Welch, Denton ___ 1915-1948 ___ British ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Welch was born in Shanghai, China, into a rich privileged family, but his mother (an American by birth) died when he was only 11. In his teens, he was educated at Repton, but he so hated the school he tried running away once. On deciding to become a painter, he enrolled at the Goldsmith School of Art, London. In 1935, when riding his bike, he was involved in a traffic accident. His spine was fractured, and he remained paralysed for several months. During his convalescence, he shook off the Christian Science religion that had been a feature of his early childhood; and, eventually, he learned to walk again. Welch never fully recovered his health and suffered repeated infections and headaches until his early death at the age of 33. After the accident, though, he continued to paint and draw. In 1941 the Leicester Galleries, London, exhibited some of his paintings. Also, some of his poems were well received, and then his autobiographical, 'Maiden Voyage', for which Dame Edith Sitwell wrote a foreword, sold out even. He also wrote 'In Youth Is Pleasure' and 'A Voice Through a Cloud'. There have been various editions of his descriptive journals, including one of a walking tour he took when 18.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Black, dead, inhuman

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1933 1942-1948 ___ literary art health nature love/sex

WEB TEXT LINKS
one extract
about and some extracts
citations

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Magdalene College, Cambridge University

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Journals of Denton Welch
The Denton Welch Journals
I Left My Grandfather's House
 

May 2005, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.