In his own day a formidable man of letters, after his death gradually forgotten, if Cyril Connolly is still remembered it is as the author of

Enemies of Promise

, his study of the problems facing writers, and as the editor of

Horizon

, the 1940’s literary journal dedicated to preserving culture in the face of war – and also perhaps as a literary personality, the source of anecdotes told by others and epigrammatic comments he made himself, somewhat in the manner of Samuel Johnson.

Connolly was of part-Irish ancestry, though not on his father’s side. His father, Matthew Connolly, came from a long line of English military men, mostly in the navy, and was himself a major in the army, though his real love seemed to be the study of snails, about which he wrote papers and monographs, and one

2588 words

Citation: Goldfarb, Sheldon. "Cyril Connolly". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=986, accessed 19 March 2024.]

986 Cyril Connolly 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.