Growing Up

This chapter looks at Morton’s family background and upbringing. His earliest political influences were conservative but a form of conservatism critical of political corruption and the exploitative impact of technological progress. His first school was King Edward VIEdward VI GrammarKing Edward VI Grammar School in Bury St EdmundsBury St Edmunds where he encountered the rituals of the British class system, militarism, and empire, all of which were soon tied up with stories of alumni dying in the First World WarWorld War One. Here he encountered not only conventional Anglicanism but more unconventional religious ideas that became a lifelong interest, particularly through the famed alumnus Edward FitzgeraldFitzgerald, Edward and his translation of Persian poetry. At the end of the War, Morton went away to Eastbourne CollegeMorton, Arthur Lesliecollege yearsEastbourne College where his intellectual skills were being noted. His politics were moving leftward as were his readingMorton, Arthur Lesliereading interests as a teenager habits. Small pockets of University of CambridgeMorton, Arthur LeslieCambridge, time spent atUniversity of Cambridge life in the early 1920s offered Morton alternatives to the dominance of the old world of empire and militarism. Morton also read T. S. Eliot’sEliot, T.S. “The Waste Land”Morton, Arthur Leslie“The Waste Land” (T. S. Eliot), influence on Morton which had a major impact on Morton aesthetically and politically.