John Knowles was an American novelist best known for A Separate Peace.
Biography
Knowles was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, the son of James M. Knowles, a purchasing agent from Lowell, Massachusetts, and Mary Beatrice Shea Knowles from Concord, New Hampshire. His father was vice president of a coal company, earning an income which afforded them a comfortable living. Knowles attended St. Peter's High School in Fairmont, West Virginia, from 1938 until 1940, before continuing at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, graduating in 1945. Following his time at Phillips Exeter, Knowles spent eight months serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces at the end of World War II. Knowles graduated from Yale University as a member of the class of 1949. While at Yale, Knowles contributed stories to campus humor magazine The Yale Record and served on the board of the Yale Daily News during his sophomore, junior and senior years, notably as editorial secretary during his senior year. He was a record-holding varsity swimmer during his sophomore year. Early in Knowles's career, he wrote for the Hartford Courant and was assistant editor for Holiday magazine. With encouragement from Thornton Wilder, he concurrently began writing novels.
''A Separate Peace''
A Separate Peace was first published in London by Secker and Warburg in 1959. Published in New York in 1960 by Macmillan, it is his most celebrated work. The novel is based upon Knowles's experiences at Phillips Exeter Academy. The Devon School, the book's setting, is a thinly veiled fictionalization of Exeter, with both campus and town easily recognizable. Although the plot is not autobiographical, elements of the novel stem from personal experience, including Knowles's membership in a secret society and his sustaining a foot injury while jumping from a tree during society exercises. 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 hatred. There was only friendship, athleticism, and loyalty." The secondary character Finny is the friend of the main character Gene. Knowles has stated that he modeled Finny on David Hackett from Milton Academy, whom he met when both attended a summer session at Phillips Exeter Academy. Hackett was a friend of Robert Kennedy, under whom he later served in the U.S. Justice Department. A student called Phineas Sprague lived in the same dormitory as Knowles during the summer session of 1943 and may have inspired the character's name. In his memoir Palimpsest, Gore Vidal acknowledged that he and Knowles concurrently attended Phillips Exeter Academy, with Vidal two years ahead. Vidal stated that Knowles told him that the character Brinker was based on him. "We have been friends for many years now," Vidal said, "and I admire the novel that he based on our school days, A Separate Peace."
