Editing Old Men Forget

{{Short description|1953 book by Duff Cooper}}{{Infobox book
| image             = OldMenForget.jpg
| author            = [[Duff Cooper]]
| pub_date          = 1953
| caption           = First edition
| publisher         = [[Rupert Hart-Davis]]
| genre             = Autobiography
}}

{{italic title}}

'''''Old Men Forget''''' is a 1953 autobiography by [[Duff Cooper]], Viscount Norwich, detailing his [[Victorian era|Victorian]] childhood, [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] youth, and work in literature and politics. 

==Publishing history, content and reception==
The title is taken from the [[St Crispin's Day Speech]] by King Henry in Act IV, Scene 3 of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]'':
<poem>
  Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot
  But he'll remember with advantages
  What feats he did that day.<ref name=t/> 
</poem>

Despite the title, Cooper was in his early sixties when he wrote the book, having retired from public life in 1947 at the age of fifty-seven.<ref>[[Ziegler, Philip]]. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32547 "Cooper, (Alfred) Duff, first Viscount Norwich (1890–1954), diplomatist and politician"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2011 {{ODNBref}}</ref> The publisher [[Rupert Hart-Davis]], who was Cooper's nephew,<ref>Lyttelton and Hart-Davis, pp. 16–18</ref> published the first edition in November 1953.<ref>"Hart-Davis", ''The Times'', 30 October 1953, p. 10</ref>
[[File:Duff Cooper 1941.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=head and shoulders photograph of man in lounge suit, with dark, slicked back hair and a small moustache|Cooper in 1941]]
The book covers Cooper's early years – his schooldays at [[Eton College|Eton]], studies and socialising at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] – followed by his army service in the [[First World War]], in which he fought in the trenches and was one of the few members of his intimate circle to survive the war.<ref name=t>"Freshly Remembered: Lord Norwich's Memoirs", ''The Times'', 4 November 1953, p. 10</ref> In peacetime he was an official in the [[Foreign Office]] until entering Parliament in 1924. The book includes an account of [[Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby|Field Marshal Allenby]]'s struggles with [[David Lloyd George]] over Egypt, seen from Cooper's viewpoint as a public servant.<ref name=t/> The bulk of the book deals with Cooper's political career in the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], as an [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] and minister. His accounts of the [[appeasement]] years before the [[Second World War]] include severe criticism of [[Neville Chamberlain]] and ''[[The Times]]''. Under [[Winston Churchill]], Cooper served as Minister of Information, Resident Minister at Singapore, Representative to the French Committee of Liberation, and Ambassador to France. He recounts the fractious relations between Churchill and [[Charles de Gaulle|General de Gaulle]], in which the latter is depicted with what a reviewer calls "admiration and respect, and at times with affectionate exasperation".<ref name=t/> 

''Old Men Forget'' was well received by reviewers. ''The Times'' said, "at times he can stir the reader deeply with his account of human sorrow or success. With all this he succeeds, not indeed in writing one of the greatest autobiographies, but at least in writing one where the many good things are a delight and which is always full of interest."<ref name=t/> In ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', [[Roger Fulford]] wrote, "The gifts of understanding and of style, which distinguish this book, lift it above the serried ranks of recollections and memoirs into the realm of literature.<ref>Fulford, Roger. "The Moods of Munich: Lord Norwich's Memoirs", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 3 November 1953, p. 6</ref> [[Harold Nicolson]] in ''[[The Observer]]'' called the book "an autobiography which, in its perfect balance between the objective and the subjective … furnishes an example of the way in which this sort of thing should be done."<ref>Nicolson, Harold. "Good Living", ''The Observer'', 8 November 1953, p. 9</ref>

The book was reissued by [[Faber & Faber]] in 2011.<ref>WorldCat {{OCLC|1039507371}}</ref>

==References and sources==
===References===
{{Reflist}}
===Sources===
* {{cite book | last=Lyttelton | first=George | authorlink1 = George William Lyttelton | author2=Hart-Davis-Rupert|title= [[Lyttelton/Hart-Davis Letters]], ''Volume 2''| year= 1979 | location=London | publisher=John Murray|isbn=978-0-7195-3673-1}}

[[Category:1953 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Biographies about politicians]]
[[Category:Rupert Hart-Davis books]]
[[Category:British autobiographies]]