Sir Harold Nicolson (November 21, 1886 – May 1, 1968) was a British diplomat, author and politician. He was born in Teheran, the younger son of a diplomat father Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. He was educated at Wellington College and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1909 he joined the diplomatic service, in which he held various posts, participating in a junior capacity in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Tehran (also spelled Teheran) (تهران in Persian), population 8,000,000 (metropolitan: 10,000,000), is the capital of Iran and one of the major world cities. ... Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock (1849 - 1928), educated at Rugby and Oxford, was a British diplomat and politician through the last quarter of the 19th century to the middle of World War I. Career summary Foreign Office, 1870-74; Author of the History of the... Wellington College, Berkshire, the national monument to the Duke of Wellington, is an English public school, which was granted its royal charter in 1853. ... College name Balliol College Named after John de Balliol Established 1263 Sister College St Johns Master Andrew Graham JCR President Jack Hawkins Undergraduates 403 Graduates 228 Homepage Boatclub Balliol College, founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, negotiated the treaties ending World War I. The Paris Peace Conference, 1946, negotiated the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, with Germanys [[World War II allies and co-belligerents in Europe. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1913, he married the writer Vita Sackville-West, who encouraged his literary ambitions. In 1921, he published a biography of French poet Paul Verlaine, to be followed by studies of other literary figures such as Tennyson, Byron, Swinburne and Sainte-Beuve. In 1933, he wrote an account of the Paris conference entitled Peacemaking, 1919. Vita Sackville-West Vita Sackville-West (March 9, 1892 – June 2, 1962) was an English poet, novelist and gardener. ... Paul Verlaine illustrated in the frontispiece of , 1902 Paul Marie Verlaine (March 30, 1844 – January 8, 1896) is considered one of the greatest and most popular of French poets. ... Alfred, Lord Tennyson British Poet Laureate, 1850 Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom after William Wordsworth and is one of the most popular English poets. ... Lord Byron, Anglo-Scottish poet George Gordon Byron (later George Gordon Noel) 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale (January 22, 1788–April 19, 1824) was an Anglo-Scottish poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. ... Algernon Charles Swinburne (April 5, 1837 _ April 10, 1909) was a Victorian era English poet. ... Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (December 23, 1804 - October 13, 1869) was a literary critic and one of the major figures of French literary history. ...

Both Nicolson and his wife were bisexual and practiced what today we would call an open marriage. They each had a number of same-sex affairs, and once Harold had to follow Vita to France, where she had 'eloped' with Violet Trefusis, to try to win her back. However, they remained happy together -- in fact, they were famously devoted to each other, writing almost every day when they were separated, for example, because of long diplomatic postings abroad. Eventually, he gave up diplomacy, partly so they could live together in England. They had two sons, Nigel, also a politician and writer, and Ben, an art historian. In human sexuality, bisexuality describes a man or woman having a sexual orientation to persons of either or both sexes (a man or woman who sexually likes both sexes; people who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to both males and females). ... An open marriage is a marriage where both parties agree to permit sexual relationships for one or both outside the marriage, without regarding this as sexual infidelity. ... Violet Trefusis [1] (June 6, 1894 – February 29, 1972) was an English writer and socialite. ...

In the 1930s, he and his wife acquired and moved to Sissinghurst Castle, where they created the gardens that are now famous and run by the National Trust. This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... A photograph of Sissinghurst towers. ... The standard of the National Trust The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as The National Trust, is a British preservation organization. ...

In 1931, Harold Nicolson joined Sir Oswald Mosley and his recently formed New Party. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the 1931 General Election and edited the party newspaper. Nicolson ceased to support Mosley when Mosley formed the British Union of Fascists in 1932. Nicolson entered the House of Commons as National Labour Party Member of Parliament for Leicester West in the 1935 General Election. He became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Information in Winston Churchill's 1940 war time government of national unity. He lost his seat in the election of 1945. Having joined the Labour Party, he stood in the Croydon North by-election in 1948, but lost once again. He was knighted in 1953, as a reward for writing the official biography of George V. 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 – December 3, 1980), was a British politician principally known as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... The New Party were a political party briefly active in the United Kingdom in the early 1930s. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... The flag of the British Union of Fascists showing the Flash and Circle symbolic of action within unity The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the political party that existed from 1931-1945. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Leicester West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... The Labour Party has since its formation in the early 20th century been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... Croydon North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert) (3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor (formerly known as the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha). ...

Harold Nicolson's younger son was the publisher and writer Nigel Nicolson, who published works by and about his parents, including Portrait of a Marriage, their correspondence and Nicolson's diary. Nigel Nicolson MBE (19 January 1917–23 September 2004) was a British writer, publisher and politician. ... Portrait of a Marriage is the 1973 biography of writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West completed by her son Nigel Nicolson from her journals and letters. ...

Leicester West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

Books

• Paul Verlaine (1921)
• Sweet Waters (1921) novel
• Tennyson - Aspects of His Life, Character and Poetry (1923)
• Byron: The Last Journey (1924)
• Swinburne (1926)
• Some People (1927)
• The Development of English Biography (Hogarth Press, 1927) Hogarth Lectures on Literature No. 4
• Portrait of a Diplomatist (1930) on Sir Arthur Nicholson
• Swinburne and Baudelaire (1930) Zaharoff Lecture'
• People and Things: Wireless Talks (1931)
• The Changing World 2 , The New Spirit in Literature (1932)
• Peacemaking 1919 (1933)
• Public Faces (1933) novel
• Curzon: The Last Phase, 1919 – 1925: A Study in Post-War Diplomacy (1934)
• Dwight Morrow (1935)
• Politics in the Train (1936)
• Germany and the Rhineland, a Record of Addresses Delivered at Meetings Held at Chatham House (1936) with Norman Angell and others
• Helen's Tower (1937) biography of Lord Dufferin
• Small Talk (1937)
• The Meaning Of Prestige (1937) Rede Lecture /
• Diplomacy: a Basic Guide to the Conduct of Contemporary Foreign Affairs (1939)
• Why Britain is at War (1939)
• Marginal Comment (1939)
• The Desire to Please: A Story of Hamilton Rowan and the United Irishmen (1943)
• England, An Anthology (1944) editor
• Friday Mornings 1941-1944 (1944)
• Another World Than This (1945) anthology, editor with Vita Sackville-West
• The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812-1822 (1946)
• The English Sense of Humor: An Essay (1946)
• Tennyson's Two Brothers (1947) Leslie Stephen Lecture
• Comments 1944-1948 (1948)
• Benjamin Constant (1949)
• King George V (1952)
• The Evolution of Diplomatic Method (1954) Chichele Lectures 1953
• Good Behaviour: Being A Study Of Certain Types Of Civility (1955)
• The English Sense of Humour and other Essays (1956)
• Journey to Java (1957)
• Sainte-Beuve (1957)
• The Age of Reason (1700-1789) (1960)
• The Old Diplomacy and the New (1961) David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies Lecture, March 1961
• Kings, Courts and Monarchy (1962)
• Diaries and Letters (1968), edited by Nigel Nicolson, published by Collins, London

The Hogarth Press was founded in 1917 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. ... Time Magazine, October 12, 1925 Dwight Whitney Morrow (January 11, 1873–October 5, 1931) was an American businessman, politician, and diplomat. ... Sir Ralph Norman Angell Lane (December 26, 1872 – October 7, 1967) was a British lecturer, writer, and Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. ... Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, (June 21, 1826 – February 12, 1902) was a prominent member of Victorian society. ... Nigel Nicolson MBE (19 January 1917–23 September 2004) was a British writer, publisher and politician. ... William Collins was a Scottish schoolmaster and publisher, founder in 1819 of Collins, one of the firms whose amalgamation produced HarperCollins. ...

Quotation

We are inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their acts.

See also

• Orlando: A Biography
• Violet Trefusis

Orlando is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1928. ... Violet Trefusis [1] (June 6, 1894 – February 29, 1972) was an English writer and socialite. ...

Further reading

• Nigel Nicolson, Portrait of a Marriage, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973), ISBN0297766457.
• James Lees-Milne, Harold Nicolson, A Biography, (Chatto & Windus), 1980, Vol. I (1886-1929), ISBN 0701125209; 1981, Vol. II (1930-1968), ISBN 0701126027.
• Nigel Nicolson (ed.), Vita and Harold. The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson 1910-1962 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1992), ISBN 0297811827.
• David Cannadine: Portrait of More Than a Marriage: Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West Revisited. From Aspects of Aristocracy, pp.210-42. (Yale University Press, 1994), ISBN 0300059817.
• Norman Rose, Harold Nicolson (Jonathan Cape, 2005), ISBN 0224062182.
• Derek Drinkwater, Sir Harold Nicolson & International Relations, ( Oxford University Press, 2005), ISBN 0199273855.

Nigel Nicolson MBE (19 January 1917–23 September 2004) was a British writer, publisher and politician. ... Portrait of a Marriage is the 1973 biography of writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West completed by her son Nigel Nicolson from her journals and letters. ... James Lees-Milne (1908-1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses. ... Chatto and Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, the publishers. ... Nigel Nicolson MBE (19 January 1917–23 September 2004) was a British writer, publisher and politician. ... David Cannadine (born 1950) is a British historian, known for a number of books including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy and Ornamentalism; and as a commentator and broadcaster on British public life, especially the British monarchy. ... Jonathan Cape has been since 1987 an imprint of Random House. ... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ...

External links

• Harold Nicolson information from Spartacus