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Biographical note on J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, 13th September 1894, the son of a schoolmaster.
Priestley inherited a 'public-spirited' socialism from his family and he later recalled a happy childhood. He had no memory of his mother who had died when he was 2 years old and who was of the 'clogs and shawls' working class but his step-mother had been 'kind, gentle and loving'. He did well at school and could have continued his education to a higher level. In 1909, however, his father decided that he should go into the predominant local industry, the wool trade, which was to provide much material for his later novels.
As a young man he was not terribly interested in his job but one of the privileges of employment with the wool company was free travel and he explored much of Europe. He was earning money and living in a progressive city, quite a cultural centre for the time and he spent his leisure hours walking the moors, attending concerts and writing. He also had several extra jobs, one as an unqualified teacher and another as a cultural correspondent for the Bradford Pioneer, a local Labour Party journal. This latter provided him with a press pass which gained him access to a variety of local entertainment.
This all came to a sudden end with WW1. He enlisted and served with local Duke of Wellington's West Riding regiment seeing service on the Western Front. After several minor wounds he was buried in a collapsed dugout and repatriated. He then spent some months in military hospitals and in convalescence before being commissioned and serving with the Devonshire regiment back on the Front.
After WW1 he took advantage of the demobilization terms to obtain a place at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and graduated in Modern History and Political Science. He moved to London with his wife, whom he had married in 1921, to become a reader with the publisher John Lane.
His wife presented him with two daughters but she developed cancer and died in 1925. Priestley was by now working freelance and already had a relationship with his second wife Jane Wyndham Lewis whom he married in 1926. They lived in Oxfordshire with JBP's two daughters by his first marriage, Jane's one and their joint offspring, another daughter.
Several books of essays and criticism had been published before his first novel, 'Adam in Moonshine', which appeared in 1927. This was followed by 'Benighted' later the same year and in 1929 he collaborated with Hugh Walpole to produce 'Farthing Hall' which is in the form of an exchange of letters. His first major success was 'The Good Companions' in 1929, a novel of a travelling concert party.
Further success with 'Angel Pavement' the following year (1930) made him finaclially independent after which he started writing for the theatre. There were several less successful novels over the next few years but the popularity of his play 'Dangerous Corner' in 1932 led to a run of several years writing for the theatre. He also managed to fit in a commission by Victor Gollancz to write an account of contemporary England which resulted in 'English Journey', 1934.
Priestley's output and popularity continued to grow producing several major novels, plays, a radio commission, 'Let the People Sing' (1939), as well as occasional essays of social criticism. His wartime broadcasts 'Postcripts' brought comfort to the nation in the darkest days of WW2 but probably his most successful medium immediately before and after the war was his plays in which he was constantly exploring his fascination with time.
In 1952 after 25 years of marriage but also a number of affairs, Priestley was divorced by his wife. He was at this stage involved with Jacquetta Hawkes, an archaeologist and travel writer and the wife of an eminent Professor of Archaeology at Oxford. A rather messy divorce followed citing Priestley as co-respondent and they were then married in 1953.
His marriage to Jacquetta Hawkes was probably his most successful and he continued to produce plays and novels including his personal favourite novel, The Image Men in 1968/9. He died at their home of Kissing Tree House, Warwickshire, on 14th August, 1984.
Bibliography of the UK works of J. B. Priestley in Date order *
* Works in each year are in alphabetical order
Original works
|
The Chapman of Rhymes |
|
Brief Diversions |
|
Papers from Lilliput |
|
I for One |
|
Figures in Modern Literature |
|
The English Comic Characters |
|
Essays of To-day And Yesterday |
|
George Meredith |
|
Talking: These Diversion |
|
|
|
1935 reprint |
Adam in Moonshine|
|
|
1930 Heinemann Windmill Library edition |
Benighted|
|
|
1930 Heinemann Windmill Library edition |
Open House|
Playgoing: These Diversions |
|
The English Novel |
|
Thomas Love Peacock |
|
Apes and Angels - A Book of
Essays |
|
|
|
1st edition |
English Humour|
Farthing Hall (With Hugh
Walpole) |
|
The Balconinney and Other
Essays |
|
|
|
1st edition |
The Good Companions|
|
|
1st edition |
Angel Pavement|
|
|
Limited edition |
The Town Major of Miracourt|
Dangerous Corner |
|
|
|
1936 reprint |
Faraway|
I'll Tell You Everything (with Gerald
Bullett) |
|
Self-Selected Essays |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Albert Goes Through|
The Roundabout |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Wonder Hero|
Eden End |
|
|
|
1937 Everyman's Edition |
English Journey|
Laburnum Grove |
|
Cornelius |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Duet in Floodlight|
Bees on the Boatdeck |
|
Charles Dickens |
|
Spring Tide |
|
|
|
1st edition |
They Walk in the City: The Lovers in the
Stone Forest|
I Have Been Here Before |
|
Midnight on the Desert |
|
Mystery of Greenfingers |
|
|
|
1st edition |
People at Sea|
|
|
1970's Samuel French acting edition |
Time And The Conways|
Two Time Plays |
|
|
|
1st edition |
The Doomsday Men|
|
|
Acting edition |
When we are Married|
Johnson Over Jordan |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Let the People Sing|
Rain Upon Godshill |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Postscripts|
The Long Mirror |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Out of the People|
|
|
1st edition |
Blackout in Gretley: A story of - and for -
Wartime|
Goodnight Children |
|
British Women Go To War |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Daylight on Saturday: A Novel about an
Aircraft Factory|
Three Plays (Music At Night, The Long Mirror,
They Came To A City) |
|
Desert Highway |
|
Four Plays (Music At Night, The Long Mirror,
They Came To A City, Desert Highway) |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Manpower|
|
|
1st edition |
They Came to a City|
Letter to a Returning
Serviceman |
|
Three Comedies ('Good Night Children', 'The
Golden Fleece', 'How Are They at Home?') |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Three Men in New Suits|
|
|
1st edition |
Bright Day|
Ever Since Paradise (music by Dennis
Arundell) |
|
Russian Journey |
|
|
|
1st edition |
The Secret Dream - An Essay on Britain
America and Russia|
|
|
1990's Heinemann Plays edition |
An Inspector Calls|
|
|
1st edition |
Jenny Villiers|
Music at Night |
|
|
|
1st edition |
The Arts Under Socialism - being a lecture
given to the Fabian Society with a postcript on what the government
should do for the arts here and now|
The Long Mirror |
|
The Rose and Crown |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Theatre Outlook|
|
|
3rd impression |
Three Time Plays (Dangerous Corner, Time and
the Conways, I Have Been here Before)|
The Golden Fleece |
|
|
|
1st edition |
The Linden Tree|
The Olympians (opera libretto, music by Arthur
Bliss) |
|
Delight |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Home is Tomorrow|
Bright Shadow |
|
Summer Day's Dream |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Festival at Farbridge|
|
|
1st edition in this collection |
The Priestley Companion|
Dragon's Mouth |
|
Mother's Day |
|
Private Rooms |
|
|
|
1st edition |
The Other Place|
Treasure on Pelican |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Low Notes on a High Level|
The Magicians |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Journey Down a Rainbow (with Jaquetta
Hawkes)|
All About Ourselves |
|
The Scandalous Affair of Mr. Kettle and Mrs.
Moon |
|
The Writer in a Changing
Society |
|
The Art of the Dramatist |
|
The Glass Cage |
|
Thoughts in the Wilderness |
|
Topside, or The Future of
England |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Literature and Western Man|
William Hazlitt |
|
Charles Dickens - A Pictorial
Biography |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Saturn Over the Water|
Margin Released |
|
|
|
1st edition |
The Shapes of Sleep|
Man and Time |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Sir Michael & Sir George|
|
|
1st edition |
Lost Empires|
Salt Is Leaving |
|
The Moments |
|
It's an Old Country |
|
All England Listened - The Wartime
Broadcasts |
|
London End |
|
Out Of Town |
|
Trumpets Over The Sea |
|
Charles Dickens and His World |
|
|
|
1971 Sphere paperback edition |
The Prince of Pleasure and his Regency
1811-20|
|
|
1st edition |
The Edwardians|
Snoggle, A Story for anybody between 9 and
90 |
|
Over the Long High Wall |
|
Victoria's Heyday |
|
A Visit to New Zealand |
|
The English |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Outcries And Asides|
|
|
1st edition |
The Carfitt Crisis|
|
|
1st edition |
Particular Pleasures - A Personal Record of
Some Varied Arts and Many Different Artists|
English Humour |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Found, Lost, Found: or The English Way of
Life|
|
|
1st edition |
Instead Of The TreesAssociated works
|
Our Nation's Heritage |
|
Scenes Of London Life - from 'Sketches by
Boz' |
|
|
|
1st edition |
A Severed Head (with Iris
Murdoch)|
J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author by
Susan Cooper |
|
J. B. Priestley: by Vincent
Brome |
|
|
|
1st edition |
Time and the Priestleys: The Story of a
Friendship by Diana Collins|
Priestley: by Judith Cook |
End of List