July 5, 1904

Harold Acton (July 5, 1904 to February 27, 1994) was an English writer with Italian connections. He was actually born in Florence Italy and lived there much of his life, a life of wealth which was not squandered. He was friends with many of the most famous 20th century figures: he was the best man at Evelyn Waugh's first wedding, for instance. He wrote much, and his historigraphical works are still read. We certainly see an excellent prose stylist in the essay he presented at the Italian Institute which was collected in Art and Ideas in Eighteenth-century Italy: Lectures Given at the Italian Institute, 1957-1958, (1960).This essay is on Ferdiando Galiani, an 18th century Italian philosopher. Acton recalls for us that Galiani proposed writing a history of cats. And also the line that :"There is no philosopher to whom I do not prefer my cat."