James Evershed Agate (9 September 1877 – 6 June 1947) was a British diarist and critic. In the period between the wars, he was one of Britain's most influential theatre critics. After working in his father's business until his late twenties he found his way into journalism, being on the staff of The Manchester Guardian (1907–14); drama critic for The Saturday Review (1921–23), and The Sunday Times (1923–47), and holding the same post for the BBC (1925–32).
Agate's diaries and letters, published in a series of nine volumes under the title of Ego, are a record of the British theatre of his era and also of his non-theatrical interests, including sports, social gossip and his private preoccupations with his health and precarious finances. In addition to drama criticism he wrote about the cinema and English literature for London newspapers, and published three novels, translated a play and had it staged in London, albeit briefly, and regularly brought out collections of his theatre essays and reviews.
"The English instinctively admire any man who has no talent and is modest about it"
"The Englishman can get along with sex quite perfectly so long as he can pretend that it isn't sex but something else."
"The worst of failure of this kind is that it spoils the market for more competent performers."
"I wonder what it is in the New York air that enables me to sit up till all hours of the night in an atmosphere which in London would make a horse dizzy, but here merely clears the brain"
"I don't know very much, but what I do know I know better than anybody, and I don't want to argue about it. I know what I think about an actor or an actress, and am not interested in what anybody else thinks."
"Your Englishman, confronted by something abnormal will always pretend that it isn't there. If, however, you force him to look into it, he'll at once pretend that he sees the object not for what it is but for something that he would like it to be."
"New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time."
"Theatre director: a person engaged by the management to conceal the fact that the players cannot act."
"Don't pity me now, don't pity me never; I'm going to do nothing for ever and ever."
BurtonCole. With age comes wisdom. That’s the rumor, anyway ... Or full of something. Chocolate chip cookies, most likely ... 2. To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.” — James Agate ... .
He is a figure like James Agate (the inspiration for Curtain Call) or Kenneth Tynan as he can make or break a production even if his prose, from what we see of it, does seem plain unpleasant rather than either especially witty or insightful ... .
JimmyErskine was inspired by the famously waspish James Agate, the drama critic of the Sunday Times from 1923 until his death in 1947. Like Jimmy, Agate had a number of male secretaries, the longest ...
Lucas was several times threatened and robbed, while the theatre critic James Agate, whose flat was hung with photographs by Angus McBean of soldiers who had somehow mislaid their uniforms, found ...
Ballots must be mailed to voters by May 1 ... Candidates are listed alphabetically ... Matt and his wife, Becca, live in southeast Eugene, between Agate and Onyx on E ... JamesManning, Eugene city councilorRelevant Professional or Service-Related Positions.
By WilliamR. Jones... I always pick up one of my many strewn-about books to lead me to an idea. This morning, I happened upon a witty remark attributed to the British writerJames Agate who did most of his writing between the two world wars ... .
TWO HARBORS — Joseph Ringhand scored 22 points for the Class 2A’s 10th-ranked Crosby-Ironton Rangers in their 86-65 Section 7-2A victory against the Two Harbors Agate Saturday, Jan ...James Stokman added 19 points and JordanMount 10 for Rangers.
Crosby-Ironton 86, Two Harbors 65 The Rangers, ranked 10th in the state in Class AA, ran their record to 12-0 on the season behind 22 points from Joey Ringhand and 19 from James Stokman The Agates, ...
TeraLynn's first posting was Agate Fossil Beds before they moved on to other locations ... Agate Fossil Beds ... Jason has researched JamesCook and his family extensively since coming to Agate Fossil Beds and what they envisioned for the park.
