William Gerhardie

Biography

William Alexander Gerhardie (1895–1977) was an English novelist of Russian parentage, one of the most praised and least remembered writers of his generation. Born in St. Petersburg to English parents of mixed descent, he grew up in Russia before studying at Oxford. His first novel, Futility (1922), was championed by H. G. Wells, Katherine Mansfield, and Edith Wharton. Gerhardie’s fiction draws on his Russian upbringing to create comedies of cultural dislocation, romantic futility, and absurdist social observation. Despite early acclaim, his reputation faded during his increasingly reclusive later decades.