RICHARD CARREÑO AN INVENTIVE LIFE Philabooks|Press•Philadelphia

RICHARD CARREÑO      AN INVENTIVE LIFE      Philabooks|Press

                                  SECOND EDITION © RICHARD CARREÑO 2027

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RAVES! FOR THE INVENTIVE LIFE: WRITING IS "FUN," "MARVELLOUS," HAS "SENSE OF HUMOUR," "NICE TURN OF PHRASE"

Reviewed by Mark Steadman

The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden: Archaeologist, Poet, Scholar, Spy
by Richard Carreño
Camino Books, Inc.
September 2024, Hardcover, 280 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1680980608

The new book by Richard Carreño, a biography of George H. Mcfadden, charts his journey from Princeton to Cyprus and his untimely death at sea. Born into wealth in Philadelphia, and after graduating from Princeton his obsession with archeology leads him to set sail for Cyprus where he went to dig at the acropolis of Kourion under the aegis of his alma mater. Living in what is now the Kourion Archeological Museum George wrote, translated and studied history. His idiosyncrasy can be summed up in his mantra: “Where the purpose of a rule in any instance does not seem to apply. I have ignored the rule.”

A touch platitudinous, but for some reason a phrase that Carreño feels bears repeating from time to time throughout the book, but so begins the story of George H McFadden III.

The writing Is marvellously indulgent. He has a penchant for French terms like “chacun a son gout” and “bonhomie” as well as pleasingly old-fashioned phrases such as “kith and kin”, “betwixt and between” and “home and hearth”. He also has the fun tendency of juxtaposing slang with Latin or antiquated phrases as in the following: “Wartime bed-hopping in Alexandria was time-honoured – but only spoken of in sotto voce tones.”

Or: “Rainey attempted bonhomie and collegiality. But his efforts mostly filled, often just shorts of puffery.”

The story bounces along, as McFadden does, through Europe on his archeological quests, with the odd Italian, French or Latin phrase thrown in here and there. He writes with a sense of humour as well. Comedy is about surprises, so said the late, great Norm Macdonald and Carreño has a good feel for misdirection as in these Bill Bryson-esque passages:

“While Fales, Cox, Last, and others, onsite at Kourion, tackled their tasks, oblivious to Raineys and Madeira’s plans for empire-building elsewhere, McFadden took time to slack off.”

“The director knew that McFadden lacked the swag of academic rank.”

AN EXCERPT: THE INVENTIVE LIFE OF GEORGE H. McFADDEN

FEAR AND LOATHING:

AN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGIST'S MYSTERIOUS LOCAL DEATH 

In a new book about American archaeologist George H. McFadden, author Richard Carreño explores McFadden’s the life in Episkopi, Cyprus as a famed digger at Kourion and, later, his still largely unexplained death at sea in 1953. Carreño, a writer from the United States, explores McFadden’s many faceted life as an accomplished archaeologist, a World War II American spy in Cyprus, a poet, and scholar and the intrigue that led to his possibly nefarious death in The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden: Archaeologist, Poet, Scholar, Spy, soon to be published by Camino Books, Philadelphia, USA. The book will be available in major local bookshops, where English-language books are available. 

An excerpt, adapted from the book, follows: 

GEORGE H. McFADDEN was the scion of one of the twentieth century’s richest and most prominent Philadelphia families. His abbreviated life, cut short by drowning when he was nearly forty-six years old, was crammed with adventure, scholarship, and service to country. He was a reluctant cotton broker; an accomplished poet; a scholar of ancient Greece and Rome; a student of German literature; a translator of ancient Greek texts; an operative for the US wartime spy service, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS); and for many years an archaeologist with the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. He was a devotée of Greek national life—an unabashed philhellene—and a founder and financier of Penn’s extensive archaeological project at Kourion in southwest Cyprus. 

Despite a life salted with daring, enterprise, and intrigue—the stuff of high drama—McFadden bore a weight of inescapable melancholy. He was estranged from his parents. His siblings were remote. He never married. Personal relationships were founded more by association than friendship. They were often marred by conflict; seldom, to his chagrin, by mutual respect. He was close to only a few. He closeted his homosexuality, knowing its disclosure would have resulted in professional and social ruin. 

McFadden died in 1953, in a sailing mishap off the southern coast of Cyprus, not far from Penn’s pioneering—and McFadden’s beloved—excavation of Kourion, a celebrated site in Greek and Roman history. How he met his end has never been fully resolved; his death being the subject of lingering controversy. Though few remember the circumstances of his ambiguous demise, details remain decades later shrouded in suspicion and mystery. Some to this day believe McFadden was murdered by a British spy. Despite McFadden’s infectious brio and often capricious derring-do, Cyprus by the time of his death had soured for him, becoming “an island of bitter lemons.” 

GEORGE McFADDEN WAS not a professional archaeologist, the kind of classically trained academic usually deployed to faraway lands by learned institutions. He found his scholarly strength in English literature, always earning high marks at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania. His career as a digger—and master amateur of archaeology—came later. 

McFadden’s life was circumscribed by geographical boundaries he imposed upon himself. Cyprus, while not his native land, became his homeland. He was cocooned in a drama shrunk to a cast of few players. Intersecting his world at work and at war were less than a dozen principals. His life drama contained moments of farce, with real-life players never far from departing from one slamming door, entering another, or figuring in bit scenes as “noises off.” 

McFadden's inner world was conflicted. His homosexuality was an open secret, possibility contributing to bouts of moodiness and depression. McFadden found himself in the depths of that fissure.

In a new book (Camino Books/2024) about American archaeologist George H. McFadden, author Richard Carreño explores McFadden’s the life in Episkopi, Cyprus as a famed digger at Kourion and, later, his still largely unexplained death at sea in 1953. Carreño, a writer from the United States, explores McFadden’s many faceted life as an accomplished archeologist, a World War II American spy in Cyprus, a poet, and scholar and the intrigue that led to his possibly nefarious death in The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden: Archaeologist, Poet, Scholar, Spy, soon to be published by Camino Books, Philadelphia, USA. The book will be available in major local bookshops, where English-language books are available.

An excerpt, adapted from the book, follows:

Searching Hemingway and Fitzgerald Ghosts... Last Week in Paris...

Harry's New York Bar

Sir Winston Churchill Pub

... They were there. But they weren't on speaking terms.

The PJ depends on reader support. Please help us by contributing financially to Philabooks@yahoo.com via PayPal, or by contributing editorial content via PhiladelphiaJunto@ymail.com.| Established 1976 Richard Carreño, Editor © MMXXIV WritersClearinghouse All Rights Reserved.

NEW! MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW ON THE INVENTIVE LIFE OF GEORGE H. McFADDEN

The Biography/Memoir Shelf

The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden
Richard Carreno
Camino Books, Inc.
https://www.caminobooks.com
9781680980608, $35.00, Hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/Inventive-Life-George-McFadden-Archaeologist/dp/1680980602

"The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden", is Richard Carreno's latest foray into biographical history, and whose value lies in Carreno's ability to present contrasts in intellectual drive, psychological melancholy and isolation, closet homosexuality, and life contributions in such a manner that invites attention and inspection by audiences immersed in life stories and intellectual pursuits alike... not just Pennsylvanians or art students.

George H. McFadden stood out from the proper Philadelphian in many ways. His different relationships and personas in disparate cultural groups, his shifting approach to "finding ancient things" that led him to sailing and travel experiences (and, ultimately, to a mysterious death), and his literary prowess all come to light in a revealing examination of a Renaissance Man whose intellectual pursuits were anything but ordinary. From his draw to Cyprus (his adopted homeland) to his amateur archaeological pursuits, participation in war, and often-clever political maneuvers to find ways out of socially challenging situations, McFadden's life is narrated with the dual atmosphere of intellectual examination and adventure story:

For a man of forty-one, the timing smacked of desperation. His aspiration was equally disquieting. His twenty-year career in Cyprus had been shadowed by war and mired in his own complacency and vainglory. His way out modeled the successful career arcs of Daniel and Young -- as eminent archaeologists and museum curators. McFadden was a formidable applicant. He was fluent in French, German, and in modern Greek. He had a learned reading ability in Latin and ancient Greek. His work as a Penn Museum "research fellow" at Kourion, as a Navy veteran, and as the author of entries to professional and academic publications (not to mention his translation of the Iliad) were additional pluses. The result reveals a life worthy of discourse and discovery, and is very highly recommended for libraries interested in riveting tales of lives vividly and powerfully lived.

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THANK YOU JOSEPH! I'M THINKING OF YOU TOO!

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THE CRITICS LOVE "THE INVENTIVE LIFE OF GEORGE H. McFADDEN" (CAMINO BOOKS) PUBLICATION DATE: SEPTEMBER 10 Contact: WritersClearinghouse@yahoo.com

BIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEWS

A review of The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden by Richard Carreño

August 2, 2024

Reviewed by Mark Steadman

The Inventive Life of
George H. McFadden: Archaeologist, Poet, Scholar, Spy
by Richard Carreño
Camino Books, Inc.
September 2024, Hardcover, 280 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1680980608

The new book by Richard Carreño, a biography of George H. McFadden, charts his journey from Princeton to Cyprus and his untimely death at sea. Born into wealth in Philadelphia, and after graduating from Princeton his obsession with archeology leads him to set sail for Cyprus where he went to dig at the acropolis of Kourion under the aegis of his alma mater. Living in what is now the Kourion Archeological Museum George wrote, translated and studied history. His idiosyncrasy can be summed up in his mantra: “Where the purpose of a rule in any instance does not seem to apply. I have ignored the rule.”

A touch platitudinous, but for some reason a phrase that Carreño feels bears repeating from time to time throughout the book, but so begins the story of George H McFadden III.

The writing Is marvellously indulgent. He has a penchant for French terms like “chacun a son gout” and “bonhomie” as well as pleasingly old-fashioned phrases such as “kith and kin”, “betwixt and between” and “home and hearth”. He also has the fun tendency of juxtaposing slang with Latin or antiquated phrases as in the following: “Wartime bed-hopping in Alexandria was time-honoured – but only spoken of in sotto voce tones.”

Or: “Rainey attempted bonhomie and collegiality. But his efforts mostly filled, often just shorts of puffery.”

The story bounces along, as McFadden does, through Europe on his archeological quests, with the odd Italian, French or Latin phrase thrown in here and there. He writes with a sense of humour as well. Comedy is about surprises, so said the late, great Norm Macdonald and Carreño has a good feel for misdirection as in these Bill Bryson-esque passages:

“While Fales, Cox, Last, and others, onsite at Kourion, tackled their tasks, oblivious to Rainey's and Madeira’s plans for empire-building elsewhere, McFadden took time to slack off.”

“The director knew that McFadden lacked the swag of academic rank.”

The only real issue with the book is that the subject is quite a boring one. George McFadden was an archeologist who pioneered American archeology in Cyprus, unfortunately however he never discovered, say, a dinosaur or the city of Atlantis. If the book crescendoes at any point, therefore,
it would be his death. Carreño tries to make a fist out of drawing some controversy out of that, apparently some of his obituaries spelt his name wrong, but there’s not much by the way of drama.

One slight bit on intrigue is the fact that McFadden is gay, as Carreño puts it: “His sexual preferences dogged him in a prejudicial America where racism, nativism and homophobia often prevailed.” Carreño phrases his. But again none of this homophobia ever really manifests itself in an interesting way. He isn’t sent to prison like Oscar Wilde or poisoned to death Alan Turing. Again the book never really takes off.

The author also has a love of factoids, or questionable facts that sound cool (my favourite). We learn that “the Cold War” is a phrase potentially coined by George Orwell, the “iron curtain” was probably coined by Churchill. Other than that there are some nice turns of phrase “Always Cary Grant in a world of Gary Coopers.” But the book has a lot more style than substance.

About the reviewer: Mark Steadman writes book reviews and articles freelance. Before taking up writing he studied philosophy at Kings college London before working as a teacher. He now writes full-time

AND MORE....

This biography by Richard Carreño traces the short, compelling life of George H. McFadden (1907–1953). The story begins with his awkward early years as the closeted gay scion of one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest and most prominent families. It continues to Cyprus, where he reinvented himself as an archaeologist with the University of Pennsylvania’s excavations of ancient Greek and Roman treasures. McFadden created a new life there replete with a gracious villa and yacht as a respected figure in the local community. When World War II broke out, he moved from Germany to France, Greece, and finally to Egypt, where he faced down the Nazi war machine as an American spy. He volunteered his yacht for government service, ferrying assets in secret across the Mediterranean. McFadden also found time in his abbreviated, multi-faceted life for work as a poet and Classical scholar, creating his own translation of Homer’s Iliad. A mysterious sailing accident in Cyprus brought McFadden’s life to an untimely end at age 45—with the future of the Kourion dig in doubt, and his exploits as a spy unknown. For the first time, The Inventive Life of George McFadden brings the exciting details of his story to light.

THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN!

COUNTING TO SEPTEMBER 10: PUBLICATION DATE OF "THE INVENTIVE LIFE OF GEORGE H. McFADDEN"

https://gifs.com/gif/old-fashioned-grainy-10-second-movie-film-countdown-timer-hd-KR1wLE

The PJ depends on reader support. Please help us by contributing financially to Philabooks@yahoo.com via PayPal, or by contributing editorial content via PhiladelphiaJunto@ymail.com.| Established 1976 Richard Carreño, Editor © MMXXIV WritersClearinghouse All Rights Reserved.

THE INVENTIVE LIFE OF GEORGE H. McFADDEN

IN BOOKSHOPS SOON!

[ASK. PUT ON HOLD.]

The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden
Richard Carreño
Camino Books, Inc.
9781680980608              $35.00 Hardcover
https://www.caminobooks.com/ 

Richard Carreño’s biography of Philadelphia art collector John H.

 McFadden, John McFadden and his Age, provided a wealth of information

 applicable to art history in general and Philadelphia history in particular. 

McFadden himself provides the introduction to Carreño’s latest foray into

 biographical history, The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden. This book 

serves as a fitting companion volume, examining John’s Uncle George’s life

 of intrigue, mystery, adventure, and Philadelphia connections. 

This is not to say that either book should be limited to Pennsylvania readers

 and collections—not by a long shot. Indeed, especially in The Inventive Life

 of George H. McFadden, the value lies in Carreño’s ability to present contrasts

 in intellectual drive, psychological melancholy and isolation, closet homosexuality,

 and life contributions in such a manner that invites attention and inspection 

by audiences immersed in life stories and intellectual pursuits alike … not just

 Pennsylvanians or art students. 

George H. McFadden stood out from the proper Philadelphian in many ways. 

His different relationships and personas in disparate cultural groups, his shifting 

approach to “finding ancient things” that led him to sailing and travel experiences 

(and, ultimately, to a mysterious death), and his literary prowess all come to

 light in a revealing examination of a Renaissance Man whose intellectual pursuits

 were anything but ordinary. 

BAHAMIAN GALLERY: A SONG OF NASSAU 1.

Dedicated to Marion B. Carreño, Ralph J. Carreño, Roberta E. Carreño Bernard, and Stafford Morrison 2

Limbo, Limbo Like Me

You Can't Go Home Again 

The way they were. (Top and below)

Functioning?

The way they are.

The "old" John Bull, Ltd., then across from Rawson Square.

McFADDEN GOES TO CAMBRIDGE

Clare College @ Cambridge University

Book Notes from All Over

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Past Favs

MIND THE GAP

By Richard Carreño

[WritersClearinghouse News Service] Posted 7 August 2014

San Francisco

San Francisco is well known for many things: Steve McQueen's blistering car chase in Bullitt. For the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and huffing and puffing up (and down) Telegraph Hill. Its user-friendly public transportation system (refurbished, retired trolleys and, of course, its hokey cable cars). An odd comestible known as Rice-A-Roni (and its catchy 'San Francisco Treat' ad jingle). Levis are of course synonymous with the city, and so are the 49ers who wore them. And who can forget the still wet-behind the ears Michael Douglas debuting in the TV series The Streets of San Francisco? 

 

But I knew I was in for a different kind of 'treat' as I settled in with my cabin mates for my flight from Philly to SFO. The surrounding businessmen were clearly representatives of a new, evolving San Francisco, and one I hadn't known before. And my last visit was only five years ago. Sporting iPads, iPhones, laptops, ear-plugs, and headsets, these New-Age 49ers where hardly Rice-A-Roni types. My heavily-wired companions, of course, were newly-minted Silicon Valley standard-bearers, and I doubt they were iTuned to Tony Bennett waxing lyrical about leaving his heart in the 'City by the Bay.'

Welcome to San Francisco's corporate world of Google, PayPal, and Facebook -- and generic billion-dollar 'Googlers' from Instagram, Yelp, HubPages, Dropbox, Pinterest, Twitter, and dozens of other Internet sensations. If there were any Levis in sight, they were skinny jean versions, matched with shortie jackets, skinny ties, rectangular-shaped eyeglass frames, and other accouterments pinched from the pages of a recent J. Crew catalogue. Or, rather, this being San Francisco, Gap Inc and Banana Republic, also headquartered here.

Liverpool Learned Society Praises New Book on Local Art Collector John H. McFadden

John H. McFadden and His Age: Cotton and Culture in Philadelphia

Richard Carreño 304pp.19 black and white illustrations. Camino Books, Philadelphia, 2021. Available from Amazon £18.69 hardback. ISBN: 978-1680980394.

I consider myself a reasonably well-read amateur Liverpool historian but confess that, until recently, I had never heard of John H McFadden. And, I suspect, neither had any of my fellow local history friends. This despite the fact that he and brother George headed up the biggest firm of cotton dealers not just in Liverpool during the late Victorian and early Edwardian era when the city was indisputably “King Cotton”, but on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Like John Howard McFadden’s life itself, this is a book of two halves covering his early and later years in Philadelphia and his two decades or so in Liverpool when he was at the height of his cotton dealing powers. In spite of his business success and the great wealth that went with it, McFadden largely lived his life under the radar. So, it is thanks to Carreño that he has managed to tease out so much of the detail of his life. Aside from dealing in cotton futures, McFadden had three main passions, and the money to indulge them: medical research (of which Liverpool was a major beneficiary), polar exploration (and in particular Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton) and assembling an outstanding private collection of 18th and 19th century British paintings by the great masters, including one by Liverpool horse painter George Stubbs. 

LIVERPOOL'S LITTLE-KNOWN ART WORLD

THE TOFF OF LIVERPOOL

John H. McFadden and His Age

By Richard Carreño

Camino Press (2021)

BOOK'S STARTLING REVELATIONS

GET ACCLAIM FROM LOCAL AUTHOR

By Ron Jones

Amazon.com

This is no hagiography. Where there are skeletons in the cupboard (and there are), Richard Carreño relishes dragging them out into the light of day. I consider myself a reasonably well-read amateur Liverpool historian, but confess that I had never heard of John H. McFadden. And neither had any of my fellow local history buffs, despite the fact that he and brother George headed up the biggest firm of cotton dealers not just in Liverpool during the late Victorian and early Edwardian era when the city was indisputably “King Cotton”, but on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Like John Howard McFadden's life itself, this is a book of two halves covering his early and later years in Philadelphia and his two decades or so in Liverpool when he was at the height of his cotton dealing powers. In spite of his business success and the great wealth that went with it, McFadden largely lived his life under the radar. So, it is thanks to Carreño that he has managed to tease out so much of the detail of his life. Aside from dealing in cotton futures, McFadden had three main passions, and the money to indulge them: medical research (of which Liverpool was a major beneficiary), polar exploration (and in particular Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton), and assembling an outstanding private collection of 18th and 19th century British paintings by the great masters.

 

Whilst McFadden largely amassed his fortune during his days in Liverpool, it was his birthplace of Philadelphia that was the main recipient of his largesse. Having spent the greater part of his life buying British masterpieces, what to do with them with life drawing to a close? The answer was to donate them to his hometown. But the canny McFadden had one stipulation: the “City of Brotherly Love” must first build a fitting gallery in which to display them…and build it within a challenging timespan. Hence the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Carreño has undertaken impressive research into this whole saga, which rightly takes up a goodly part of the book.

In other hands this biography might have resulted in a worthy but rather dull account of an extraordinary man leading a fairly ordinary life, but in Carreño’s hands it comes to life, mainly because it is so well-researched and entertainingly written.

Ron Jones is a journalist based in Liverpool. He is the author of The American Connection: The Story of Liverpool's Links with America from Christopher Columbus to The Beatles. 

PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE RAVES!

SERIOUS McFADDEN BIO

ALSO ROLLICKING FUN READ

Take it from Sandy Hingston at Philadelphia Magazine and you, too, might spend a couple of reading days rollicking with Richard Carreno's bio of John H. McFadden, the Philadelphia 19th century millionaire, art collector, and founder of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Click below:

This Collector You’ve Never Heard Of Helped Spark the Creation of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The PJ depends on reader support. Please help us by contributing financially or by contributing editorial content via PhiladelphiaJunto@ymail.com. Empowered by WritersClearinghouse | S.P.Q.R. 1976 Richard Carreño, Editor Copyright MMXXI. All Rights Reserved.

'JOHN H. McFADDEN AND HIS AGE: COTTON AND CULTURE IN PHILADELPHIA' NOW AVAILABLE AT BARNES & NOBLE

More info? Click Here

Read Excerpt Here:

Preface: Beau Ideal

In a city where Benjamin Franklin’s legacy permeates the institutional landscape, it is easy to believe that the Philadelphia Museum of Art is another of Philadelphia’s ancient and legendary cultural institutions. Many of them indeed date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, founded in 1805, and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, begun in 1814. And Franklin was in fact associated with two public institutions: the Library Company (1731) and the American Philosophical Society (1743). In contrast, the Philadelphia Museum is a mere youngblood, less than a century from its opening in 1928 as the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. That is, if we are considering it as it is today: the majestic Greek Revival colossus atop Fairmount Hill. 

But the museum’s roots run much deeper, to the late nineteenth century, in its first incarnation in 1877 as the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. By this measure, it is actually older than the iconic Metropolitan Museum of Art (1880) in New York. John H. McFadden and His Age The Pennsylvania Museum of Art was born in a time of tumultuous municipal transition, which tore and remade the fabric of virtually all of Philadelphia’s institutions, from political to cultural, from commercial to societal.