Charles Morgan (Charles Langbridge Morgan) Biography

British novelistand drama critic of The Times (1926–39), educated at Osborne and Dartmouth naval colleges and at Brasenose College, Oxford. He won critical acclaim with Portrait in a Mirror (1929), his third novel, and maintained his reputation with such novels as The Fountain (1932), which described his war experiences in Holland; Sparkenbroke (1936); The Voyage (1940; James Tait Black Memorial Prize); and The Judge's Story (1947). The concept of honour and the need to defend principles are a central theme in many of Morgan's books. His non-fiction works include an Ode to France (1942; verse); Reflections in a Mirror (1947) and Liberties of the Mind (1951), collections of essays; plays, such as The Flashing Stream (1938); and a stage version of his novel The River Line (1949; dramatized 1952), about the French resistance. Regarded as a master of prose in his own day, his reputation declined in later years.