"Rupert Hart-Davis was the quintessential man of letters. Born in 1907, he stood at the centre of the literary scene until his death in 1999. Having worked for Heinemann and Cape, he founded his own publishing company after the war." "He wrote an acclaimed biography of Hugh Walpole and published his correspondence with George Lyttelton who had taught him at Eton. The Hart-Davis/Lyttelton letters, published in six volumes between 1978 and 1984, became a surprise bestseller." "His mother - to whom he was obsessively attached - died when he was at Oxford. Devastated, he left without a degree to try his hand at acting. He played alongside Gielgud, Richardson and Olivier...and found himself having to choose between two attractive young actresses: Celia Johnson and Peggy Ashcroft. When he told Celia that he was going to marry Peggy, she broke down in tears. His marriage to Peggy proved short-lived and disastrous - he lost her temporarily to J. B. Priestley and Paul Robeson and conclusively to the Russian theatre director, Komisajevksy; Celia married Rupert's close companion from his Oxford days, Peter Fleming, but both women remained Rupert's lifelong friends. Rupert married four times and eventually spent a productive retirement in his beloved Yorkshire dales."--BOOK JACKET.