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Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc
Picture of Hilaire Belloc.jpg
Hilaire Belloc portrait by Emil Otto Hoppé, 1915
Born Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc
27 July 1870
La Celle-Saint-Cloud, Yvelines, France
Died 16 July 1953(1953-07-16) (aged 82)
Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom
Resting place West Grinstead, Sussex, United Kingdom
Occupation Writer, Member of Parliament (1906–1910)
Nationality French and British
Period 1896–1953
Genre Poetry, history, essays, politics, economics, travel literature
Spouse Elodie Hogan, 1896–1914

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (/hˈlɛər ˈbɛlək/; French: [ilɛʁ bɛlɔk]; 27 July 1870 – 16 July 1953) was an Anglo-French writer and historian. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, sailor, satirist, man of letters, soldier and political activist. His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford from 1906 to 1910. He was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds, but also widely regarded as a humane and sympathetic man. Belloc became a naturalised British subject in 1902, while retaining his French citizenship.

His poetry encompassed comic verses for children and religious poetry. His widely sold Cautionary Tales for Children included "Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion" and "Matilda, who told lies and was burnt to death". He also collaborated with G. K. Chesterton on a number of works.

Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France to a French father and an English mother. His sister Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes also grew up to be a writer.

His mother Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829–1925) was a woman of many talents, both as a writer and as an activist. She was a major force in efforts to gain greater equality for women, being a co-founder of the English Woman's Journal and the Langham Place Group. Belloc himself campaigned against women's suffrage; he was a member of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. Her father was Joseph Parkes (1796–1865), a prosperous solicitor and a liberal with Radical sympathies. Her mother, Elizabeth Rayner Priestley (1797–1877), was born in the United States, a granddaughter of the polymath Joseph Priestley. In 1867, Bessie married attorney Louis Belloc, son of the French painter Jean-Hilaire Belloc. In 1872, five years after they wed, Louis died, but not before being wiped out financially in a stock market crash. The young widow then brought her children back to England,


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