George Slocombe

George Edward Slocombe (March 8, 1894-December 19, 1963) was a British journalist and novelist.

Biography

Slocombe was born in Bristol.^[1] He started work as a journalist for the Daily Herald in 1912 and became the paper's Chief Foreign Correspondent in 1919.^[2] He was recruited to work at the paper by Rowland Kenney, starting his career as Kenney's secretary.^[3] Slocombe interviewed Benito Mussolini at the Cannes Conference in 1922.^[4] Slocombe later wrote a fictionalized depiction of Mussolini in his novel, Romance of a Dictator.^[5]

In Paris, Slocombe worked for William Ewer at the Federated Press of America.^[6] In this position, Slocombe sent Ewer confidential copies of French reports sent to the French Foreign Office.^[7] Ewer paid him $1000 a month for supplying the documents.^[8] Slocombe was never prosecuted by the British government for these activities and he returned to England in 1940.^[9]

Personal life

In 1921, while living in Paris, he had an affair with Edna St. Vincent Millay.^[10] Slocombe was the father of cinematographer Douglas Slocombe.^[11]

Bibliography

• Romance of a Dictator (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932)
• Don John of Austria, the Victor of Lepanto (1547-1578) (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1936)
• William the Conqueror (London: Hutchinson, 1959)
• The Dangerous Sea: The Mediterranean and Its Future (New York : Macmillan, 1937)
• Escape Into the Past: A Novel (London : George G. Harrap, 1943)
• Sons of the Conqueror (London : Hutchinson, 1960)