James Hilton (September 9, 1900 - December 20, 1954) was a popular English novelist of the first half of the 20th century.

Born in Leigh, Lancashire, England on 9 September 1900, he was the son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow, who was one of the inspirations for Mr Chipping in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. (Interestingly, Hilton was born on Wilkinson Street in Leigh - there is a teacher in Goodbye Mr Chips called Mr Wilkinson, which seems too deliberate to be a coincidence.) The setting for "Goodbye Mr. Chips" is believed to have been based on the Leys School, Cambridge where James Hilton was a pupil. Mr Chipping is also likely to have been based on W.H. Balgarnie, one of the masters of the school who was in charge of the Leys Fortnightly (where Hilton's first short stories and essays were published).

Hilton found literary success at an early age. His first novel, Catherine Herself, was published in 1920. Several of his books found a new audience through film adaptations, notably Lost Horizon (1933), which won a Hawthornden Prize; Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934); and Random Harvest (1941). Hilton won an Oscar in 1942 for his work on the screenplay of Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. He hosted The Hallmark Playhouse (1948-1953) for CBS Radio.

Hilton popularised the term "Shangri-La" in his novel Lost Horizon, which may have been inspired by the Tibetan travel articles of explorer Joseph Rock. It is also believed that the isolated little valley town of Weaverville, in far northern California's Trinity California, inspired Hilton's idea. US President Roosevelt soon named his Maryland presidential retreat "Shangri-La" after it, and the name has become a byword for a mythical utopia - a permanently happy land, isolated from the world. (Later, President Dwight David Eisenhower renamed it Camp David, after his grandson; this name continues in use today.) Zhongdian, a mountain region of southwest China, has now renamed itself Shangri-La (Xianggelila) based on its claim to have inspired Hilton's book.

Hilton was married and divorced twice, to Galina Kopineck and Alice Brown. He died in Long Beach, California from liver cancer on December 20, 1954, aged 54.

Trivia

A furore was caused in the late 1990's, when Wigan Council (the Metropolitan Borough responsible for Leigh) announced that they were to erect a blue plaque in honour of Hilton, but not on his house in Wilkinson St, but on the town hall. This caused great debate amongst the populace of Leigh, who considered it more appropriate to have the plaque erected on the house itself, which is only a few hundred yards from the town hall.

External links

• Filmography at IMDB.com

English novelists | Old Leysians | 1900 births | 1954 deaths | James Hilton | James Hilton | James Hilton | James Hilton