Geoffrey Scott (11 June 1884 – 14 August 1929) was an English scholar and poet, known as a historian of
architecture. His biography of
Isabelle de Charrière entitled
The Portrait of Zelide won the 1925
James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Born in
Hampstead, Scott was educated at
Rugby School and
New College, Oxford. While still an undergraduate he was befriended by
Mary Berenson, leading to his admission to the
Florence 'circle' of
Bernard Berenson. From 1907 to 1909 he was employed by Berenson; he worked on the design of the garden of
I Tatti, the Berenson villa, with
Cecil Ross Pinsent. This led to work on other gardens. It also brought him the friendship of
John Maynard Keynes, who met him there.
In 1914 the publication of
The Architecture of Humanism made him a reputation. He married in 1916 Lady Sybil Cutting, widowed in 1910 (who later married
Percy Lubbock). With little in the way of career, it has been suggested that an unlikely love affair with
Vita Sackville-West from 1923 to 1925 spurred him into his later literary production.
At the time of his death, of
pneumonia in
New York, Geoffrey Scott had been retained as an editor of the papers of
James Boswell.
He was one of
Edith Wharton's close friends.
Works
- The Architecture of Humanism: A Study in the History of Taste (1914)
- A Box of Paints (1923) poems
- The Portrait of Zélide (1925) biography of Isabelle de Charrière
- Poems (1931)
References
- Geoffrey Scott and the Berenson Circle:......
...
...
Read More