Beaton, Cecil ___ 1904-1980 ___ British ___ designer writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Beaton was born in Hampstead, London, the eldest son of a successful timber merchant. He was given a camera when still young, and used it to take photographs of his sisters. He was educated first at Heath Mount (where he was famously bullied by Evelyn Waugh), then at Harrow and St. John's College, Cambridge. Even before finishing his studies, he had set up his own photography studio. He developed a reputation as a fashion photographer, working for magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue. He also photographed celebrities, and members of the Royal Family for official publications. During the Second World War he worked for the British Ministry of Information as a documentary photographer. After the war, Beaton designed sets, costumes, and lighting for the Broadway stage, and for Hollywood films. He was knighted in 1972. He kept a diary for most of his life, and this has been published in many different volumes.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1922-1980 ___ self literary society travel art theatre people China India Morocco Greece US

WEB TEXT LINKS
one quote on Princess Marina
some pages
a few extracts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Cambridge University: St John's College Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Indian Diary and Album
The strenuous years, diaries 1948-55
Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1965-1969
 

December 2005, September 2008
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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.