Dalkey Archive Press author dies
One of the most well-known novelists and biographers published by Dalkey Archive Press at the University of Houston-Victoria died Tuesday. Nicholas Mosley was 93.
His numerous novels include “Impossible Object,” nominated for the Booker Prize in 1969, and “Hopeful Monsters,” winner of the 1990 Whitbread Book of the Year Award. His novel “Accident” was published in 1965 and turned into a film starring English actor Dirk Bogarde.
Mosley’s biographies include a two-volume study of his father, Sir Oswald Mosley, the British fascist leader of the 1930s. He also wrote a memoir, “Time at War,” published in 2006, about his time in charge of a platoon positioned along the Italian front during World War II. He was awarded a Military Cross in 1945.
Dalkey Archive Press has published 22 books by the author.
“It is my view that Nicholas was one of the great innovators of the past 50 years and was what is known as a writer’s writer,” said Sir John O’Brien, Dalkey Archive Press publisher. “His novel ‘Impossible Object’ ranks as one of the finest novels of the past century.”
Mosley was born in 1923 in London. As a young boy, he developed a stammer. He was a patient of Lionel Logue, the speech specialist who worked with George VI.
After Mosley’s mother, Cynthia, died when he was 9, his father remarried one of the Mitford sisters, Diana. Their marriage was at the home of Joseph Goebbels with Adolph Hitler in attendance.
Mosley was educated at Eton College and then Balliol College, one of the colleges within the University of Oxford. In 1940, Mosley’s father and stepmother were arrested and interned for their political views.
In 1966, Mosley succeeded his aunt Irene Curzon as Baron Ravensdale, and gained a seat in the House of Lords. When Mosley’s father died in 1980, he succeeded to his father’s baronetcy. In 1999, he lost his seat in parliament as a result of House of Lords reform.
Mosley married twice and was the father of five children.
O’Brien met Mosley in the late 1970s, and Mosley became one of his best friends.
“I will miss him as a close friend and accomplished author,” he said.
Dalkey Archive Press, an internationally renowned nonprofit literary organization, moved its publishing operation to UHV in August 2015. The press publishes about 60 books a year with an emphasis on translations from more than 50 countries.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
