Diana Cooper

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Portrait of Lady Diana Cooper, later Viscountess Norwich, around 1920

Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Cooper, Viscountess Norwich (born August 29, 1892 in London as Lady Diana Manners ; † June 16, 1986 there ) was a British actress , writer and one of the leading figures in London's high society at the beginning of the 20th century . She was better known as Lady Diana Cooper .

Life

Lady Diana Manners was officially the youngest of five children of the politician Henry John Brinsley Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland (1852-1925) and his wife Marion Margaret Violet Lindsay (1856-1937). Her biological father was the writer Henry Cockayne-Cust (1861-1917), with whom her mother had a passionate affair. Lady Diana grew up with her siblings at Haddon Hall and Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire . She received extensive training and was considered extremely intelligent and precocious.

Early years

When Diana Manners was 10 years old, she was diagnosed with an illness that resulted in paralysis and severely impaired her for five years. Because of these restrictions, she was given special care by her family. In 1910 she was introduced into society. At this time, her graceful appearance was first publicized and she was celebrated as the "Queen of beauty" ("Queen of Beauty") and achieved fame.

John Singer Sargent : Lady Diana Manners, later Lady Diana Cooper, charcoal drawing, 1914

Lady Diana Manners was a member of the Corrupt Coterie, also known as The Coterie , an influential group of young English aristocrats and intellectuals of the 1910s. After the deaths of Raymond Asquith , Patrick Shaw-Stewart , Edward Horner and Sir Denis Anson - the first three fell in World War I - the group that had made the headlines in the gossip press came to an end. Diana was also criticized, because in her presence at a party in 1914 Sir Dennis Anson should swim the Thames for a test of courage and drowned in the process; this tragedy haunted her all her life. So remained Alfred Duff Cooper (1890-1954) as the last surviving male member of the Corrupt Coterie .

After training during the First World War and working as a nurse at Guy's Hospital and at her parents' hospital, which they founded in their home on Arlington Street, London, she later worked as a columnist for a women's magazine Femina .

Diana's mother, the then Duchess of Rutland, had the hope that her youngest daughter would marry the Prince of Wales and later King Edward VIII and thus become the future Queen of Great Britain. On June 2, 1919, however, Lady Diana Manners married in London the English politician, diplomat and author Sir Alfred Duff Cooper, son of the respected doctor Sir Alfred Cooper and Lady Agnes Cecil Emmeline Duff and a nephew of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife . From the marriage, which, according to many reports, was marked by her husband's infidelity, a son emerged:

⚭ 1952–1985 Anne Frances May Clifford (* 1929)
⚭ 1989 The Hon. Mary Makins (* 1944), divorced Baroness Milford

Acting career

In order to earn money, Diana Mannery had already acted in two unknown films before her marriage and thus earned the reputation of a hardworking actress and a transcendent beauty. Duff Cooper's desire to go into politics also increased the demand for money, and she was glad when Max Reinhardt submitted its offer, the "Madonna" in the play The Miracle ( " Miracle ") by Karl Vollmöller to play. This play was first of November 1923 until May 1924 in the United States in the Century Theater in New York City listed. The fee obtained in this way allowed her husband to move into the lower house of the British Parliament as a member of Oldham in 1924 . Lady Diana Cooper took turns in her role with Maria Carmi , the musician was Werner Krauss . The piece enjoyed international success and toured America for two years with the same cast. In 1925 “The Miracle” was on the program of the Salzburg Festival . From 1927 there were tours throughout Europe and in 1932 it stopped in London. The last performance took place in January 1933. Lady Diana later starred in several silent films, as well as in the first British color film.

Late years

Alfred Duff Cooper was British Ambassador to Paris between 1944 and 1948 . The work of the Conservative diplomat for a Franco-British friendship and the social work of his wife, Lady Diana Cooper, contributed much to her popularity in France. The couple lived separately in the late 1940s after Cooper's liaison with the American diplomatic wife Susan Mary Alsop became known to the public. Cooper was considered a womanizer and had several extramarital relationships, including with Daisy Fellowes , Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin and Maxime de La Falaise. Lady Diana lived in Chantilly until his death . In 1952, Alfred Duff Cooper was promoted to Viscount Norwich in recognition of his literary and political services . Lady Diana refused to use the title Viscountess Norwich because it sounds like porridge . She announced in a newspaper ad that she would continue to be addressed as Lady Diana Cooper.

In the late 1950s, Lady Diana withdrew more and more from the public and devoted herself mainly to her literary work. She died of a heart attack at the age of 93 and was buried on the family home.

Literary reception

Diana Cooper served the writer Evelyn Waugh , with whom she was friends, as a model for the character of Mrs. Stitch , who appears several times in his novels (including in Scoop and Officers and Gentlemen ).

Theater and filmography (selection)

Time Magazine (February 15, 1926)

Name in different phases of life

  • 1892-1919: The Lady Diana Manners
  • 1919–1952: The Lady Diana Cooper
  • 1952–1954: Rt. Hon. The Viscountess Norwich
  • 1954–1986: The Rt. Hon. The Dowager Viscountess Norwich

Fonts (selection)

  • Deux lettres de Lady Diana C [ooper] à Francis Poulenc, Paris, British Embassy, ​​December 28, 1945 et Rome, sd (manuscript). 1945, OCLC 494255256 .
  • Lady Diana Cooper: The Memoirs of Lady Diana Cooper. (Original title: Volume 1: The Rainbow comes and goes. , Volume 2: The Light of common day. , Volume 3: Trumpets from the steep. Translated by Maria Wolff) Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1962, DNB 450825191 .
  • Diana Cooper: Autobiography. (Reprint of the original edition from 1958 to 1960). Carroll & Graf, New York 1985, ISBN 0-881-84131-5 .
  • The Rainbow Comes and Goes. (Edition reprinted by Hart and Davis, London 1958). in: Century lives & letters. Century, London 1984, ISBN 0-712-60452-9 .
  • The Lights of Common Day. (Edition reprinted by Hart and Davis, London 1959). in: Century lives & letters. Century, London 1984, ISBN 0-712-60956-3 .
  • Trumpets from the Steep. (Edition reprinted by Hart and Davis, London 1960). in: Century lives & letters. Century, London 1984, ISBN 0-712-60957-1 .
  • Rex, from "Woman's Weekly". 1985, OCLC 734055572 .
  • Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her Son John Julius Norwich 1939–1952. (Edited by John Julius Norwich). Chatto & Windus, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-701-18779-8 .

literature

  • John Julius Norwich: The Duff Cooper Diaries. Orion Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0-297-84843-7 .
  • Katie Hickman: Daughters of Britannia. The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives. Harper Perennial, New York 2002, ISBN 0-06-093423-9 .
  • Artemis Cooper: The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper. Ticknor & Fields, New York 1992, ISBN 0-395-56265-1 .
  • Philip Ziegler: Diana Cooper: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, New York 1982, ISBN 0-394-50026-1 .
  • Charles Mosley: Burke's peerage, baronetage and knightage. Burke's Peerage & Gentry, Stokesley 2003, ISBN 0-971-19662-1 .
  • COOPER, Lady Diana (Diana, Viscountess Norwich). Oxford University Press 2004-2013, doi: 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 40701 .
  • Paul Johnson, Novelists at Arms , in: Standpoint Magazine , Jan / Feb 2012, online

Web links

Commons : Diana Cooper  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frederik D. Tunnat: Karl Vollmoeller p. 72.
  2. ^ Manners, Lady Diana at glopad.org, accessed August 23, 2013.
  3. ^ Duff Cooper's secret second son on telegraph.co.uk, accessed August 23, 2013.
  4. ^ Johnson (2012)
  5. ↑ Diana Manners on OFDb, accessed August 23, 2013.
  6. ^ The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper. - More Than Friends, Less Than Lovers nytimes.com, accessed August 23, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Cooper, Diana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Manners, Lady Diana Olivia Winifred Maud (maiden name); Manners, Diana; Cooper, Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Viscountess Norwich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress, writer and London high society figure
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1986
Place of death London , England