Belloc family correspondence

Collection

Identifier: MS-2007-007

Staff Only

Dates

Creation: 1873-1947, undated
Creation: Majority of material found within 1912-1941

Scope and Contents

This collection contains correspondence to and from members of Hilaire Belloc's immediate and extended family. It features correspondence between Belloc and his three sons: Louis, Hilary, and Peter; his sister, Marie Belloc Lowndes; and his mother Bessie Raynor Parkes Belloc. Researchers should note that members of the Belloc family tend to anglicize each other's names in their correspondence, thus Hilaire becomes Hilary and Marie becomes Mary in much of this collection.

It also contains correspondence from Marie Belloc Lowndes' son-in-law and daughter, Luiz and Susan Belloc Lowndes Marques. Correspondence between Belloc and his brother-in-law, Frederick Lowndes, his nephew and niece, Charles Lowndes and Lily Belloc Lowndes, and his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hogan, is also included.

Creator

Belloc, Hilaire, 1870-1953 (Person)

Restrictions on access

Collection is open for research.

Restrictions on use

These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.

Biographical Note: Hilaire Belloc

The French-born British author Joseph Hilaire Peter Belloc was born in Celle Saint-Cloud, France, on July 27, 1870. In 1896 Hilaire married Elodie Hogan, an American, and they had three sons and two daughters: Louis (1897), Eleanor (1899), Elizabeth (1900), Hilary (1902), and Peter (1904). Belloc began his literary career with Verses and Sonnets (1895). He next published The 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 included Danton (1899) and Robespierre (1901). In 1902 he published Path 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 in England 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. He died on July 16, 1953.

Source:

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

Extent

3 Linear Feet (7 containers)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection contains correspondence to and from members of French-born British author Hilaire Belloc's (1870-1953) family and extended family.

Arrangement

Alphabetical by family member, then chronological.

Provenance

Purchased from the Belloc Estate, March 9, 2007.

Related Materials

Belloc family correspondence, MS.1996.028, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Belloc family correspondence, MS.2007.008, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Belloc family correspondence and Administrative Documents, MS.2007.009, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Bessie Rayner Parkes Belloc - Kelsey family collection, MS.1998.027, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Elodie (Hogan) Belloc correspondence, MS.2007.005, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Hilary A. Belloc papers, MS.1998.004, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Hilaire Belloc papers, MS.2005.002, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Hilaire Belloc papers, MS.2005.003, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Arthur MacGillivray, S.J. collection of twentieth-century authors, BC.1991.053, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Hilaire Belloc papers, MS.2007.012, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Herbert family - Hilaire Belloc correspondence, MS.1991.003, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Hoffman Nickerson - Hilaire Belloc collection, MS.1988.008, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Patrick Cahill collection of Belloc and Chesterton materials, MS.1986.138, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.