RHODES, Anthony (Richard Ewart) 1916-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 24, 1916, in Plymouth, Devon, England; died August 23, 2004, in London, England. Educator, journalist, and author. Rhodes was best known as a prolific author of novels, travelogues, histories, biographies, and other nonfiction works. After attending the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich for two years, he studied mechanical engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a master's degree in 1939. World War II started just as he finished his degree, and Rhodes enlisted in the army, joining the British Third Division and seeing action in France. From this experience came his first novel, Sword of Bone (1942). After the war, Rhodes tried a career in academia, first as an assistant professor of English literature at the University of Geneva for six years, and then as assistant master at Eton College from 1952 to 1953. But he found he did not care for the disciplinarian role of the assistant master and left Eton to travel in Europe with his brother. Thus began a series of travel books, including The Dalmatian Coast (1955) and Where the Turk Trod: A Journey to Sarajevo with a Slavonic Mussulman (1956). In Hungary in 1956 when the people of that nation were beginning to rise against Communist rule, Rhodes started a period as a reporter for the London Daily Telegraph, sending in stories about the revolt. When the Soviets began entering the country, Rhodes led a band of refugees to the Austrian border at the request of the British embassy. After this, he continued to report on events in eastern Europe for several years. He continued writing novels, biographies, and nonfiction. Among these are the biographies The Poet as Superman: A Life of Gabriele d'Annunzio (1959) and Louis Renault: A Biography (1969), the novel The Prophet's Carpet (1961), the critically acclaimed The Vatican in the Age of the Dictators, 1922-1945 (1974), which was part of a three-volume history on the Vatican, and Princes of the Grape: Great Wine Makers through the Ages (1975). A highly versatile writer throughout his career, Rhodes also translated books from the French, Italian, and German, including the memoirs of King Hassan II of Morocco, who in gratitude named him his cultural advisor on English matters. Made a knight commander of St. Gregory in 1976, Rhodes was an Anglican who later converted to Catholicism in the 1990s.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph (London, England), September 6, 2004.

Independent (London, England), August 25, 2004, p. 30.

Times (London, England), September 8, 2004, p. 30.