George MacDonald Fraser, RIP
I have been busy with extremely unsatisfying work recently but when I learned that one of my favorite authors had passed away, I felt it would be wrong to not say anything.
George MacDonald Fraser (1925-2008) is most famous for his Flashman series, which purport to be the memoirs of the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays, Sir Harry Flashman, V.C.. Over the course of twelve books and roughly fifty-five years (1839-1894), Flashman gambled, toadied, rogered, quavered, lusted, cringed, and abandoned companions and lovers to save his own skin. Very, very rarely, and always against his better judgment, he did the decent thing. Strange as it may sound, I can honestly say that Fraser opened my eyes to what history is, namely events involving real people who were frequently motivated by selfish desires and would probably rather forget some of the things that they did, or at the very least skim over or ignore them completely when they write their memoirs. A comment that is frequently made about the series is that it is not very PC (a term that I despise by the way), and it is true that an underlying theme of the series was that the British Empire made the world a better place. However, what makes the series work is that Flashman, sitting safely at home and being a fictional character, was willing to show with brutal, unflinching honesty both the glory and the grime of the empire. Fraser then provided meticulously researched footnotes to let you judge for yourself what was right and wrong, which seems fair enough.
However, he did more than that. Quartered Safe Out Here, Fraser's memoirs of his service in the Burma theater during WWII, is widely recognized as one of the most harrowing and accurate in the field. His MacAuslan trilogy, a thinly veiled memoir of service in North Africa immediately following the war, is a charming, hysterical delight. The Pyrates and the Reivers are farcical tales of derring-do involving pirates and swashbucklers. Black Ajax is a touching tribute to bare-knuckle boxing in early 19th century England and Mr. American looks at England on the eve of WWI.
While they are all wonderful books that have given me many hours of pleasure, it is actually his least popular book that had the greatest influence on me. The Hollywood History of the World examined how Hollywood has portrayed history in movies from 1 Million BC to the Vietnam War. It was not the most comprehensive discussion but it showed me that Hollywood has covered more of history than I would have thought. Suddenly my love of history and movies had a purpose and the site was conceived. The birthing pains were stronger than expected but that is not Fraser's fault.
For better or worse, George MacDonald Fraser, along with Roger Ebert, was probably the greatest inspiration for this site and I am filled with a deep regret that I never summoned the courage to contact him to tell him that.
George MacDonald Fraser (1925-2008) is most famous for his Flashman series, which purport to be the memoirs of the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays, Sir Harry Flashman, V.C.. Over the course of twelve books and roughly fifty-five years (1839-1894), Flashman gambled, toadied, rogered, quavered, lusted, cringed, and abandoned companions and lovers to save his own skin. Very, very rarely, and always against his better judgment, he did the decent thing. Strange as it may sound, I can honestly say that Fraser opened my eyes to what history is, namely events involving real people who were frequently motivated by selfish desires and would probably rather forget some of the things that they did, or at the very least skim over or ignore them completely when they write their memoirs. A comment that is frequently made about the series is that it is not very PC (a term that I despise by the way), and it is true that an underlying theme of the series was that the British Empire made the world a better place. However, what makes the series work is that Flashman, sitting safely at home and being a fictional character, was willing to show with brutal, unflinching honesty both the glory and the grime of the empire. Fraser then provided meticulously researched footnotes to let you judge for yourself what was right and wrong, which seems fair enough.
However, he did more than that. Quartered Safe Out Here, Fraser's memoirs of his service in the Burma theater during WWII, is widely recognized as one of the most harrowing and accurate in the field. His MacAuslan trilogy, a thinly veiled memoir of service in North Africa immediately following the war, is a charming, hysterical delight. The Pyrates and the Reivers are farcical tales of derring-do involving pirates and swashbucklers. Black Ajax is a touching tribute to bare-knuckle boxing in early 19th century England and Mr. American looks at England on the eve of WWI.
While they are all wonderful books that have given me many hours of pleasure, it is actually his least popular book that had the greatest influence on me. The Hollywood History of the World examined how Hollywood has portrayed history in movies from 1 Million BC to the Vietnam War. It was not the most comprehensive discussion but it showed me that Hollywood has covered more of history than I would have thought. Suddenly my love of history and movies had a purpose and the site was conceived. The birthing pains were stronger than expected but that is not Fraser's fault.
For better or worse, George MacDonald Fraser, along with Roger Ebert, was probably the greatest inspiration for this site and I am filled with a deep regret that I never summoned the courage to contact him to tell him that.
posted by History on Film at 2:24 PM
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