July 5, 1904

Harold Acton (July 5, 1904 to February 27, 1994) was a British writer, of poetry, travel books, memoirs, and history. Like many of the British, Acton preferred to live in Italy as much as possible. His books include these titles:

The Bourbons of Naples, 1734-1825 (1934),
Memoirs of an aesthete (1944),

and this volume of his poetry, from which we quote. The book Aquarium (1923) contains

these lines:

.....
But in this throbbing, warmly-bosomed room
I sit and drink the fumes of glowing coals,
Allow my limbs to spread in languid ease,
Relaxing as a selfish, pensive cat,
Absorbing warmth into my seething pores
And drowning in a mass of phantom breasts...

Which gives us a sense of what the word "aesthete" means. Harold Acton is said to be the model of Evelyn Waugh's character, Anthony Blanche, in Brideshead Revisited (1945).

Waugh however said that was only partly true, that Acton was nicer.