Obituary: Professor Maurice Cranston

Maurice William Cranston, political scientist: born 8 May 1920; Lecturer/ Reader in Political Science, LSE 1959- 69, Professor of Political Science 1969- 85 (seconded as Professor of Political Science, European University Institute 1978-81); married secondly 1959 Baroness Maximiliana von und zu Fraunberg (two sons); died London 5 November 1993.

MAURICE CRANSTON was among the most prolific and influential authors of his generation, writes Professor Fred Rosen. His reputation is based on a number of books which cross several academic disciplines. In political philosophy he wrote widely on freedom and human rights. His 1957 biography of John Locke remains the definitive study of Locke's life today. His translations of Rousseau's Social Contract (1968) and the Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (1984) in the Penguin Classics are widely used and considered models of accurate and sympathetic translation. He wrote extensively on French thought, from an early study of Sartre (1962) to the exquisite Philosophers and Pamphleteers (1986), based on the Carlyle Lectures delivered at Oxford in 1984. In recent years he concentrated on a biography of Rousseau, two volumes of which have appeared, and the third, it is hoped, is sufficiently advanced to be published posthumously.

Besides these major marks in an academic career Cranston produced a steady stream of books, articles, reviews and broadcasts exploring virtually every topic in the realm of political ideas with a unique and subtle prose style which was highly accessible to the general reader. Many of his works remain the best introductions for students to numerous topics. His essays and reviews appeared in numerous journals and newspapers and especially in the Listener and Encounter. For so productive an author he maintained a high standard of accuracy, combined with wit and charm, which made even the slightest production interesting and enjoyable.

In a postscript to a volume of essays (Lives, Liberties and the Public Good, 1987) written by former students and friends to mark his retirement Cranston felt obliged to explain how the biographer of Locke who defended the Lockean doctrine of natural rights to life, liberty and property could also become the biographer of Rousseau:

It was a younger friend, Richard Peters, who urged me some years later to write the biography of Rousseau on the grounds, which I questioned, that I had 'the same sort of history'. Admittedly, my mother died, like Rousseau's, when I was a child; my father was a theatrical manager who left the country to seek, unsuccessfully, his fortune; I was brought up by aunts and a Quaker godmother; I went to a succession of schools, including an institut in France; but I was never a Catholic convert, or a valet de pied, or a music teacher; and far from being an adventurer or an Alpine wanderer, I have always sought what Jean Starobinski called 'la grande paix des bibliotheques', and found it only in cities.

Cranston was happiest in the libraries and in writing and broadcasting. He died suddenly while at the BBC. This followed a brief stop at LSE, where he wrote a note to me full of joint plans, including the Political Thought Conference at Oxford in January, a paper on 'Rousseau and Swiss politics' at the Institute of Historical Research in February, and a conference on Nationalism in New Orleans in March. He was vigorous and productive to the end.