John Wain (born John Barrington Wain, March 14, 1925 - May 24, 1994) was a poet, critic and Professor of Poetry, associated with the literary group The Movement. For most of his life, John Wain worked as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewing for newspapers and the radio.

Background and Work

Wain was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and later attended St. John's College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1946 and M.A. in 1950. He wrote his first novel Hurry on Down in 1953, which was about the life of a graduate and how he turns his life against conventional society. Other notable novels include Strike the father dead (1962) and Young shoulders (1982), the latter winning the Whitbread Prize. His use of non-capital letters for his novels indicates his non-conventional manner.

He was also a prolific poet and critic, with a critical works on fellow Staffordshire writers Arnold Bennett and Samuel Johnson. Among the other writers he has written works about are the Americans Theodore Roethke and Edmund Wilson. He himself was the subject of a bibliography by David Gerard.

Literary Associations

Wain was 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. These were thought to be radicals who bitterly opposed the British establishment and conservative elements of society at that time. Wain's work is less angry than his contempories, but perhaps wittier in tone.

Another group Wain was involved with was The Inklings, an Oxford literary group with included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Along with this, he was also associated with The Movement, a group of post-war poets included luminaries such as Kingsley Amis, D.J. Enright, Thom Gunn, Elizabeth Jennings and Philip Larkin. Wain's poetry was criticised more than his other work, with some seen it as brittle and contrived.

Novels

• Hurry on Down (1953) aka Born in captivity (US title)
• Living in the present (1953)
• The Contenders (1958)
• A Travelling Woman (1959)
• Strike the father dead (1962)
• The Young Visitors (1965)
• The Smaller Sky (1967)
• A Winter in the Hills (1970)
• The Pardoner's Tale (1978)
• Lizzie's floating shop (1981)
• The free zone starts here (1982)
• Young Shoulders (1982) (winner of the Whitbread Prize)
• Where rivers meet (1988)
• Comedies (1990)
• Hungry generations (1994)

Poetry

• A word carved on a sill (1956)
• Weep before God, poems (1961)
• Wildtrack (1965)
• Letters to five artists, poems (1969)
• Feng, a poem (1975)
• Poems 1949-79 (1980)
• Poems for the Zodiac (1980)
• The Twofold (1981)
• Open country (1987)

Plays

• Johnson is leaving (1973) (monodrama)
• Harry in the night (1975)
• Frank (1984) (radio play)

Short Stories

• Nuncle and Other Stories (1960)
• Death of the Hind Legs and Other Stories (1966)
• The Life Guard (1971)
• A man in a million (1971)

Literary Criticism

• Interpretations, essays on twelve English poems (1955 and 1972)
• Preliminary Essays (1957)
• American Allegory (1959)
• Essays on Literature and Ideas (1963)
• The Living World of Shakespeare, a playgoer's guide (1964)
• Theodore Roethke (1964) (in Critical Quarterly)
• Arnold Bennett (1967)
• A House for the truth, critical essays (1972)
• Johnson as critic (1973)
• An Edmund Wilson celebration (1978)
• Edmund Wilson, the man and his work (1978)
• Professing poetry (1979)