Background
Painter was born in Birmingham. His father was a schoolmaster, and his mother was an artist.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
George Duncan
Edit ProfileEducation
He studied classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later lectured in Latin at the University of Liverpool for one year.
Career
From 1938 until World World War II and again after the war, he worked at the British Museum in the printed books section. His two-volume biography of Proust was published in 1959 and 1965. His poem "The Lobster" was adapted into a song by the English folk-rock band Fairport Convention, on their self titled debut album.
1951: The Road to Sinodun: a winter and summer monodrama (poems) London: Rupert Hart-Davis
1953: André Gide: Marshlands and Prometheus Misbound: two satires.
London: Secker & Warburg (translation)
1956: Marcel Proust: Letters to his Mother (translation) London: Rider
1959: Marcel Proust: a biography. Volume 1. London: Chatto & Windus
1965: Marcel Proust: a biography.
Volume 2. London: Chatto & Windus
Translations into German (1962 & 1968), Italian (1965), French (1966), Spanish (1967), and Polish (1972)
1965: The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation (with R A Skelton and Thomas East Marston).
New Haven: Yale University Press. Painter contributed: The Tartar Relation, edited, with introduction, translation and commentary.
The Tartar Relation and the Vinland Map: an interpretation (New ed New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995 )
1976: William Caxton: a quincentenary biography of England"s first printer. London: Chatto & Windus X
1977: Chateaubriand: a biography.
Volume 1: 1768-1793; The longed-for tempests.
London: Chatto & Windus X.
Achievements
-
According to Miron Grindea, this was "rightly greeted as one of the great achievements in literary history", and it is still widely considered to be one of the finest literary biographies in the English language. Its second volume won the Duff Cooper Prize. His later work Chateaubriand: Volume 1 – The Longed-Foreign Tempests was awarded the 1977 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
-
Born
-
Died
December 8, 2005 (aged 91) -
Nationality
United Kingdom