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Margin Released
Margin A Writer's Reminiscences and J.B. Margin A Writer's Reminiscences and Harper & FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Harper & Row, 1962. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is very good with light shelf wear. Dust jacket is very good with light shelf wear and spotting. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 362820 Biography & Letters We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1962
3 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
J.B. Priestley
469 books293 followersJohn Boynton Priestley was an English writer. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and after schooling he worked for a time in the local wool trade. Following the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Priestley joined the British Army, and was sent to France - in 1915 taking part in the Battle of Loos. After being wounded in 1917 Priestley returned to England for six months; then, after going back to the Western Front he suffered the consequences of a German gas attack, and, treated at Rouen, he was declared unfit for active service and was transferred to the Entertainers Section of the British Army.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 31, 2012
I have always been a fan of Priestley's work, and as a young man I recall first reading this book when it was serialised in the Sunday Times. Later I bought the book, and when I met JB in 1964 he signed my copy --which makes it even more precious. I loved the story of his beginnings and his World War I experiences, and most of all I loved the way he stressed the point that if one wishes to succeed in writing, one must write, write, write! "I Had the Time" was one of the chapters...and he certainly made the best use of it. What a talent!
January 5, 2014
Late in 2013 I read two of J.B. Priestley's early novels, LOST EMPIRES and THE GOOD COMPANIONS, for the first time and fell in love with Priestley's gift for character and, especially, his ability to create drama without having to resort to villains; a highly unusual, not cloying sweetness of spirit pervades both books. The good have their bad moments and the bad have their good ones, but by and large, human beings are presented in such a way as to suggest that their creation wasn't a divine mistake.
Priestley began to write in earnest after an appalling series of experiences in the trenches of World War I, an upheaval that, he believed, changed the world he had known forever, and not for the better. It seemed to me, in those two books, as though he were reacting to the War by trying to create a world in which good feeling and companionship were the important things, and forbearance toward others a primary virtue. There's not much interesting narrative art without villains; exceptions that spring to my mind are Hiyao Miyazaki's animated film "Totoro" and Hirokazu Koreeda's films "After Life" and "Maborosi," plus some Shakespearean comedy.
With all that as preface, I looked forward to this memoir with real pleasure, only to discover that Priestley aged into a remarkably grumpy older man who came to resent deeply the amazing success of THE GOOD COMPANIONS, to the extent that when he was called upon to speak somewhere he would get furious if the person who was introducing him referred to him as "a good companion." (Few reactions are more complicated than that of a writer being told his early work is his best.) Whatever sweetness he may have possessed in youth seems to have boiled away in the crucible of experience, leaving the kind of person you hope not to sit next to on a long flight.
There are some good stories here, especially about Priestley's somewhat late-in-life theatrical career as a writer of hit plays, but he lost me when he devoted a whole paragraph, about a third of the way in, to taking potshots at P.G. Wodehouse who, as far as I'm concerned, is off-bounds. I had also hoped for some insight into his writing habits,, but they didn't seem to him interesting enough to share. It's probably better to read Priestley's books and skip his reminiscences.
Priestley began to write in earnest after an appalling series of experiences in the trenches of World War I, an upheaval that, he believed, changed the world he had known forever, and not for the better. It seemed to me, in those two books, as though he were reacting to the War by trying to create a world in which good feeling and companionship were the important things, and forbearance toward others a primary virtue. There's not much interesting narrative art without villains; exceptions that spring to my mind are Hiyao Miyazaki's animated film "Totoro" and Hirokazu Koreeda's films "After Life" and "Maborosi," plus some Shakespearean comedy.
With all that as preface, I looked forward to this memoir with real pleasure, only to discover that Priestley aged into a remarkably grumpy older man who came to resent deeply the amazing success of THE GOOD COMPANIONS, to the extent that when he was called upon to speak somewhere he would get furious if the person who was introducing him referred to him as "a good companion." (Few reactions are more complicated than that of a writer being told his early work is his best.) Whatever sweetness he may have possessed in youth seems to have boiled away in the crucible of experience, leaving the kind of person you hope not to sit next to on a long flight.
There are some good stories here, especially about Priestley's somewhat late-in-life theatrical career as a writer of hit plays, but he lost me when he devoted a whole paragraph, about a third of the way in, to taking potshots at P.G. Wodehouse who, as far as I'm concerned, is off-bounds. I had also hoped for some insight into his writing habits,, but they didn't seem to him interesting enough to share. It's probably better to read Priestley's books and skip his reminiscences.
May 10, 2016
A fascinating book and what an amazing life Priestly had. His survival through WW1 and his modesty. I have seen some of his plays and now want to read his novels. A true Northerner and his long walks in his youth impressed me as did his social consciousness. I also found it amusing his veiled criticism of the BBC and how it was dodgy even in the 1940s and 50s. Impressive that he also predicted pay to view TV. Well worth a read.
June 27, 2017
What a wonderful gift to his future readers (who I imagine are a dwindling bunch ... if you don't count the endless queue to see Stephen Daldry's stage version of An Inspector Calls (now in its 25th year)). The old writer reflects back over his writing life in conversational tone. Many writer's aim at that direct one-to-one with the reader. Few achieve it as well as Priestley does here. I've loved the old boy since I saw him interviewed on Parkinson back in the 70s and thought I wouldn't mind him in the role of wise uncle. I've clattered through books of his over the years; often taken by surprise. My first encounter was while watching daytime television in the days before low budget dross set in auction rooms and estate agents. Alan Plater's adaptation of The Good Companions set to music by David Fanshawe became must-watch telly for shift-working me. I was transported into a simpler and better world and soon repeated the process by buying the book. In Margin Released he explains that it became a way of latterly coming to terms with what he'd gone through in the First World War and of the friends and life that had been lost in that mass slaughter.
You'd expect him to be good on his own writings but two bonuses come out of this book; a picture of Bradford life before the upheavals of the Great War and as cogent account of living through the conflict as a volunteer soldier as I have ever read. It's quite short compared with the more famous refections of Blunden, Sassoon and Graves, but it carries a conviction and simplicity that they don't focus on. I've taught An Inspector Calls many times in a 30 year teaching career. If I was to do it again I'd recommend students read the war chapter of Margin Released in order to get a better understanding of where Priestley is coming from. The conversational style of the book is at its strongest in this section.
He's grumpy, he's celebratory, he's admiring of many, dismissive of a few; excellent on Galsworthy and Joyce and others he met personally. It's a writer's reflections but it's also a writers' guidebook. If you've got something to say on paper, find the time and find a way of saying it. Don't worry about pleasing the agents, the publishers or, heaven forbid, the readership. You won't be able to second guess what they want. Write what you want to write with no expectation of success other that to have written it. He expected The Good Companions to sell maybe a few thousand copies at most but he needed to write it. (Remember the first Harry Potter book had an initial print run of 500 and they expected some of these to be remaindered. What do writers and publishers know of the public appetite?).
I've read English Journey and Literature and Western Man and Time and the Conways and I know that there are several others on shelves bequeathed by a reading mother and a reading mother-in-law. I have huge admiration for this son of Bradford and thank him for this ramble though his life and his writing. If it hasn't inspired me as a writer it has certainly inspired me as a reader.
You'd expect him to be good on his own writings but two bonuses come out of this book; a picture of Bradford life before the upheavals of the Great War and as cogent account of living through the conflict as a volunteer soldier as I have ever read. It's quite short compared with the more famous refections of Blunden, Sassoon and Graves, but it carries a conviction and simplicity that they don't focus on. I've taught An Inspector Calls many times in a 30 year teaching career. If I was to do it again I'd recommend students read the war chapter of Margin Released in order to get a better understanding of where Priestley is coming from. The conversational style of the book is at its strongest in this section.
He's grumpy, he's celebratory, he's admiring of many, dismissive of a few; excellent on Galsworthy and Joyce and others he met personally. It's a writer's reflections but it's also a writers' guidebook. If you've got something to say on paper, find the time and find a way of saying it. Don't worry about pleasing the agents, the publishers or, heaven forbid, the readership. You won't be able to second guess what they want. Write what you want to write with no expectation of success other that to have written it. He expected The Good Companions to sell maybe a few thousand copies at most but he needed to write it. (Remember the first Harry Potter book had an initial print run of 500 and they expected some of these to be remaindered. What do writers and publishers know of the public appetite?).
I've read English Journey and Literature and Western Man and Time and the Conways and I know that there are several others on shelves bequeathed by a reading mother and a reading mother-in-law. I have huge admiration for this son of Bradford and thank him for this ramble though his life and his writing. If it hasn't inspired me as a writer it has certainly inspired me as a reader.
February 18, 2013
About the closest Priestley ever got to a conventional autobiography, his "chapters of autobiography" "Midnight on the desert" ect. are more books of thoughts than anything, but here he takes his whole working life as his subject. The book is divided into three sections pre first world war, during the war and his career after the war right up to 1960. This is an autobiography but it is about his work and not his private life with which he deals, those expecting romance and scandals could be disappointed! There is a lot of value to each section, the first deals with his time in the woollen mills of Bradford and as you might expect from his fiction he paints this very well. It's the section on WW1 that is most important, Priestley almost never wrote about his war experiences, he tells what he went through vividly if dispassionately. Then of course we get the section on his writing career proper, giving insights into how his plays and books came about and why so many, in his eyes, went wrong.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews