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Gilbert Frankau (April 21, 1884 to November 4, 1952)
was a British novelist , poet, and short story writer.
He was born in London, the eldest son of Arthur Frankau
(ca. 1845-1904) and his wife Julia (nèe Davis, 1859-1916).
His father ran Joseph Frankau & Co., the cigar importing
business that had been established by Gilbert's paternal
grandfather, who had moved from Diespak, Bavaria, to London in
1837. Gilbert's mother wrote fiction under the pseudonym
“Frank Danby”.
Although both his parents were Jewish, Gilbert Frankau was
discouraged from identifying with Jews and Judaism, and was
baptised into the Anglican Church at the age of thirteen. He went
to Eton, which provided the material for his first publication. It
was anticipated that he would attend Oxford University, but he
chose instead to join the family cigar business. After his father's
death in 1904, Gilbert became managing director of the company, but
in 1916, following financial losses and the death of Julia Frankau,
the business was sold.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Gilbert Frankau
joined the army, and in October 1914 received a commission into the
9th battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. He was later
transferred into the Royal Field Artillery, serving at Loos, Ypres,
and the Somme. He developed war neurosis, or
“shell-shock”, and was sent to Italy to co-ordinate
press and film propaganda, but his symptoms grew worse, and he was
invalided out of the army in February 1918. Frankau's
war experiences provide the background to several of his post-war
novels. He also published war poetry throughout his
commission. Frankau was a regular contributor to trench
journals such as The Wipers Times , produced by soldiers who were
serving in France. These journals were satirical, and Frankau's
poetry, which was strongly influenced by Kipling, was somewhat at
odds with their style. Frankau's war poetry tended to glorify
combat, and to reflect civilian fantasies of warfare rather than
soldiers' experience. This and his dedication to writing made him
unpopular with some of his fellow-combatants, and the trench
journals include a number of attacks on him, in doggerel, in which
he is accused of shirking his military duty in favour of his
writing career.
Gilbert Frankau was indeed a prolific writer, producing,
besides war poetry, a series of novels written in verse, as well as
popular fiction and short stories, journalism and an
autobiography.
Frankau's work engaged with issues that were highly topical
at the time, including the “white slave traffic”,
immigration, war neurosis, and psychoanalysis. His writing also
addresses developments in art and literature, and communism and
fascism; Jewish identity, and anti-Semitism. Frankau's early
writing in particular contains stock anti-Semitic caricatures, but
his inter-war novels offer more nuanced and complex representations
of Jewish identity.
He was married three times.
One of his daughters, Pamela, was also a
writer.
SON OF THE MORNING
An engrossing novel. In an introductory note, Gilbert
Frankau gives thanks to Father Richard Mangan, S. J. for providing
information about the training and subsequent life of a Jesuit and
for assurance that nothing in the book offends religious
susceptibilities. He also thanks others who vetted the parts
of this tale which concern India.
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