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
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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 21 November 2024.]
