Robert Payne’s Followers (35)

Robert Payne

Born

in Saltash, County of Cornwall, The United Kingdom

December 04, 1911

Died

February 18, 1983

Genre

History, Biography

edit data

Pierre Stephen Robert Payne was born December 4, 1911, in Saltash, County of Cornwall, England, the son of Stephen Payne, a naval architect, and Mireille Louise Antonia (Dorey) Payne, a native of France. Payne was the eldest of three brothers. His middle brother was Alan (Marcel Alan), and his youngest brother was Tony, who died at the age of seven.

Payne went to St. Paul's School, London. He attended the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, South Africa, 1929-30; the University of Capetown, 1928-1930; Liverpool University, 1933-35; the University of Munich, summer, 1937, and the Sorbonne, in Paris, 1938.

Payne first followed his father into shipbuilding, working as a shipwright's apprentice at Cammell, Laird's Shipbuilding Company, Birkendhead, 193 Pierre Stephen Robert Payne was born December 4, 1911, in Saltash, County of Cornwall, England, the son of Stephen Payne, a naval architect, and Mireille Louise Antonia (Dorey) Payne, a native of France. Payne was the eldest of three brothers. His middle brother was Alan (Marcel Alan), and his youngest brother was Tony, who died at the age of seven.

Payne went to St. Paul's School, London. He attended the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, South Africa, 1929-30; the University of Capetown, 1928-1930; Liverpool University, 1933-35; the University of Munich, summer, 1937, and the Sorbonne, in Paris, 1938.

Payne first followed his father into shipbuilding, working as a shipwright's apprentice at Cammell, Laird's Shipbuilding Company, Birkendhead, 1931-33. He also worked for the Inland Revenue as an Assistant Inspector of Taxes in Guilford in 1936. In 1937-38 he traveled in Europe and, while in Munich, met Adolf Hitler through Rudolf Hess, an incident which Payne vividly describes in his book Eyewitness. In 1938 Payne covered the Civil War in Spain for the London News Chronicle, an experience that resulted in two books, A Young Man Looks at Europe and The Song of the Peasant.

From 1939 to 1941 Payne worked as a shipwright at the Singapore Naval Base and in 1941 he became an armament officer and chief camouflage officer for British Army Intelligence there. In December, 1941, he was sent to Chungking, China, to serve as Cultural Attaché at the British Embassy.

In January, 1942, he covered the battle of Changsha for the London Times, and from 1942 to 1943 he taught English literature at Fuhtan University, near Chungking. Then, persuaded by Joseph Needham, he went to Kunming and taught poetry and naval architecture at Lienta University from 1943 to 1946. The universities of Peking, Tsinghua, and Nankai had converged in Kunming to form the University at Lienta. It was there that Payne, together with Chinese scholars and poets, compiled and co-translated The White Pony.

In China Payne met General George C. Marshall, Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao Tse-tung, who was elusive and living in the caves of Yenan, all of whom later became subjects for his biographies. From his time in China also came the autobiographical volumes Forever China and China Awake, and the historical novels Love and Peace and The Lovers.

From China, Payne briefly visited India in the summer, 1946, which resulted in a love for Indian art. Throughout his life, Payne retained a love for all forms of oriental art.

He came to the United States in the winter of 1946 and lived in Los Angeles, California, until he became Professor of English and Author-in-Residence at Alabama College, Montevallo, 1949-54. He was the founding editor of Montevallo Review, whose contributors included poets Charles Olson and Muriel Rukeyser. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1953.

In Spring, 1949, Payne visited Persia with the Asia Institute Expedition. He received an M.A. degree from the Asia Institute in 1951.

In 1954 Payne moved to New York City, where he lived the rest of his life, interrupted once or twice a year by travel to the Middle East, the Far East, and Europe, mostly to gather material for his books, but also to visit his mother and father in England. His very close literary relationship with his father is documented in the hundreds of highly personal and informative letters which they exchanged.

In 1942, Payne married Rose Hsiung, daughter of Hsiung Hse-ling, a former prime minister of China. They divorced in 1952. In 1981, he married Sheila Lalwani, originally from India.

Over a period of forty-seven years Payne had more than 110 books published. He wrote his first novella, Adventures of Sylvia, Queen of Denmark and China, when he was seven years old. Payne's first publication was a translation of Iiuri Olesha's Envy, published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press in 1936. A year later, T.S. Eliot published his novel The War in the Marshes under ...more

Combine Editions
Robert Payne’s books

Average rating: 4.08 · 3,855 ratings · 378 reviews · 339 distinct works • Similar authors

	Ivan the Terrible by Robert Payne, Nikita Romanoff 3.97 avg rating — 324 ratings — published 1975 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler 3.94 avg rating — 277 ratings — published 1973 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dream and the Tomb: A History of the Crusades 4.02 avg rating — 241 ratings — published 1984 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rise and Fall of Stalin 4.07 avg rating — 230 ratings — published 1968 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Life and Death of Lenin 3.63 avg rating — 184 ratings — published 1964 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Gold of Troy 3.91 avg rating — 91 ratings — published 1959 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The White Rajahs of Sarawak 3.87 avg rating — 91 ratings — published 1986 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Life and Death of Trotsky 3.96 avg rating — 72 ratings — published 1977 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi 3.69 avg rating — 59 ratings — published 1969 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ancient Rome 3.75 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 1966 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Robert Payne…

Quotes by Robert Payne (?)

“... perhaps vulgarity is the price one pays for possessing no civilisation of one's own.”
― Robert Payne, Journey to Persia

tags: civilisation, vulgarity

1 likes

“Men do not trip over mountains: They fall over earth mounds.”
― Pierre Stephen Robert Payne, The White Pony: An Anthology of Chinese Poetry

tags: chinese-poetry

1 likes

“By 1937 Stalin had reached the stage when murder had become as habitual as shaving or eating. Three or four times a week the death lists compiled by Yezhov at his orders would be presented to him, he would read through the lists casually, add his initials, and then forget about them. These lists did not comprise the names of a small number of high officials, but included hundreds and sometimes thousands of obscure people working inside and outside the government. In many cases the lists were mere formalities: the people had already been shot. These drab pages filled with names represented the only currency he recognized: they were his bills of trading in the endless terror he was visiting upon Russia. There”
― Robert Payne, The Rise and Fall of Stalin

0 likes

See all Robert Payne's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The History Book ...: SERIES - BIBLIOGRAPHY - SPOILER THREAD	54	177	Feb 27, 2013 02:16PM
The History Book ...: 8. THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN ~ November 4th ~ 10th ~ PART SIX ~ Civil and Military ~ (pg 275 - 319) No Spoilers	50	69	Mar 23, 2014 01:14PM
Reading with Style: SU 2016 FYTS Plans	25	50	Jul 08, 2016 02:26PM
Book Buying Addic...: October Purchases 2018	7	19	Nov 13, 2018 07:47AM
Reading the 20th ...: Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore (or the Stalin biography of your choice) (April/May 2020)	118	39	May 13, 2020 02:40AM
Weekly Short Stor...: Haiku	8456	584	Sep 15, 2023 02:05PM
Aussie Readers: Share Your Reviews (and Thoughts) Here - 2023	3626	266	Dec 31, 2023 02:37PM
The History Book ...: THE CRUSADES - GENERAL DISCUSSION	377	807	Oct 04, 2025 05:00AM

More…

Robert Payne’s Followers (35)

Robert Payne

Combine EditionsRobert Payne’s books

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Robert Payne’s books