John Barrington Wain CBE (14 March 1925 – 24 May 1994) was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group known as " The Movement". 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 C ...

, 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 Domesd ...

, 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 corru ...

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 m ...

man's rebellion against his conventional father, and '' Young Shoulders'' (1982), winner of the Whitbread Prize, 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 par ...

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 m ...

(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 p ...

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 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 Jo ...

", 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'' tr ...

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'', 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, 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 ...

D. J. Enright Dennis Joseph Enright OBE FRSL (11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002) was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic. He authored ''Academic Year'' (1955), ''Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor'' (1969) and a wide range of essays, reviews, anthol ...

, Thom Gunn, 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'' (1947 ...

. 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 Univer ...

. He encountered, but did not see himself part of the group of Lewis's literary acquaintances, the Inklings.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 in ...

social beliefs nor their propensity for

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving 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 literature and d ...

Works

Novels

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