John Edward Courtenay Bodley

John Edward Courtenay Bodley (1853-1925) was an English civil servant, known for his writings on France.

Life

He studied at Balliol College, Oxford from 1873 to 1876. [ [http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/library/jowett/appendix.asp#_Toc45533383 Balliol College Library: Jowett Papers - Appendix ] ] An active Freemason, he approached Oscar Wilde, then also an undergraduate, and introduced him to a Masonic Lodge in Oxford [ [http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/beresiner8.html OSCAR WILDE Freemasons ] ] [Jonathan Fryer, "Wilde" (2004), p. 16.] . Richard Ellmann ["Oscar Wilde" (1987), p. 169.] attributes to Bodley a long, spiteful "New York Times" article that appeared on Wilde, on 21 January 1882.

He was secretary to Charles Dilke, from 1880. Initially Dilke thought him frivolous, but he came to play a major part in Dilke's official work and private life.. [Roy Jenkins, "Dilke" (1965 edition), p. 147 and many other references.] He was a witness in the divorce case that broke Dilke's career. [Jenkins, p. 287.] He subsequently believed that Dilke's downfall was caused by Joseph Chamberlain. [Jenkins, p. 355.]

A personal friend of Cardinal Manning ("almost certainly his most intimate non-Catholic friend", and Manning's preferred choice as biographer [Jenkins, p. 367.] ), he was his biographer only in a short work. [cite news
author=
title=CARDINAL MANNING; Mr. Bodley's Intimate Sketch of the Great Catholic Prelate
date=
work=New York Times
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E05E3D81139E633A25755C1A9659C946296D6CF
accessdate=2008-08-09]

Political writing

Bodley's political writings are in the general tradition of Hippolyte Taine, whom Bodley knew. [Silvanus Phillips Thompson, "The Life of Lord Kelvin" (reprinted 1977), note p. 913.] When Émile Boutmy, a follower of Taine, had his work on England in the same vein translated into English, ["The English People: a study of their political philosophy" (1904).] Bodley wrote an introduction.

Shane Leslie, a friend, described him as "one of the last cultured Europeans". [ [http://www.archive.org/stream/salutationtofive000369mbp/salutationtofive000369mbp_djvu.txt "Salutation to Five", p. 14.] ] A 1928 work by Charles Maurras about him was entitled "L'anglais qui a connu la France"; [The Englishman who has known France.] Maurras had already studied Bodley in 1902, in "Deux témoins de la France".

Works

*"France" (1898, two volumes)
* "L'Anglomanie et les Traditions Françaises" (1899)
*"The Coronation of Edward the Seventh: A Chapter of European and Imperial History" (1903)
*"The Church In France" (1906)
*"Cardinal Manning; The decay of idealism in France; The Institute of France" (1912)
*"L'Age Mécanique et le Déclin de l'idéalisme en France" (1913)
*"The Romance of the Battle-Line in France" (1920)

Family

The writer Ronald Victor Courtenay Bodley and the artist Josselin Reginald Courtenay Bodley (1893-1974) were his sons, and joint dedicatees of "France". His daughter Ava married Ralph Wigram in 1925, [Mary Soames, "Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills By Winston Churchill, Clementine Churchill" (1999), note p. 420.] and John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley in 1941. ["Burke's Landed Gentry of Scotland"]

Reference

*Shane Leslie (1930), "Memoir of John Edward Courtenay Bodley"

Notes

External links

* [http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/images/Portraits/026.jpgPortrait by Gilbert Baldry, Balliol Archives]