BINYON, Laurence Robert. Lancaster 10.8.1869 — Reading, Berkshire 10.3.1943. British Art Historian, Dramatist and Poet. Son of Rev. Frederick Binyon (1838–1900) and Mary Dockray. Educated at St.Paul’s School in London, studied classics at Trinity College, Oxford (graduated 1893). From 1893 worked in Printed Books Dept. of British Museum, in 1915-33 Keeper of Oriental Prints and Drawings, then retired. In WW I served in a British hospital in France. Visiting Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard in 1933-34 and in 1940-41 Byron Professor of English Literature at University of Athens. In retirement living in Westridge Green near Streatley in Berkshire. Died after an operation. Married 1904 Cicely Margaret Powell (1876–1962), a historian, three daughters (Nicolette married —> Basil Gray). Friend and patron of Ezra Pound and Arthur Waley.
Publications: Examples of Indian Sculpture at the British Museum. 12 p. 12 pl. L. 1924.
– Guide to an Exhibition of Indian Painting. 6 p. L. 1927.
– The Poems of Nizami. 8+30 p. 16 pl. L. 1928.
– Akbar. 165 p. Edinburgh 1932 (biography).
– The Spirit of Man in Asian Art. 15+217 p. Cambridge MA 1935.
– Also wrote on English, Persian and East Asian art; dramas; Collected Poems. 1-2. 1931; complete translation of the Divine Comedy of Dante. 1933-43.
Sources: Wikipedia with three pictures; *J. Hatcher, Laurence Binyon: poet, scholar of East and West. Oxford 1995 and *Oxford D.N.B.
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