Richard Buckle

Infobox Person
name = Richard Buckle


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birth_date = 6 August 1916
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death_date = 12 October 2001
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occupation = Critic
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Christopher Richard Sandforth Buckle, better known as Richard Buckle, (6 August 1916 - 12 October 2001) was a lifelong devotee of ballet, and a well-known ballet critic. He founded the magazine "Ballet" in 1939, and revived it after the war (during which he served with the Scots Guards, being mentioned in despatches in 1944 during the Italy campaign). Between 1948 and 1955 he was ballet critic for "The Observer". He organised a number of highly successful exhibitions, including most notably one in 1954 on the life and work of Diaghilev, first at the Edinburgh Festival and then at Forbes House in London. He also organised the quatercentenary Shakespeare exhibition at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1964-5. His publications include the most comprehensive biographies of Nijinsky (1971) and Diaghilev (1979), and he edited several books, including the autobiography of Lydia Sokolova and the selected diaries of Cecil Beaton.

elected writing

* "Diaghilev", Atheneum (paperback 1984), ISBN 0-689-70664-2
* "Nijinsky", Avon Books (paperback 1975), ISBN 0-380-00459-3
* "Buckle at the Ballet: Selected Criticism", Dance Books (1980), ISBN 0-903102-53-6 reviewed in New York Times, August 21, 1981 [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E3DE123BF932A1575BC0A967948260]

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4276346,00.html Obituary, "Ballet critic who revolutionised exhibition design and wrote biographies of Diaghilev and Nijinsky", The Guardian, October 13, 2001]