A Local Habitation: Life and Times, Volume One 1918-40

Richard Hoggart

Jan. 2015 · Random House

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Richard Hoggart's book, The Uses of Literary, established his reputation as a uniquely sensitive and observant chronicler of English working-class life. In this vivid first volume of autobiography he describes his origins in that milieu. Orphaned at an early age, Hoggart grew up in a working-class district of Leeds, in an intimate world of terraced back-to-backs, visits from the local Board of Guardians, clothing checks and potted-meat sandwiches. With affectionate insight he recreates the family circle - a loving grandmother, one domineering and on gentle aunt, and a bibulous, melancholy uncle - and recalls his early schooling, the friends he made and the mentors he admired. Hard-working and articulate, Hoggart did well enough at grammar school to go on to Leeds University. This volume ends as, having earned a higher degree and travelled in Nazi Germany, he prepares to leave Yorkshire, via the Army, for the world beyond. Wry, compassionate, exact, A Local Habitation is a classic recreation of working-class England between the wars.

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Richard Hoggart was born in Leeds, England on September 24, 1918. He studied at Leeds University. During World War II, he served as an anti-aircraft gunner in the Royal Artillery. After the war, he worked as an extramural tutor at Hull University for 13 years. In 1951, he published his first book, a full-length study of WH Auden's poetry. His other works include The Uses of Literacy, An Idea and Its Servants, and Townscape with Figures. He taught at several universities including the University of Leicester, the University of Birmingham, and Goldsmiths College in London. He was a decisive witness in the 1960 Lady Chatterley trial, which liberalised British pornography laws and was instrumental in creating BBC2 as a quality television channel. He died on April 10, 2014 at the age of 95.