus DH.6 trainers, then surplus B.E.2s. Later Kingsford Smith worked as a barnstormer in the United States before returning to Australia in 1921. He did the same in Australia and also flew airmail services, and began to plan his record-breaking flight across the Pacific. Applying for a commercial pilot's licence on 2 June 1921 (in which he gave his name as 'Charles Edward Kingsford-Smith'), he became one of Australia's first airline pilots when he was chosen by Norman Brearley to fly for the newly formed West Australian Airways.

During the first World War, a man named Ken Richards was the observer in Kingsford Smith's plane in France. After the war, Richards moved to Cowra, New South Wales. Kingsford Smith owned an old Avro plane and in 1922 he flew up to Cowra to see Richards. While in Cowra, Kingsford Smith and Richards flew under the Cowra traffic bridge. The pair also attempted to fly under the nearby railway bridge but Richards noticed telephone lines seconds before the attempt and was able to pull the aircraft away from certain death.

1928 Trans-Pacific flight

Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm arrived in the United States and began to search for an aircraft. From the famed Australian polar explorer, Sir Hubert Wilkins, they purchased and equipped a Fokker F.VII/3m monoplane, which they named the ''Southern Cross''.

At 8:54 am on 31 May 1928, Kingsford Smith and his crew left Oakland, California, to make the first trans-Pacific flight to Australia. The flight was in three stages. The first stage from Oakland to Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii was , taking 27 hours 25 minutes and was uneventful. They then took off from Barking Sands on Mana, Kauai, as the runway at Wheeler was not long enough, proceeding to Suva, Fiji, away, taking 34 hours 30 minutes. This was the most demanding part of the journey as they flew through a massive lightning storm near the Equator. They then flew on to Brisbane, in 20 hours, where they landed on 9 June after approximately total distance. On arrival, Kingsford Smith was met by a huge crowd of 25,000 at Eagle Farm Airport, and was feted as a hero. Australian aviator Charles Ulm was the relief pilot, and the other two crew members were Americans James Warner and Captain Harry Lyon (who were the radio operator, navigator and engineer).

A Screen Australia movie of the event is available.

A young aspiring New Zealander named Jean Batten attended a dinner in Australia featuring Kingsford Smith after the trans-Pacific flight and told him "I'm going to learn to fly." She later convinced him to take her for a ride in the ''Southern Cross'' and went on to become a record-setting aviatrix, following his example instead of his advice ("Don't attempt to break men's records – and don't fly at night", he told her in 1928 and remembered wryly later).

1928 Trans-Tasman flight

After making the first non-stop flight across Australia from Point Cook near Melbourne to Perth, in Western Australia in August 1928, Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm registered themselves as Australian National Airways (see below). They then decided to attempt the Tasman crossing to New Zealand not only because it had never yet been done, but also in the hope the Australian Government would grant Australian National Airways a subsidised contract to carry scheduled mail on a regular basis. The Tasman remained unflown after the failure of the first attempt in January 1928, when New Zealanders John Moncrieff and George Hood vanished without trace.

Kingsford Smith's flight was planned for takeoff from Richmond, near Sydney, on 2 September, with a landing around 0900 on Sunday 3 September at Wigram Aerodrome, near Christchurch, the principal city in the South Island of New Zealand. This plan drew a storm of protest from New Zealand churchmen about ‘setting the sanctity of the Sabbath at nought’. The mayor of Christchurch supported the churchmen and cabled a protest to Kingsford Smith. As it happened, unfavourable weather developed over the Tasman and the flight was deferred, so it is not known if or how Kingsford Smith would have heeded the cable.

Accompanied by Charles Ulm, navigator Harold Arthur Litchfield, and radio operator Thomas H. McWilliams, a New Zealander made available by the New Zealand Government, Kingsford Smith left Richmond in the evening of 10 September, planning to fly overnight to a daylight landing after a flight of about 14 hours. The 1,600 mile / 2,600 km planned route was only just over half the distance between Hawaii and Fiji. After a stormy flight, at times through icing conditions, the ''Southern Cross'' made landfall in much improved weather near Cook Strait, the passage between New Zealand's two main islands. At an estimated 150 miles out from New Zealand the crew had dropped a wreath in memory of the two New Zealanders who had disappeared during their attempt to cross the Tasman earlier that year.

There was a tremendous welcome in Christchurch, where the ''Southern Cross'' landed at 0922 after a flight of 14 hours and 25 minutes. About 30,000 people made their way to Wigram, including many students from state schools, who were given the day off, and public servants, who were granted leave until 11 a.m. The event was also broadcast live on radio.

While the New Zealand Air Force overhauled the ''Southern Cross'' free of charge Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm were taken on a triumphant tour of New Zealand, flying in Bristol Fighters. The return to Sydney was made from Blenheim, a small city at the north of the South Island. Hampered by fog, severe weather and a minor navigational error, the flight to Richmond took over 23 hours; on touchdown the aircraft had only enough fuel for another 10 minutes flying.

Australian National Airways

'Coffee Royal' incident

On 31 March 1929, enroute from Sydney to England, the ''Southern Cross'' with Kingsford Smith at the helm made an emergency landing on a mudflat near the mouth of the Glenelg River, in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. The ''Southern Cross'' was found and rescued after a fortnight's searching, with George Innes Beard, Albert Barunga and Wally from Kunmunya Mission the first overland party to reach the downed aircraft.

Two men (both old friends of Kingsford Smith) — Keith Vincent Anderson and Henry Smith 'Bobby' Hitchcock, in their Westland Widgeon plane named ''Kookaburra'' — crash landed in the Tanami Desert in Central Australia and died of thirst and exposure on 12 April 1929 while on their way to help with the search. Despite Kingsford Smith being exonerated by an official enquiry, many sections of the media and public felt that the forced landing, dubbed the 'Coffee Royal' incident after the brew of coffee and brandy which the crew had drunk while awaiting rescue, had been a publicity stunt and that Kingsford Smith was responsible for the deaths. His reputation within Australia never fully recovered during his lifetime.

The bodies of Anderson and Hitchcock were later recovered from the Tanani Desert. Hitchcock's body was returned to Perth for burial at Karrakatta Cemetery, while Anderson's body was returned to Sydney. Over 6000 mourners attended Keith Anderson's funeral. It was an elaborate affair befitting a national hero. Anderson was buried at Rawson Park, Mosman on 6 July 1929. A ''grand'' memorial was later erected at the gravesite in his honour.

Later flights

In 1930, he competed in an England to Australia air race, and, flying solo, won the event taking 13 days. He arrived in Sydney on 22 October 1930.

In 1931 he purchased an Avro Avian he named the ''Southern Cross Minor'', to attempt an Australia to England flight. He later sold the aircraft to Captain W.N. "Bill" Lancaster who vanished on 11 April 1933 over the Sahara Desert; Lancaster's remains were not found until 1962. The wreck of the ''Southern Cross Minor'' is now in the Queensland Museum. Also in 1931, Smith began developing the Southern Cross automobile as a side project.

In 1933 Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales was used by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith as the runway for the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.

In 1934, he purchased a Lockheed Altair, the ''Lady Southern Cross'', with the intention of competing in the MacRobertson Air Race. He was unable to make it to England in time for the start of the race, and so flew the ''Lady Southern Cross'' from Australia to the United States instead; the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean by aircraft.

Disappearance and death

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge were flying the ''Lady Southern Cross'' overnight from Allahabad, India, to Singapore, as part of their attempt to break the England-Australia speed record held by C. W. A. Scott and Tom Campbell Black, when they disappeared over the Andaman Sea in the early hours of 8 November 1935. Their bodies were never found.

Eighteen months later, Burmese fishermen found an undercarriage leg and wheel (with its tyre still inflated) which had been washed ashore at Aye Island in the Gulf of Martaban, off the southeast coastline of Burma, some south of Mottama (formerly known as Martaban). Lockheed confirmed the undercarriage leg to be from the ''Lady Southern Cross''. Botanists who examined the weeds clinging to the undercarriage leg estimated that the aircraft itself lies not far from the island at a depth of approximately . The undercarriage leg is now on public display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.

In 2009 a Sydney film crew claimed they were certain they had found the ''Lady Southern Cross''. The location of the claimed find was widely mis-reported as "in the Bay of Bengal" – the 2009 search was at the same location where the landing gear had been found in 1937, at Aye Island, in the Andaman Sea.

Kingsford Smith was survived by his wife, Mary Kingsford Smith and their three year old son Charles Jnr. His autobiography ''My Flying Life'', was published posthumously in 1937 and became a best seller.

Honours and Legacy

Charles Kingsford Smith was honoured in the 1932 King's Birthday Honours List and was awarded the rank of Knight Bachelor. He was knighted on 3 June 1932 by the Australian Governor-General Sir Isaac Isaacs for services to aviation and later was appointed honorary Air Commodore of the Royal Australian Air Force.

thumb|right|The Kingsford Smith Memorial, Brisbane, housing the ''[[Southern Cross (aircraft)|Southern Cross'']]The major airport of Sydney, located in the suburb of Mascot was named Kingsford Smith International Airport in his honour. The federal electorate surrounding the airport is named the Division of Kingsford Smith, and includes the suburb of Kingsford.

His most famous aircraft, the ''Southern Cross'', is now preserved and displayed in a purpose-built memorial to Sir Charles Kingsford Smith near the International Terminal at Brisbane Airport. Kingsford Smith sold the plane to the Australian Government in 1935 for £3000 so it could be put on permanent display for the public. The plane was carefully stored for many years before the current memorial was built.

Kingsford Smith Drive in Brisbane passes through the suburb of his birth, Hamilton. Another Kingsford Smith Drive, which is located in the Canberra district of Belconnen, intersects with Southern Cross Drive.

Opened in 2009, Kingsford Smith School in the Canberra suburb of Holt was named after the famous aviator, as was Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith Elementary School in Vancouver, Canada.

He was pictured on the Australian $20 paper note (in circulation from 1966 until 1994, when the $20 polymer note was introduced to replace it) to honour his contribution to aviation and his accomplishments during his life. He was also depicted on the Australian one-dollar coin of 1997, the centenary of his birth.

Albert Park in Suva, where he landed on the trans-Pacific flight, now contains the Kingsford Smith Pavilion.

A memorial stands at Seven Mile Beach (New South Wales) commemorating the first commercial flight to New Zealand.

Qantas named its sixth Airbus A380 (VH-OQF) after Kingsford Smith.

KLM named one of its Boeing 747s (PH-BUM) after Kingsford Smith.

Popular culture

The 1946 Australian film ''Smithy'', with Ron Randell as Charles Kingsford Smith and John Tate as Charles Ulm.

The 1985 Australian television mini-series ''A Thousand Skies'', with John Walton as Kingsford Smith and Andrew Clarke as Ulm.

Bill Bryson details Kingsford Smith's life in his book "Down Under"

Australian author Peter FitzSimons's book, ''CHARLES KINGSFORD SMITH and Those Magnificent Men'', details an extensive exploration of Smithy's life and of aviation history – Published by ''Harper Collins'', Australia. 2009. (ISBN 978 0 7322 8819 8).

See also

List of firsts in aviation

References

External links

The Pioneers – Charles Kingsford Smith

Charles Kingsford Smith biography Ace Pilots

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Australian Heroes

Charles Kingsford Smith about the Tasman flight

Charles Kingsford Smith (includes photos of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and his aeroplane, the ''Southern Cross'')

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Sound Recordings and Newsreels

Austin Byrne and the Kingsford Smith Southern Cross Memoria Memorial

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith at the National Film and Sound Archive

Old Newspaper Articles – various Australian newspaper reports and photos about the Pacific Ocean crossing in 1928

National Museum of Australia: Fragment of the ''Southern Cross'' propeller that went into space

Category:1897 births Category:1935 deaths Category:Missing people Category:Australian aviators Category:Aviation pioneers Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents Category:People from Brisbane Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Australian knights Category:Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:Royal Flying Corps officers Category:Royal Air Force officers Category:Royal Australian Air Force officers Category:Segrave Trophy recipients Category:People educated at Sydney Technical High School Smith, Charles Kingsford

de:Charles Kingsford Smith fr:Charles Kingsford Smith nl:Charles Kingsford Smith ja:チャールズ・キングスフォード・スミス no:Charles Kingsford Smith zh:查尔斯·金斯福德·史密斯

Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera (and its predecessor) and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Early life and background

Charles was born in Schenectady, New York, to Australian parents, Alan Mackerras and Catherine MacLaurin. His father was an electrical engineer and a Quaker. In 1928, when Charles was aged three, the family moved to Sydney, Australia. They initially lived in the suburb of Vaucluse, and in 1933, moved to the then semi-rural suburb of Turramurra. Mackerras was the eldest of their seven children, including five brothers, the others being Malcolm, Colin, Alastair and Neil and two sisters, Joan and Elisabeth. They are descendants of the pioneer Australian musician Isaac Nathan. Mackerras studied violin at the age of seven and later the flute and was setting poems to music at eight, and wrote a piano concerto when he was 12.

Mackerras initially attended his father's alma mater, Sydney Grammar School, and also St Aloysius College in Sydney. While at Sydney Grammar, he showed a precocious talent by composing operas and conducting student performances in his early teens but his non-musical studies suffered. Unconvinced that music was a viable profession, his parents removed the young Mackerras from temptation by sending him to board at The King's School. The school's focus on sport and discipline led the young artist to run away several times and he was eventually expelled.

At age 16, Mackerras studied oboe, piano and composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. He earned additional income from writing orchestral scores from recordings. In 1943, Mackerras joined the ABC Sydney Orchestra as second oboist and at age 19, became principal oboist. On 1947, Mackerras sailed for England on the RMS Rangitiki intending to pursue conducting. He joined Sadler's Wells Theatre as an orchestral oboist and cor anglais player. He later won a British Council Scholarship, enabling him to study conducting with Václav Talich at the Prague Academy of Music. While there, he formed a strong friendship with Jiří Tancibudek, Principal Oboe of the Czech Philharmonic, who introduced him to the operas of Leoš Janáček, thus commencing Mackerras's life-long passion for that composer's music. Tancibudek later emigrated to Australia himself.

In 1947, Mackerras married Judy Wilkins, a clarinettist. They had two daughters, Fiona and Catherine. Fiona died of cancer in 2007. He was also the uncle of the Australian conductor Alexander Briger.

Early career

Returning to England from Prague in 1948, Mackerras rejoined Sadler's Wells and began his life-long association with the Sadler's Wells Opera, now English National Opera, conducting, among others, Janáček, Handel, Gluck, Bach, and Donizetti. In the 1950s, well before the "authenticity" movement had come to general notice, Mackerras focused on the study and practical realization of period performance techniques, culminating in his landmark 1959 recording of Handel's ''Music for the Royal Fireworks'' using the original wind band instrumentation. In his 1965 performance of ''The Marriage of Figaro'', he added the ornamentation in a historically informed style.

Mackerras also strongly championed the music of Janáček outside Czechoslovakia, where Mackerras himself judged his work with Janáček as his single most important legacy to music. In 1951, he conducted the British premiere of ''Káťa Kabanová''. He was also a noted authority on Mozart's operas and those of Sir Arthur Sullivan. His Sullivan ballet arrangement ''Pineapple Poll'' (1951, just after the expiration of copyright on Sullivan's music), based on one of Gilbert's ''Bab Ballads'', continues to be a popular light music favourite in English speaking countries. Mackerras also arranged music by Giuseppe Verdi for the ballet ''The Lady and the Fool''. He also arranged a suite from John Ireland's score for the 1946 film ''The Overlanders'', after Ireland's death in 1962.

He became principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra from 1954 to 1956. In 1963, he made his debut at London's Covent Garden conducting Shostakovich's ''Katerina Izmailova''. He directed the Hamburg State Opera from 1965 to 1969 and the English National Opera from 1970 to 1977. In 1972, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York conducting Gluck's ''Orfeo ed Euridice''. Mackerras worked closely with Benjamin Britten for a time until 1958, when, during rehearsals for Britten's opera ''Noye's Fludde'', he made comments about Britten liking prepubescent boys' company and they subsequently severed their relationship. The events are described in John Bridcut's ''Britten's Children''.

He conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Birgit Nilsson in the opening concert of the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1973.

Later career

Mackerras was a guest conductor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''The Mikado'' during the 1975 D'Oyly Carte Centenary season at the Savoy. He later joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Trust and later its Board of Trustees. In 1982 he was the first Australian national appointed chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1985.

In 1980, he became the first non-Briton to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Last Night of the Proms.

Mackerras directed the Welsh National Opera from 1987 to 1992, where his Janáček productions won particular praise. One of the highlights of the 1991 season was the reopening of the Estates Theatre in Prague, scene of the original premiere of Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'', in which Mackerras conducted a new production of that opera to mark the bicentenary of Mozart's death. As Conductor Emeritus of Welsh National Opera, his successes included ''Tristan und Isolde'', ''The Yeomen of the Guard'', and ''La clemenza di Tito'' (all of which productions were brought to London). He was the principal guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) from 1992 to 1995, and held the title of Conductor Laureate with the SCO. He was principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1993 to 1996. During the same period, he was also principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Opera. From 1998 to 2001 he was the music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's. From 1987, he regularly conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and was appointed Emeritus Conductor in 2007.

In 2004, he became principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. He was also principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Royal Opera, he conducted productions of Gounod's ''Roméo et Juliette'' and Handel's ''Semele''. Mackerras also had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, where he conducted ''The Makropulos Case'', ''Káťa Kabanová'' and ''The Magic Flute''.

In August 2008, Mackerras was announced as the new Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival Society. He was only the second person to hold this role, after Yehudi Menuhin. As the original part of the largest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh International Festival featured performances from Mackerras throughout six decades since his first in 1952.

Mackerras summarised his strategy for working with an orchestra as follows:

Mackerras was the President of Trinity College of Music, London. He also served as Music Advisor to City Opera of Vancouver, a professional chamber opera company led by conductor Charles Barber. He was also a Patron of Bampton Classical Opera.

On 18 December 2008, Mackerras served as the conductor for Alfred Brendel's final concert performance with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Mackerras's last public performance saw him conduct ''Così fan tutte'' at Glyndebourne in the summer of 2010.

Since 1999 Mackerras was a Patron of the Australian children's cancer charity Redkite.

Death

Mackerras died in London on 14 July 2010 at the age of 84, having suffered from cancer. Throughout his final illness, he had continued to conduct, and had been scheduled to direct two of the BBC Proms on and 2010. He was also due to conduct the Scottish Chamber Orchestra performing Mozart's ''Idomeneo'' at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2010, which would have been his 56th appearance at the festival. The director of the BBC Proms, Roger Wright, announced that a Prom would be dedicated to Mackerras's memory. Wright paid tribute to Mackerras, saying "Sir Charles was a great conductor and his loss will be deeply felt by musicians and audiences alike", while Rory Jeffes of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra said that Australia had "lost a living treasure" Mackerras is survived by his wife, Judy, and their daughter, Catherine. His funeral was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden on 23 July 2010.

Recordings

Mackerras made his earliest records for EMI, in the final days of 78 rpm records, and he continued recording well into the era of compact discs in the multi-channel Super Audio CD format. In 1952, he conducted his first recording of his own ''Pineapple Poll'' ballet, which was issued on twelve sides, and subsequently transferred to LP. Some of his early recording sessions were for Walter Legge, standing in when Otto Klemperer and other eminent conductors were ill.

He did not always restrict himself to the classical repertoire. For example, on 1955 he recorded Albert Arlen's song ''Clancy of the Overflow'' (to Banjo Paterson's poem) with Peter Dawson and the London Symphony Orchestra.

A smaller UK record company, Pye Records, asked Mackerras to record Handel's ''Music for the Royal Fireworks''. 'We had to do that in the middle of the night, in order to get our twenty-six oboes together.' The recording, issued in 1959, was received with critical acclaim for attempting to reproduce the sound Handel would have heard, rather than the smoother orchestral arrangements usually played at that time.

In the 1960s Mackerras made the first recording of the Italian version of Gluck's ''Orfeo''. For DG he conducted Purcell's ''Dido and Aeneas'', and for EMI a 'new-look' ''Messiah'', with scholarly texts, small forces and sprightly tempi. He followed that up with Handel's ''Saul'' and ''Israel in Egypt'' for DG. He also recorded the first complete ''Roberto Devereux'' with Beverly Sills.

In 1986, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the soundtrack to Carroll Ballard's film version of ''The Nutcracker'' (better known as ''Nutcracker: The Motion Picture''), the first full-length film version of Tchaikovsky's ballet to be given a major release in theatres.

Mackerras recorded three Mahler symphonies and all of the symphonies of Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven. Along with the Mozart operas, these recordings continue to attract critical acclaim; as do his recordings of the operas of Janáček (Decca, Supraphon, and Chandos), and major works of Handel, Dvořák, Martinů, Richard Strauss, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Donizetti, Elgar, Delius, Walton, Holst, and Haydn, among many others.

For Telarc he also conducted Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Trial by Jury'', ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'', ''The Mikado'', and ''The Yeomen of the Guard''. In collaboration with David Mackie he reconstructed Sullivan's "lost" cello concerto, conducting its first performance with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and the London Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall, London, in April 1986, and a recording for EMI shortly afterwards.

Mackerras's discography also includes a recording of Britten's ''Gloriana'', which won ''Gramophone'' magazine's "Best Opera Recording" in 1994. In 1997, Mackerras recorded ''Le delizie dell'amor'', with the soprano Andrea Rost, for Sony Classical. His most recent release for that label was ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' with the Hanover Band (S2K 63174). Other recent recordings for Sony Classical include Chopin's two piano concertos with Emanuel Ax and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (SK 60771) and (SK 63371). He also recorded Dvořák's ''Rusalka'' (Decca) and ''Slavonic Dances (Supraphon)'', Josef Suk's ''A Summer Tale'' (Decca), Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 24 with Alfred Brendel (Philips), and Brahms's two orchestral serenades (Telarc). For Linn Records he recorded a two-SACD set of Mozart's last four symphonies with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in August 2007.

Honours

Charles Mackerras was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1974 New Year Honours, and was knighted in the 1979 New Year Honours. In 1978, he was presented with the Janáček Medal for services to Czech music, on stage at the Coliseum Theatre, by the Czechoslovak ambassador. In 1990, he was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Hull. In 1996, he received the Medal of Merit from the Czech Republic, and, in 1997 he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for services to music and Australian music. In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal, created to mark the centenary of the Federation of Australia. In 2003 he was made a Companion of Honour (CH) in the Queen's Birthday Honours. In 2005, he was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, and he was also the first recipient of the Queen's Medal for Music, announced by the Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall before a Proms performance of ''HMS Pinafore''.

References

External links

Charles Mackerras at the Bach Cantatas Website

Charles Mackerras profile and interview at ClassicsToday.com

Charles Mackerras biography and interview at the Philharmonia Orchestra

Interview with Charles Mackerras at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Profile focusing on Mackerras's Sullivan connections

Recent profile of Mackerras

Clip of Mackerras conducting

Photos of Mackerras throughout his life

Mackerras and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 'Sydney Opera House Opening Concert' in 1973

1956 | after=Vilém Tauský }} 1977 | after=Charles Groves }} {{S-ttl| title = Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra | years = 19821985}} 1992 | after=Carlo Rizzi }}

Category:1925 births Category:2010 deaths Category:People from Schenectady, New York Category:People from Sydney Category:People educated at The King's School, Parramatta Category:Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni Category:Australian conductors (music) Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Music directors (opera) Category:Gilbert and Sullivan performers Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Companions of the Order of Australia Category:Recipients of the Centenary Medal Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Australian knights Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:Cancer deaths in England Category:Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)‎ Category:People educated at Sydney Grammar School

ca:Charles MacKerras cs:Charles Mackerras cy:Charles Mackerras de:Charles Mackerras es:Charles Mackerras fr:Charles Mackerras it:Charles Mackerras he:צ'ארלס מקקראס nl:Charles Mackerras ja:チャールズ・マッケラス pt:Charles Mackerras ru:Маккеррас, Чарльз simple:Charles Mackerras fi:Charles Mackerras sv:Charles Mackerras uk:Чарлз Маккерас