Henry Woodd Nevinson
Henry Woodd Nevinson was an influential English writer and war correspondent born on October 11, 1856, in Leicester, England. Raised in a strict evangelical Christian household, Nevinson pursued his education at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church College, Oxford, later studying German literature at Jena University. His early literary work focused on the lives of the lower classes in England, marked by a realistic and compassionate approach. Nevinson gained prominence as a war correspondent, covering significant conflicts such as the Boer War and World War I, while also documenting social issues through his writings.
He was married twice, first to Margaret Wynne Jones, with whom he had a child who became the painter C. R. W. Nevinson, and later to Evelyn Sharp, a noted women's rights advocate. Throughout his career, he produced both journalistic pieces and books, gaining respect from contemporaries like William Butler Yeats and Oscar Wilde. Nevinson's autobiographies offer valuable insights into major events of his time. He passed away on November 9, 1941, with his contributions to literature and journalism recognized in major publications, underscoring his lasting impact on social commentary and war reportage.
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Henry Woodd Nevinson
- Born: October 11, 1856
- Birthplace: Leicester, England
- Died: November 9, 1941
Biography
Henry Woodd Nevinson was born on October 11, 1856, in Leicester, England. His parents, George and Mary Basil Woodd Nevinson, were evangelical Christians who considered much secular writing, including that of William Shakespeare, to be immoral. They were very strict with their son. Nevinson attended Shrewsbury School and then Christ Church College, Oxford. He then traveled to Germany, inspired by writer Thomas Carlyle to study German literature. Nevinson spent two years in Germany, studying primarily at Jena University. During that time, he married Margaret Wynne Jones, whom he had known since childhood; one of their children was the painter C. R. W. Nevinson. After his first wife died in 1932, Nevinson in 1933 married Evelyn Sharp, a writer known for her efforts towards women’s rights.
Early in his career, Nevinson wrote short stories that depicted the lives of the lower classes in England. The stories have been praised for their compassion and realism combined with a lack of sentimentality. In 1897, Nevinson explained his pro- Greek views regarding the Greek revolution against Turkish rule to John Massingham, editor of the Daily Chronicle. Massingham hired Nevinson to cover the war for the newspaper. Nevinson became well known as a war correspondent and a writer on social issues. He observed the Boer War, street fighting in Russia in 1905, Berlin in the years leading up to World War I, the Dardanelles and the Western Front in France during World War I, and many other conflicts around the globe. His work took him to India, Spain, Morocco, and Albania. Besides his journalistic pieces, Nevinson wrote books and social commentary about the events he witnessed. He also served as literary editor of the Daily Chronicle and knew many of the leading literary figures of the time, including William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and Thomas Hardy. His autobiographies have been praised for providing an overview of many of the important events of the late nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth centuries. Nevinson’s house in Hempstead, near London, was bombed during World War II, forcing him and his wife to move to the countryside shortly before his death on November 9, 1941. He was so well respected that his death notice led the obituary columns in both the London Times and The New York Times. Both Nevinson’s fiction and nonfiction writing are remembered for the author’s compassion and analysis of social issues.