When winter comes to Main Street (1922) (14769609965)

Frank Arthur Swinnerton (12 August 1884 – 6 November 1982) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

novelist, critic, biographer and essayist. He was the author of more than 50 books, and as a publisher's editor helped other writers including

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

and

Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of '' Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...

. His long life and career in publishing made him one of the last links with the generation of writers that included

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

John Galsworthy and

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 ...

Biography

Swinnerton was born in

Wood Green Wood Green is a suburban district in the borough of London Borough of Haringey, Haringey in London, England. Its postal district is N22, with parts in N8 or N15. The London Plan identifies it as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater Lond ...

, a suburb of London, the son of Charles Swinnerton, a copperplate engraver, and Rose, née Cottam. Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2000, accessed 22 November 2008
/ref>

Career

Swinnerton left school at the age of 14 and was employed as an office boy for a newspaper publisher, Hay, Nisbet & Co and then as a clerk-receptionist by J. M. Dent, publishers of

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & N ...

.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' obituary, 10 November 1982, p. 14 He moved on to the publishing house of Chatto & Windus, first as a proof-reader and then as an editor. Although he began writing novels in 1909, he continued editing until he became a full-time author in 1926. Even then, he also worked as literary critic for the magazine ''Truth'', the '' London Evening News'' (1929–32) and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' (1937-43). As a novelist, Swinnerton achieved critical and commercial success with ''Nocturne'' in 1917, and remained a successful writer for the rest of his life. His last novel, ''Some Achieve Greatness'' (1976), was published when he was in his early nineties. Some critics detected echoes of

George Gissing George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include '' The Nether World'' (1889), '' New Gr ...

and

in Swinnerton's work, but he himself thought his chief influences were

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, Henrik Ibsen and Louisa May Alcott. His prose style was "natural and lucid", and he was disapproving of over-intellectual or pretentious writing. In ''The Georgian Literary Scene'', an evocation of the era of the gentlemanly man of letters in its final years, he wrote, "If I dwell for a moment longer, as I fear I must, upon the weakness of too much

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

in the arts, it is because I think scholarship is nowadays excessively valued as a necessary preliminary to creative writing." Of all of his critical contributions, ''The Georgian Literary Scene'' stands out, and it is still used by those who study the period. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' declared it "wholly – and most refreshingly – unlike other literary histories." Swinnerton himself said of his work: "My best books, in my own opinion, are ''Harvest Comedy'' and ''The Georgian Literary Scene'', but I do not regard either one as of lasting importance.... I live in the country, am very lazy, work unwillingly very hard, and have few intolerances."

Personal life

Swinnerton lived for more than fifty years in Old Tokefield,

Cranleigh Cranleigh is a village and civil parish, about southeast of Guildford in Surrey, England. It lies on a minor road east of the A281, which links Guildford with Horsham. It is in the north-west corner of the Weald, a large remnant forest, the m ...

, Surrey, a rural spot not far from London. He was twice married; his first marriage, in 1917, to the poet Helen Dircks, ended in divorce. In 1924 he married Mary Dorothy Bennett, with whom he had one daughter. Swinnerton died at Old Tokefield at the age of 98. His obituary notice in ''The Times'' began by noting that his death "breaks one of the last links with his great contemporaries, Wells,

Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include ''The Forsyte Saga'' (1906–1921) and its sequels, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of the Chapter''. He won the Nobel Prize ...

and Arnold Bennett."

Bibliography

*''The Merry Heart'', 1909. *''The Young Idea,'' 1910. *''The Casement,'' 1911. *''The Happy Family,'' 1912. *''George Gissing: a Critical Study,'' 1912. *''On the Staircase,'' 1914. *''R. L. Stevenson: a Critical Study,'' 1914. *''The Chaste Wife,'' 1916. *''Nocturne,'' 1917. *''Shops and Houses,'' 1918. *''September,'' 1919. *''Coquette,'' 1921. *''The Three Lovers,'' 1922. *''Young Felix,'' 1923. *''The Elder Sister,'' 1925. *''Summer Storm,'' 1926. *''Tokefield Papers,'' 1927. *''A London Bookman,'' 1928. *''A Brood of Ducklings,'' 1928. *''Sketch of a Sinner,'' 1929. *''Authors and the Book Trade,'' 1932. *''The Georgian House,'' 1932. *''Elizabeth,'' 1934. *''The Georgian Literary Scene,'' 1935. *''Swinnerton: an Autobiography,'' 1937. *''Harvest Comedy,'' 1937. *''The Two Wives,'' 1939. *''The Reviewing and Criticism of Books,'' 1939. *''The Fortunate Lady,'' 1941, *''Thankless Child,'' 1942. *''A Woman in Sunshine,'' 1944. *''English Maiden,'' 1946. *''The Cats and Rosemary, (US)'' 1948. *''Faithful Company,'' 1948. *''The Doctor’s Wife Comes to Stay,'' 1949. *''Arnold Bennett,'' 1950. *''A Flower for Catherine,'' 1950. *''The Bookman’s London,'' 1951. *''Master Jim Probity,'' 1952. *''Londoner’s Post,'' 1952. *''A Month in Gordon Square,'' 1953. *''The Sumner Intrigue,'' 1955. *''The Adventures of a Manuscript,'' 1956. *''Authors I Never Met,'' 1956. *''Background with Chorus,'' 1956. *''The Woman from Sicily,'' 1957. *''A Tigress in Prothero,'' 1959. *''The Grace Divorce,'' 1960. *''Death of a Highbrow,'' 1961. *''Figures in the Foreground,'' 1963. *''Quadrille,'' 1965. *''A Galaxy of Fathers,'' 1966. *''Sanctuary,'' 1966. *''The Bright Lights,'' 1968. *''Reflections from a Village,'' 1969. *''On the Shady Side,'' 1970. *''Nor all thy Tears,'' 1972. *''Rosalind Passes,'' 1973. *''Some Achieve Greatness,'' 1976. *''Arnold Bennett: a last word,'' 1978."Swinnerton, Frank Arthur", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2007

Notes

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Swinnerton, Frank 1884 births 1982 deaths English book editors English male novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers People from Wood Green