Word: etonisms
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Died. Sir Clarence Henry Kennett Marten, 77, gruff, kindly provost of Eton since 1945 and onetime tutor to Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret; of a heart attack; in Windsor, England. A historian who taught his royal pupils history and constitutional law, Sir Henry spent 60 years at Eton as student and teacher, was knighted on the chapel steps...
Without Impediment. "Anyone who writes Latin poetry at the age of twelve is bound to end up doing something like translating the Bible," said a Knox acquaintance recently. From his Eton days, Ronald Arbuthnott Knox, now 60, has been noted for his witty, agile mind. The sixth child of the Anglican Bishop of Manchester (both his grandfathers were also Protestant divines), he grew up in what his autobiography calls "that form of Protestant piety which the modern world half regrets, half derides as 'old-fashioned...
...believer in barter, he scandalized a housemaster at Eton by trying to pay for his son's education in pigs and potatoes. And when Osbert went to World War I with the Grenadier Guards, father Sitwell had, as usual, a practical suggestion to make. "Directly you hear the first shell, retire ... to the [cellar], and remain there quietly until all firing has ceased . . . Keep warm and have plenty of plain, nourishing food at frequent but regular intervals. And, of course, plenty of rest...
...Logical Positivism." Freddie Ayer himself is a man who hates to get up in the morning and finds writing philosophy agony ("I smoke cigarette after cigarette, twirl my watch chain, and all that sort of thing"). The son of a small businessman, he made his way on scholarships through Eton ("I wasn't awfully happy there") and Oxford ("The people were much cleverer than one"). He stayed on at Oxford as a lecturer, then (at 34) Fellow and Dean of Wadham College. In 1947, he left for a professorship at London University...
...Openers. As editor, David Astor had more to recommend himself than the family name. No man to let his schooling interfere with his education, he took six months off between Eton and Oxford to roam Germany. In Heidelberg one day in 1931, he saw and was shocked by a prenatal symptom of the police state: lines of trucks packed with truncheon-bearing police, ready to charge if unionists clashed with rowdy Nazi paraders. His mother, Nancy Astor, and her Cliveden Set didn't want to be beastly to the Germans during the Munich era, but David Astor was already...