The British writer Joseph Hilaire Peter Belloc was born in Celle Saint-Cloud, France, on 27 July 1870. In 1896 he married an American, Elodie Hogan, with whom he had five children-three sons and two daughters: Louis (1897), Eleanor (1899), Elizabeth (1900), Hilary (1902) and Peter (1904). Belloc began his literary career withVerses and Sonnets (1895). He next publishedThe Bad Child’s Book of Beasts (1896), a collection of nonsense verse that was so popular it sold out in four days. Belloc then produced a series of biographies that includedDanton (1899) andRobespiere (1901). In 1902 he publishedPath to Rome, which is perhaps his most representative work for its combination of Belloc’s love for travel, as well as his fierce Roman Catholicism. It recounts Belloc’s journey on foot from Toul, France to Rome, Italy.

In 1906 Belloc was elected to the House of Commons as the representative for South Salford, a seat that he held until 1910. He left his political career to pursue journalism, founding the political journal, New Witness, with G.K. Chesterton. His political broadsides written with Chesterton and his brother, Cecil, were popularly known as the “Chesterbellocs.” Belloc also served as editor of Land and Water, a journal devoted to the progress of the First World War, from 1914 to 1920. Elodie Belloc died in 1914, and Belloc’s eldest son, Louis, was killed in 1918 while serving in World War I. Belloc’s youngest son, Peter, a captain in the Royal Marines, would later die during World War II.

Belloc was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1934 by Pope Pius XI for his devotion to Catholicism as a writer. That same year, he was also awarded an honorary Master of Arts from Oxford University. Belloc published prolifically over the course of his life. He wrote 153 books of essays, fiction, history, biography, and poetry, as well as numerous articles for periodicals.

He continued to travel extensively until suffering a stroke in 1942. On 12 July 1953, Belloc accidentally fell into his fireplace while sleeping beside it. He was badly burned and died on 16 July 1953.

Sources:

A.N. Wilson Hilaire Belloc: A Biography, Atheneum: New York, 1984.

The American historian Hoffman Nickerson (1888-1965) published primarily on military and religious history. He graduated from Harvard in 1911 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and then two years later with a Master of Arts degree. He served in both the First and Second World Wars. His correspondence with Belloc began near the end of World War I when Nickerson wrote to Belloc to express his admiration for his work. In 1944, Nickerson married Belloc's secretary, Jane ("Bonnie") Soames, with whom he had four children. Nickerson's published works include: The Inquisition (1923); The American Rich (1930); Can We Limit War? (1933); Arms and Policy 1939-1944 (1945); and The Loss of Unity (1961).

Sources:

Leo A. Codd "Hoffman Nickerson - An Appreciation," Military Affairs, Vol. 30, No.2. (Summer 1966), pp. 101-103. [Accessed online at www.jstor.org on 24 July 2007]