Plan: General background

John Boynton Priestley (1894-1984)

John Boynton Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in the family of a schoolmaster. He was educated in his native town, and after army service in World War I he returned to study at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In 1922 he began to work in London as a reviewer, essayist and literary journalist. During World War II he won his countrymen's affection as a patriotic broadcaster of the BBC.

Priestley's career as a novelist began in 1927 with the publica­tion of "Benighted". In 1929 he published "The Good Companions" which was awarded the James Tait Black Prize and was a popu­lar success as well. His novels, written over a period of almost fifty years include, "Angel Pavement" (1930), "The Wonder Hero" (1933), "They Walk in the City" (1936), "Let the People Sing " (1939), "Black-Out in Gretley" (1942), "Daylight on Saturday" (1943), "Bright Day" (1946), "Festival of Fairbridge" (1951), "The Magicians" (1954), "Sir Michael and Sir George" (1964), "The Lost Empires" (1965), "Salt is Living" (1966), "It's an Old Country" (1967), "The Image Men" (1968-69). These books are extremely varied in kind and quality but they are all united by their author's concern for humanity, for the happiness of men and women. His books present a wide view of mid-20* century life in England.

In 1930s Priestley began a new career as a playwright with a dramatization of "The Good Companions" (1931) which was fol­lowed by a series of plays valuable as contributions to the social history of England. Among these plays "Dangerous Corner"( 1932), "Time and Conways" (1937), "An Inspector Calls" (1946) show Priestley's detestation of the inhumanity in the existing social sys­tem and sympathy for common English people.

J.B. Priestley's list of published works also includes literary history (e.g. "Figures in Modern Literature", "The English Comic Characters", "George Meredith", "Literature and Western Man"), social criticism (e.g." Man and Time", "Victoria in Heyday", "The English") and philosophical essays (e.g. "Apes and Angels', "De­light", "The Moments - and Other Pieces").