H. H. Quarter

H. H. Quarter is a pseudonym used by a number of British literary figures between the 1930s and 1960s. The original seems to have been Henricus "Harry" Henchard of Rarsden Hall, West Hitchin, who came from a wealthy Hertfordshire family and was a literary dilettante in London in the 1930s. After the war the name was adopted by a number of "serious" writers and dramatists who chose not to be associated with their more popular (and profitable) works. Kenneth Tynan and Harold Lang initially proposed their play "The Quest for Corbett" to the BBC under this name. It was probably Tynan and John Osborne who wrote the classic (though financially unsuccessful) Whitehall farce Whoops! There Go My Trousers! under this name, as well as several episodes and an unsuccessful filmscript of On the Buses in the 1960s. Tynan was to use it again for his unfinished book of [...] fantasies in the 1970s which foundered after being rebuffed by Vladimir Nabokov, Graham Greene, Samuel Beckett and others.

See also

• Alan Smithee

References

• Benedict Nightingale, "Fifth row center: a critic's year on and off Broadway", Deutsch, 1987, ISBN 023398108X
• Eric Johns, "British theatre review", Vance-Offord (Publications) Ltd., 1974, ISBN 0903931079
• Kenneth Tynan (ed. John Lahr)"The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan", 2001, ISBN 0747554188