John Barrington Wain
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(14 March 1925 – 24 May 1994) was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group known as "
The Movement
The Movement may refer to:
Politics
* The Movement (Iceland), a political party in Iceland
* The Movement (Israel), a political party in Israel, led by Tzipi Livni
* Civil rights movement, the African-American political movement
* The Movemen ...
". He worked for most of his life as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewing for newspapers and the radio.
Life and education
Wain was born and grew up in
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...
,
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, the son of a dentist, Arnold Wain, and his wife Annie, née Turner. He had an older sister and a younger brother, Noel. After attending
Newcastle under Lyme High School, he entered
St. John's College, Oxford, gaining a first in his
BA in 1946 and an
MA in 1950. He was a Fereday
Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of St John's between 1946 and 1949.
On 4 July 1947, Wain married Marianne Uffenheimer (born 1923 or 1924), but they divorced in 1956. He then married Eirian Mary James (1920–1988), deputy director of the recorded sound department of the British Council, on 1 January 1960. They had three sons and lived mainly in
Wolvercote
Wolvercote is a village that is part of the City of Oxford, England. It is about northwest of the city centre, on the northern edge of Wolvercote Common, which is itself north of Port Meadow and adjoins the River Thames.
History
The Domesday B ...
, Oxford. Wain married his third wife, Patricia Adams (born 1942 or 1943), an art teacher, in 1989. He died in Oxford on 24 May 1994.
Literary career
Wain wrote his first novel, ''Hurry on Down'', in 1953: a comic
picaresque
The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for " rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrup ...
story about an unsettled university graduate who rejects the standards of conventional society. Other notable novels include ''
Strike the Father Dead'' (1962), a tale of a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
man's rebellion against his conventional father, and ''
Young Shoulders'' (1982), winner of the
Whitbread Prize
The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...
, in which a young boy deals with the death of loved ones.
Wain was also a prolific poet and critic, with critical works on fellow
Midland writers
Arnold Bennett
Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...
,
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
(winning him the 1974
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
), and on Shakespeare. Others on whom he wrote included the Americans
Theodore Roethke
Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...
and
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
. He himself was the subject of a bibliography by David Gerard.
Academic career
Wain taught at the
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and in 1963 spent a term as professor of
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
at
Gresham College
Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...
, London. He was the first fellow in creative arts at
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...
(1971–1972), and was appointed a supernumerary fellow in 1973.
[ In the same year he was elected to the five-year post of ]Professor of Poetry
The Professor of Poetry is an academic appointment at the University of Oxford. The chair was created in 1708 by an endowment from the estate of Henry Birkhead. The professorship carries an obligation to lecture, but is in effect a part-time po ...
at the University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
: some of his lectures appear in his book ''Professing Poetry''. Wain was appointed a CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1984. He was made an honorary fellow of his old college, St John's, Oxford, in 1985.
Literary associations
Wain was often referred to as one of the "Angry Young Men
The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working- and middle-class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading figures included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis; other popular figures included John ...
", a term applied to 1950s writers such as John Braine
John Gerard Braine (13 April 1922 – 28 October 1986) was an English novelist. Braine is usually listed among the angry young men, a loosely defined group of English writers who emerged on the literary scene in the 1950s.
Biography
John Brain ...
, John Osborne
John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play ''Look Back in Anger'' tra ...
, Alan Sillitoe
Alan Sillitoe FRSL (4 March 192825 April 2010) was an English writer and one of the so-called "angry young men" of the 1950s. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied. He is best known for his debut novel ...
and Keith Waterhouse
Keith Spencer Waterhouse (6 February 1929 – 4 September 2009) was a British novelist and newspaper columnist and the writer of many television series.
Biography
Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. H ...
, as radicals who opposed the British establishment and conservative elements of society at that time. Indeed, he contributed to ''Declaration
Declaration may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Declaration'' (book), a self-published electronic pamphlet by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri
* ''The Declaration'' (novel), a 2008 children's novel by Gemma Malley
Music ...
'', an anthology by writers associated with the philosophy, and a chapter of his novel ''Hurry on Down'' was excerpted in a popular paperback sampler, '' Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men''.
Yet it may be more accurate to link Wain with The Movement
The Movement may refer to:
Politics
* The Movement (Iceland), a political party in Iceland
* The Movement (Israel), a political party in Israel, led by Tzipi Livni
* Civil rights movement, the African-American political movement
* The Movemen ...
, a group of post-war poets including Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...
, D. J. Enright, Thom Gunn
Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004) was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement, and his later poetry in America, even after moving towards a looser, ...
, Elizabeth Jennings and Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, '' The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, '' Jill'' (1946) and '' A Girl in Winter'' (1 ...
. Amis and Larkin, good friends of Wain's for a time, were also associated with the "Angries". But aside from their poetry, it may be more apposite to refer to them, as was sometimes done at the time, as "The New University Wits" – writers who wished to communicate rather than experiment and often did so in a comic manner. However, they all became more serious after their initial work. Wain is still known for his poetry (for example, his '' Apology for Understatement'') and literary interests (contributions to ''The Observer''), although his work is no longer as popular as it was. Critical remarks about him by Amis and Larkin in their posthumously published letters may have contributed to dimming his reputation.
Wain's tutor at Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
had been C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
. He encountered, but did not see himself part of the group of Lewis's literary acquaintances, the Inklings
The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who pra ...
.[As an undergraduate, Wain would not have been considered for what passed for "membership" anyway.] Wain was as serious about literature as the Inklings, and believed as they did in the primacy of literature as communication, but as a modern realist writer he shared neither their conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
social beliefs nor their propensity for fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
.
Works
Novels
See also
*List of Gresham Professors of Rhetoric
John Wain Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
References
Literature
*Elizabeth Hatziolou, 1997. ''John Wain, A Man of Letters''
*Diana Glyer, 2007. ''The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community''
*Edward Black, 1965. "L'Art de John Wain, poète": PhD thesis, Université de Caen, 1965
*Dr. K. Kumar, 1999
"The Novels of John Wain"
, PhD Thesis, Ranchi University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wain, John
1925 births
1994 deaths
People from Stoke-on-Trent
Alumni of St John's College, Oxford
People educated at Newcastle-under-Lyme School
Academics of the University of Reading
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford
Professors of Gresham College
Inklings
20th-century English male writers
James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients
Oxford Professors of Poetry
English literary critics
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English poets
British male poets
English male novelists
English male non-fiction writers