Alan Sillitoe

Alan Sillitoe (1929-2010). Photo by Ian Brown. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Alan Sillitoe
Born	March 4 1928(1928-Template:MONTHNUMBER-04) Nottingham, England
Died	April 25 2010(2010-Template:MONTHNUMBER-25) (aged 82) London, England
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Ruth Fainlight
Influences Robert Graves

Alan Sillitoe (4 March 1928 - 25 April 2010) was an English poet and fiction writer, one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s. . (He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied.)

Life

Youth and education

Sillitoe was born in Nottingham to working-class parents, Christopher Sillitoe and Sabina (Burton). Like Arthur Seaton, the anti-hero of his debut novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, his father worked at the Raleigh Bicycle Company's factory in the town. His father was illiterate, violent, and unsteady with his jobs, and the family was often on the brink of starvation.

Sillitoe left school at the age of 14, having failed the entrance examination to grammar school. He worked at the Raleigh factory for the next 4 years, spending his free time reading prodigiously and being a "serial lover of local girls".

He joined the Air Training Corps in 1945, then the Royal Air Force, albeit too late to serve in the Second World War. He served as a wireless operator in Malaya during the Emergency. After returning to Britain he was planning to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force when it was discovered that he had tuberculosis. He spent 16 months in an RAF hospital.

Career

Pensioned off at the age of 21 on 45 shillings (£2.25) a week, Sillitoe lived in France and Spain for 7 years in an attempt to recover. In 1955, while living in Mallorca with American poet Ruth Fainlight, and in contact with poet Robert Graves, Sillitoe started work on Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which was published in 1958.

In 1959 he married Ruth Fainlight, and they had a son, David. They later adopted a daughter, Susan.

Sillitoe lived at various times in Kent, London and Montpellier. In London he was friendly with bookseller Bernard Stone (who had been born in Nottingham a few years before Sillitoe) and became part of the bohemian crowd that congregated at Stone's Turret Bookshop on Kensington Church Walk.

In the 1960s Sillitoe was celebrated in the Soviet Union as a spokesman for the "oppressed worker" in the West. Invited to tour the country, he visited several times in the 1960s and in 1968 he was asked to address the Congress of Soviet Writers' Unions, where he denounced Soviet human rights abuses, many of which he had witnessed.

In 2006 his best-known play was staged at the university's Lakeside Arts theatre in an in-house production.

Sillitoe wrote many novels and several volumes of poems. In an interview Sillitoe claimed that "A writer, if he manages to earn a living at what he's doing, even if it's a very poor living, acquires some of the attributes of the old-fashioned gentleman (if I can be so silly)."

Gadfly in Russia, an account of his travels in Russia spanning 40 years, was published in 2007. In 2008 London Books republished A Start in Life in its London Classics series to mark the author's 80th birthday. Sillitoe appeared on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 25 January 2009.

Sillitoe's long-held desire for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning to be remade for a contemporary filmgoing audience was never achieved, despite strong efforts. Danny Brocklehurst was to adapt the book and Sillitoe gave his blessing to the project, but Tony Richardson's estate and Woodfall Films prevented it from going ahead.

Sillitoe died of cancer on 25 April 2010 at Charing Cross Hospital in London. He was 82. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Writing

Influenced in part by the stripped-down prose of Hemingway, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning conveys the attitudes and situation of a young factory worker faced with the inevitable end of his youthful philandering. As with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger and John Braine's Room at the Top, the novel's real subject was the disillusionment of postwar Britain, and the lack of opportunities for the working class.

Sillitoe's story The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner concerns the rebellion of a borstal boy with a talent for running.

Recognition

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner won the Hawthornden Prize in 1959.

In 1990, Sillitoe was awarded an honorary degree from Nottingham Trent University. The city's older Russell Group university, the University of Nottingham also awarded him an honorary D.Litt., in 1994.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.

In popular culture

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was adapted as a film by Karel Reisz in 1960, with Albert Finney as Arthur Seaton; the screenplay was written by Sillitoe.>

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner was also adapted to film, in 1962, this time directed by Tony Richardson and starring Tom Courtenay.

Publications

Poetry

• Without Beer or Bread, Dulwich Village: Outposts, 1957
• The Rats and Other Poems, London: Allen, 1960
• Falling Out of Love and Other Poems, London; Allen, 1964; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964
• Shaman: And Other Poems", Turret, 1968 Limited ed. of 500 copies, 100 copies signed and numbered
• Love in the Environs of Voronezh and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, 1968; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969.
• Poems, by Sillitoe, Ruth Fainlight and Ted Hughes; London: Rainbow Press, 1971. 300 copies
• Barbarians and Other Poems, London: Turret Books, 1973. 500 copies
• Storm: New Poems, London: Allen, 1974
• From Snow on the North Side of Lucifer, Knotting, Bedfordshire: Sceptre Press, 1979. 150 copies
• Snow on the North Side of Lucifer: Poems, London: Allen, 1979
• Poems for Shakespeare 7, Bear Gardens Museum and Arts Centre, 1979 Limited to 500 copies all copies are numbered
• Sun Before Departure: Poems, 1974–1982, London: Granada, 1984
• Tides and Stone Walls: Poems, with photographs by Victor Bowley; London: Grafton, 1986
• Three Poems, Child Okefurd, Dorset: Words Press, 1988. 200 copies
• Collected Poems, London: HarperCollins, 1993

Plays

• Three Plays, London: Allen, 1978 Contains The Slot-Machine, The Interview, Pit Strike

Novels

• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, London: Allen, 1958; New York: Knopf, 1959. New edition with an introduction by Sillitoe, commentary and notes by David Craig. In the Longman edition (1976) there is a sequence of Nottingham photographs, and stills from the film, Harlow.
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, London: Allen, 1959; New York: Knopf, 1960
• The General, London: Allen, 1960; New York: Knopf, 1961
• Key to the Door, London: Allen, 1961; New York: Knopf, 1962; reprinted, with a new preface by Sillitoe, London: Allen, 1978
• Road To Volgograd, London: Allen, 1964; New York: Knopf, 1964
• The Death of William Posters, London: Allen, 1965; New York: Knopf, 1965
• 'The City Adventures of Marmalade Jim, London: Macmillan, 1967; Toronto: Macmillan, 1967; revised edition, London: Robson, 1977
• A Tree on Fire, London: Macmillan, 1967; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968
• A Sillitoe Selection: Eight Short Stories,. London: Longman, 1968
• A Start in Life, London: Allen, 1970; New York: Scribners, 1971
• Travels in Nihilon, London: Allen, 1971; New York: Scribners, 1972
• Men, Women and Children, London: Allen, 1973; New York: Scribners, 1974
• From Canto Two of The Rats, Wittersham, Kent: Alan Sillitoe, 1973
• Somme, London: Steam Press, 1974. In Steam Press Portfolio, no. 2. 50 copies
• The Flame of Life, London: Allen, 1974
• Down to the Bone, Exeter: Wheaton, 1976
• Day-Dream Communiqué, Knotting, Bedfordshire: Sceptre Press, 1977. 150 copies
• Big John and the Stars, London: Robson, 1977
• The Widower's Son, Allen, 1976; New York: Harper & Row, 1977
• 'The Incredible Fencing Fleas, London: Robson, 1978. Illus. Mike Wilks.
• The Storyteller, London: Allen, 1979; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980.
• Marmalade Jim at the Farm, London: Robson, 1980
• More Lucifer, Knotting, Bedfordshire: Martin Booth, 1980. 125 copies
• Israel: Poems on a Hebrew Theme (with drawings by Ralph Steadman). London: Steam Press, 1981.
• Her Victory, London: Granada, 1982; New York: Watts, 1982
• The Lost Flying Boat, London: Granada, 1983; Boston: Little, Brown, 1983
• The Saxon Shore Way: From Gravesend to Rye, by Sillitoe and Fay Godwin. London: Hutchinson, 1983
• Down from the Hill, London: Granada, 1984
• Marmalade Jim and the Fox, London: Robson, 1984
• Life Goes On, London: Granada, 1985
• Out of the Whirlpool. London: Hutchinson, 1987
• Every Day of the Week: An Alan Sillitoe Reader. Introd. John Sawkins. London: W. H. Allen, 1987.
• The Open Door, London: Grafton/Collins, 1989
• Last Loves, London: Grafton, 1990; Boston: Chivers, 1991
• Leonard's War A Love Story. London: HarperCollins, 1991
• Shylock the Writer, London: Turret Bookshop, 1991
• The Mentality of the Picaresque Hero, London: Turret Bookshop, 1993, Turret Papers, no. 2. 500 copies
• Snowstop, London: HarperCollins, 1993
• Life Without Armour. London: HarperCollins, 1995. (autobiography)
• The Broken Chariot, London: Flamingo/HarperCollins, 1998
• The German Numbers Woman, London: Flamingo/HarperCollins, 1999
• Birthday, London: Flamingo/HarperCollins, 2001
• A Man of His Time, Flamingo (UK), 2004, ISBN 000717327X; Harper Perennial (US), 2005. ISBN 0007173288; ISBN 9780007173280

Short fiction

• The Ragman’s Daughter and Other Stories, London: Allen, 1963; New York: Knopf, 1964
• Guzman, Go Home, and Other Stories, London: Macmillan, 1968; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969
  • (with a new preface by Sillitoe). London; Allen, 1979.
• Men, Women and Children, London: Allen, 1973; New York: Scribners, 1974
• The Second Chance and Other Stories, London: Cape, 1981; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981
• The Far Side of the Street: Fifteen Short Stories, London: Allen, 1988
• Collected Stories, London: Flamingo, 1995; New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
• Alligator Playground: A Collection of Short Stories, Flamingo, 1997, ISBN 0006550738
• New and Collected Stories, Carroll and Graf, 2005. ISBN 078671476X

Non-fiction

• Road to Volgograd, London: Allen, 1964; New York: Knopf, 1964
• Raw Material (autobiography). London: Allen, 1972; New York: Scribners, 1973
  • revised, London: Pan Books, 1974; further revised, London: Star Books, 1978; further revised, London: Allen, 1979.
• Mountains and Caverns: Selected Essays, London: Allen, 1975
• Words Broadsheet Nineteen (by Sillitoe & Ruth Fainlight). Bramley, Surrey: Words Press, 1975. Broadside
• “The Interview”, London: The 35s (Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry), 1976.
• The Saxon Shore Way: From Gravesend to Rye, by Sillitoe and Fay Godwin. London: Hutchinson, 1983
• Alan Sillitoe’s Nottinghamshire, with photographs by David Sillitoe. London: Grafton, 1987
• Shylock the Writer, London: Turret Bookshop, 1991
• The Mentality of the Picaresque Hero, London: Turret Bookshop, 1993, Turret Papers, no. 2. (500 copies)
• Life Without Armour, (autobiography). HarperCollins, 1995.
• Leading the Blind: A Century of Guidebook Travel. 1815-1914, London: Macmillan, 1995.
• Gadfly in Russia, JR Books, 2007.

Juvenile

• The City Adventures of Marmalade Jim, London: Macmillan, 1967; Toronto: Macmillan, 1967; revised ed., London: Robson, 1977
• Big John and the Stars, London: Robson, 1977
• The Incredible Fencing Fleas, London: Robson, 1978. Illus. Mike Wilks.
• Marmalade Jim at the Farm, London: Robson, 1980
• Marmalade Jim and the Fox, London: Robson, 1984

Collected editions

• Every Day of the Week: An Alan Sillitoe Reader, with an introduction by John Sawkins London: Allen, 1987

Translated

• Chopin’s Winter in Majorca 1838–1839, by Luis Ripall, translated by Sillitoe. Palma de Majorca: Mossen Alcover, 1955
• Chopin’s Pianos: The Pleyel in Majorca, by Luis Ripall, translated by Sillitoe. Palma de Majorca: Mossen Alcover, 1958
• All Citizens Are Soldiers (Fuente Ovejuna): A Play in Two Acts, by Lope de Vega translated by Sillitoe and Ruth Fainlight. London: Macmillan, 1969; Chester Springs, PA: Dufour, 1969
• Poems for Shakespeare, volume 7, edited and translated by Sillitoe and Ruth Fainlight. London: Bear Gardens Museum & Arts Centre, 1980

Audio / video

Film

• The Ragman's Daughter (1972) (based on novel)
• Counterpoint (1967) (based on novel The General)
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) (screenplay based on own short story)
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) (screenplay based on own novel)

See also

• List of British poets

References

• Gerard, David E. and H. W. Wilson. Alan Sillitoe: A Bibliography, Mansell, 1986 (UK) ISBN 0720118298; Meckler, 1988 (US) ISBN 0887361048.
• Penner, Allen R. Alan Sillitoe, Twayne, 1972.
• Vaverka, Ronald Dee. Commitment As Art: A Marxist Critique of a Selection of Alan Sillitoe's Political Fiction. (1978 Dissertation, Uppsala Univ.)
• Atherton, Stanley S. Alan Sillitoe: A Critical Assessment, W. H. Allen, 1979. ISBN 0491024967
• Craig, David. The Roots of Sillitoe's Fiction. In The British Working-Class Novel in the Twentieth Century, ed. Jeremy Hawthorn, Edward Arnold, 1984. ISBN 0713164158
• Hitchcock, Peter. Working-Class Fiction in Theory and Practice: A Reading of Alan Sillitoe, UMI Research Press, 1989. ISBN 0835719766
• Hanson, Gillian Mary. Understanding Alan Sillitoe, Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1999. ISBN 157003219X
• Sawkins, John. The Long Apprenticeship: Alienation in the Early Work of Alan Sillitoe, Peter Lang, 2001. ISBN 3906764508
• Bradford, Richard. The Life of a Long-distance Writer: The Biography of Alan Sillitoe, Petero Owen, 2008. ISBN 9780720613179

External links

Poems

• Alan Sillitoe poems at William Bertrand Formation Langues (3 poems)

Books

• Alan Sillitoe at Amazon.com

About

• LeftLion obituary for Alan Sillitoe
• Alan Sillitoe at the British Council
• The start of Alan Sillitoe : How Sillitoe stood apart from the tradition of other Northern novelists going soft and successful in the South; Times online 1 October 2008
• Guardian article, 2004
• Guardian article, 2011
• Alan Sillitoe at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan Sillitoe describes his life as a smoker prior to the England smoking ban
• LeftLion interview with Alan Sillitoe
• Lastingtribute.co.uk, online tribute page