Literary Birthday – 10 September – Cyril Connolly

Cyril Connolly was born on 10 September 1903 and died on 26 November 1974.

Cyril Connolly Quotes

1. Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
2. Style is a relation between form and content. Where the content is less than the form, where the author pretends to emotion which he does not feel, the language will seem flamboyant. The more ignorant a writer feels, the more artificial becomes his style. A writer who thinks himself cleverer than his readers writes simply, one who is afraid they are cleverer than he, will make use of mystification: good style is arrived at when the chosen represents what the author requires of it without mystification.
3. While thoughts exist, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.
4. Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.
5. Our memories are card-indexes consulted and then put back in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.
6. There are only three things which make life worth living: to be writing a tolerably good book, to be in a dinner party of six, and to be travelling south with someone whom your conscience permits you to love.
7. No education is worth having that does not teach the lesson of concentration on a task, however unattractive. These lessons, if not learnt early, will be learnt, if at all, with pain and grief in later life.
8. Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.
9. A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.

Cyril Connolly was an English critic, novelist, editor, and man of letters. He was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. His school friends included George Orwell and Cecil Beaton. Connolly began his career in literary journalism in 1927. He contributed to the New Statesman, The Sunday Times, The Observer, and other publications. His reviews and essays covered books, writers, and the changing world of literature. In 1939, Connolly founded Horizon, a magazine devoted to contemporary literature and the arts. He edited it until 1950. The magazine became an important platform for writers, poets, and artists. It had a strong influence on British literary life. Connolly is best known for Enemies of Promise, published in 1938. The book combines literary criticism, autobiography, and reflections on writing. He also wrote the novel The Rock Pool and several collections of essays and criticism.

Source for photograph: Creative Commons, National Portrait Gallery, London

by Amanda Patterson
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