John Knowles

Author profile

born

September 16, 1926 in Fairmont, West Virginia, The United States

died

November 29, 2001

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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John Knowles (September 16, 1926 - November 29, 2001), b. Fairmont, West Virginia, was an American novelist, best known for his novel A Separate Peace.

A 1945 graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, Knowles graduated from Yale University as a member of the class of 1949W. A Separate Peace is based upon Knowles' experiences at Exeter during the summer of 1943. The setting for The Devon School is a thinly veiled fictionalization of Phillips Exeter. The plot should not be taken as autobiographical, although many elements of the novel stem from personal experience. In his essay, "A Special Time, A Special Place," Knowles wrote:

The only elements in A Separate Peace which were not in that summer were anger, violence, and...more

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Books by John Knowles

Average rating: 3.50 · 61,151 ratings · 2,755 reviews · 23 distinct works

	A Separate Peace 3.50 avg rating — 60,363 ratings — published 1959 — 54 editions	My rating:
	Peace Breaks Out 3.32 avg rating — 468 ratings — 6 editions	My rating:
	A Separate Peace 3.93 avg rating — 76 ratings	My rating:
	John Knowles's a Separate Peace 3.85 avg rating — 59 ratings — published 1999	My rating:
	Phineas 3.55 avg rating — 66 ratings — published 1968 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Indian Summer 3.48 avg rating — 52 ratings	My rating:
	The Paragon: A Novel 3.19 avg rating — 27 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	A Stolen Past 3.30 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 1983 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Morning In Antibes 3.36 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1963 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Spreading Fires 2.90 avg rating — 10 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:

More books by John Knowles…

Quotes by John Knowles

“I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.”
― John Knowles, A Separate Peace

tags: a-separate-peace , gene , john-knowles , phineas , tree

64 people liked it

“Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person "the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever.”
― John Knowles, A Separate Peace

60 people liked it

“Nothing endures. Not a tree. Not love. Not even death by violence.”
― John Knowles, A Separate Peace

56 people liked it

See all John Knowles's quotes »

Polls

October Category One Books: Regular Fiction/Non-Fiction YA

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

38 votes, 30.4%

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

37 votes, 29.6%

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

16 votes, 12.8%

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

11 votes, 8.8%

Elidor by Alan Garner

8 votes, 6.4%

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

8 votes, 6.4%

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

7 votes, 5.6%

125 total votes

10 comments

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