Vincent Cronin

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Vincent Archibald Patrick Cronin (Cronogue) FRSL (24 May 1924 – 25 January 2011) was a British writer, historian, and editor. He is best known for biographies of Louis XIV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, and Napoleon, as well as for books about the Renaissance.

He was born in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, to Scottish doctor and novelist A. J. Cronin and May Gibson. The family moved to London when he was two. He studied at Ampleforth College, Harvard University, the Sorbonne, and Trinity College, Oxford, where he earned honours in Literae Humaniores in 1947. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant in the British Army.

In 1949 he married Chantal de Rolland, and they had five children. The Cronin family lived in London, Marbella, and Dragey in Normandy, where they stayed at the Manoir de Brion. He died at his home in Marbella on 25 January 2011.

Cronin received several awards, including the Richard Hillary Award, the W. H. Heinemann Award (1955), and the Rockefeller Foundation Award (1958). He contributed to the Revue des Deux Mondes, was the first general editor of the Companion Guides series, and served on the council of the Royal Society of Literature. His books sold well, though some scholars did not always praise them; for example, reviewer John T. Alexander described Catherine, Empress of All the Russias as a facile popularization.