Writer and critic, born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, C England, UK. He studied at Oxford, and lectured in English at Reading (194755) before becoming a freelance writer. His novels include Hurry on Down (1953) and The Contenders (1958), tilting at post-war British social values as viewed by a provincial. He also wrote poetry (Poems, 194979 appeared in 1981), plays, and several books of literary criticism, notably Preliminary Essays (1957). He was professor of poetry at Oxford (19738). Later books include Lizzie's Floating Shop (1981), Young Shoulders (1982, Whitbread), and Comedies (1990). He also produced two volumes of autobiography, Sprightly Running (1982) and Dear Shadows (1986).
John Wain (born John Barrington Wain, March 14, 1925 – May 24, 1994) was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group The Movement. For most of his life, Wain worked as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewing for newspapers and the radio.
Life and work
Wain was born and brought up in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and attended St. John's College, Oxford, gaining a B.A.
Wain was also a prolific poet and critic, with critical works on fellow Midlands writers Arnold Bennett, Samuel Johnson, and William Shakespeare. Among the other writers he has written works about are the Americans Theodore Roethke and Edmund Wilson.
Wain taught at the University of Reading in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and in 1963 spent a term as professor of rhetoric at Gresham College, London.
Literary associations
Wain was (much to his own annoyance) often referred to as one of the Angry Young Men, a term applied to 1950s writers such as John Braine, John Osborne, Alan Sillitoe and Keith Waterhouse thought to be radicals who bitterly opposed the British establishment and conservative elements of society at that time.
Wain's tutor at Oxford had been C.S.
User Comments Add a comment…