John Knowles





John Knowles

Author profile


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

died
November 29, 2001

gender
male

genre


About this author

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


Average rating: 3.50 · 61,151 ratings · 2,755 reviews · 23 distinct works
A Separate Peace
3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 avg rating — 60,363 ratings — published 1959 — 54 editions
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Peace Breaks Out
3.32 of 5 stars 3.32 avg rating — 468 ratings6 editions
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A Separate Peace
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 76 ratings
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John Knowles's a Separate P...
3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 avg rating — 59 ratings — published 1999
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Phineas
3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 avg rating — 66 ratings — published 1968 — 3 editions
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Indian Summer
3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 avg rating — 52 ratings
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The Paragon: A Novel
3.19 of 5 stars 3.19 avg rating — 27 ratings2 editions
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A Stolen Past
3.3 of 5 stars 3.30 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 1983 — 2 editions
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Morning In Antibes
3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1963 — 2 editions
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Spreading Fires
2.9 of 5 stars 2.90 avg rating — 10 ratings2 editions
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More books 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

“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

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

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