Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, FRSL (/ˈbɜːrdʒəs/;[2] 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was a British writer and composer.
For the Roman Catholic bishop, see Anthony Joseph Burgess. For the 17th-century cleric, see Anthony Burges. For the Australian medical researcher, see Antony Burgess.
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson
25 February 1917
Harpurhey, Manchester, England
22 November 1993 (aged 76)
St John's Wood, London, England
Anthony Burgess, John Burgess Wilson, Joseph Kell[1]
- Novelist
- critic
- composer
- librettist
- playwright
- screenwriter
- essayist
- travel writer
- broadcaster
- translator
- linguist
- educationalist
Victoria University of Manchester (BA English Literature)
1956–1993
The Malayan Trilogy (1956–59), A Clockwork Orange (1962)
Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, distinction of France Monégasque, Commandeur de Merite Culturel (Monaco), Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, honorary degrees from St Andrews, Birmingham and Manchester universities
Paolo Andrea (1964–2002)
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange remains his best-known novel.[3] In 1971, it was adapted into a controversial film by Stanley Kubrick, which Burgess said was chiefly responsible for the popularity of the book. Burgess produced numerous other novels, including the Enderby quartet, and Earthly Powers. He wrote librettos and screenplays, including the 1977 television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth. He worked as a literary critic for several publications, including The Observer and The Guardian, and wrote studies of classic writers, notably James Joyce. A versatile linguist, Burgess lectured in phonetics, and translated Cyrano de Bergerac, Oedipus Rex, and the opera Carmen, among others. Burgess was nominated and shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973.[4][5]
Burgess also composed over 250 musical works; he considered himself as much a composer as an author, although he achieved considerably more success in writing.[6]
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
In 1917, Burgess was born at 91 Carisbrook Street in Harpurhey, a suburb of Manchester, England, to Catholic parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Wilson.[7] He described his background as lower middle class; growing up during the Great Depression, his parents, who were shopkeepers, were fairly well off, as the demand for their tobacco and alcohol wares remained constant. He was known in childhood as Jack, Little Jack, and Johnny Eagle.[8] At his confirmation, the name Anthony was added and he became John Anthony Burgess Wilson. He began using the pen name Anthony Burgess upon the publication of his 1956 novel Time for a Tiger.[7]
His mother Elizabeth (née Burgess) died at the age of 30 at home on 19 November 1918, during the 1918 flu pandemic. The causes listed on her death certificate were influenza, acute pneumonia, and cardiac failure. His sister Muriel had died four days earlier on 15 November from influenza, broncho-pneumonia, and cardiac failure, aged eight.[9] Burgess believed he was resented by his father, Joseph Wilson, for having survived, when his mother and sister did not.[10]
After the death of his mother, Burgess was raised by his maternal aunt, Ann Bromley, in Crumpsall with her two daughters. During this time, Burgess's father worked as a bookkeeper for a beef market by day, and in the evening played piano at a public house in Miles Platting.[8] After his father married the landlady of this pub, Margaret Dwyer, in 1922, Burgess was raised by his father and stepmother.[11] By 1924 the couple had established a tobacconist and off-licence business with four properties.[12] Burgess was briefly employed at the tobacconist shop as a child.[13] On 18 April 1938, Joseph Wilson died from cardiac failure, pleurisy, and influenza at the age of 55, leaving no inheritance despite his apparent business success.[14] Burgess's stepmother died of a heart attack in 1940.[15]
Burgess has said of his largely solitary childhood "I was either distractedly persecuted or ignored. I was one despised. ... Ragged boys in gangs would pounce on the well-dressed like myself."[16] Burgess attended St. Edmund's Elementary School before moving on to Bishop Bilsborrow Memorial Elementary School, both Catholic schools, in Moss Side.[17] He later reflected "When I went to school I was able to read. At the Manchester elementary school I attended, most of the children could not read, so I was ... a little apart, rather different from the rest."[18] Good grades resulted in a place at Xaverian College (1928–37).[7]
Archive[edit]
The largest archive of Anthony Burgess's belongings is housed at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester, UK. The holdings include: handwritten journals and diaries; over 8000 books from Burgess's personal library; manuscripts of novels, journalism and musical compositions; professional and private photographs dating from between 1918 and 1993; an extensive archive of sound recordings; Burgess's music collection; furniture; musical instruments including two of Burgess's pianos; and correspondence that includes letters from Angela Carter, Graham Greene, Thomas Pynchon and other notable writers and publishers.[93] The International Anthony Burgess Foundation was established by Burgess's widow, Liana, in 2003.
Beginning in 1995, Burgess's widow sold a large archive of his papers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin with several additions made in subsequent years.[94] Comprising over 136 boxes, the archive includes typed and handwritten manuscripts, sheet music, correspondence, clippings, contracts and legal documents, appointment books, magazines, photographs, and personal effects. A substantial amount of unpublished and unproduced music compositions is included in the collection, along with a small number of audio recordings of Burgess's interviews and performances of his work.[95] Over 90 books from Burgess's library can also be found in the Ransom Center's holdings.[96] In 2014, the Ransom Center added the archive of Burgess's long-time agent Gabriele Pantucci, which also includes substantial manuscripts, sheet music, correspondence, and contracts.[97] Burgess's archive at the Ransom Center is supplemented by significant archives of artists Burgess admired including James Joyce, Graham Greene and D. H. Lawrence.