Editing Angus Wilson

{{Short description|British author (1913–1991)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix = Sir
| name          = Angus Wilson
| honorific_suffix = [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]]
| image         = Anguswilson.jpg
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = 
| pseudonym     = 
| birth_name    = Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson<ref>''[http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?MSC0199#bioNote Guide to the Angus Wilson Papers. Biographical Note.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180706075305/http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?MSC0199#bioNote |date=6 July 2018 }}'' The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa, accessed 8 March 2015.</ref>
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|df=yes|1913|08|11}}<ref name=TimesObit>{{cite news|title=Sir Angus Wilson|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxford&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=IF500094277&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|access-date=30 May 2013|newspaper=The Times|date=3 June 1991|page=16}}</ref>
| birth_place   = [[Bexhill-on-Sea]], Sussex,<ref name=TimesObit /> England
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1991|05|31|1913|08|11}}<ref name=TimesObit />
| death_place   = [[Bury St Edmunds]], Suffolk,<ref name=TimesObit /> England
| resting_place = West Suffolk Crematorium, Risby, St Edmundsbury Borough, Suffolk, United Kingdom
| occupation    = 
| language      = 
| nationality   = 
| ethnicity     = 
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| education     = [[Westminster School]]
| alma_mater    = [[Merton College, Oxford]]
| period        = 1949–1986
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| movement      = 
| notableworks  = {{Nowrap|''[[Anglo-Saxon Attitudes]]'' (1956) <br> ''[[The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot]]'' (1958)}}
| spouse        = 
| partner       = Tony Garrett
| children      = 
| relatives     = 
| influences    = 
| influenced    = 
| awards        = [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] (1958) <br> [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (1968) <br> [[Knight Bachelor]] (1980)
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}}

'''Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson''' (11 August 1913{{spaced ndash}}31 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture|last=Gerstner|first=David A.|publisher=Routledge Taylor & Francis Group|year=2006|isbn=0-415-30651-5|location=New York|page=615}}</ref> He was awarded the 1958 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for ''[[The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot]]'' and later received a [[knighthood]] for his services to literature.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=MacKay |first=Marina |title=Sir Angus Wilson  |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4746 |encyclopedia=The Literary Encyclopedia |date=8 January 2001 |access-date=11 August 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110629122300/http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4746| archive-date= 29 June 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref>

==Biography==
[[Image:Westminster School Arch.jpg|thumb|Westminster School]]
Wilson was born in [[Bexhill-on-Sea|Bexhill]], Sussex, England, to an English father, William Johnstone-Wilson, and South African mother, Maude (née Caney), of a wealthy merchant family of [[Durban]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Wilson, Sir Angus (Frank Johnstone), (11 Aug. 1913–31 May 1991), author; Professor of English Literature, University of East Anglia, 1966–78, then Emeritus|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-176296|access-date=2021-04-15|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2007|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u176296|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1}}</ref><ref name="Angus Wilson 1985, pg 4">Angus Wilson, Averil Gardner, Twayne Publishers, 1985, pg 4</ref><ref name="Angus Wilson 1964, pg 1">Angus Wilson, Jay L. Halio, Oliver & Boyd, 1964, pg 1</ref> Wilson's grandfather had served in a prestigious Scottish army regiment, and owned an estate in [[Dumfriesshire]], where William Johnstone-Wilson (despite being born at [[Haymarket, London|Haymarket]]) was raised, and where he subsequently lived.<ref name="Angus Wilson 1985, pg 4"/><ref name="Angus Wilson 1964, pg 1"/>

Wilson was educated at [[Westminster School]] and [[Merton College, Oxford]],<ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R. G. C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|pages=239–240}}</ref> and in 1937 became a librarian in the [[British Museum]]'s Department of Printed Books, working on the new General Catalogue.<ref name=":0" /> Previous employment included tutoring, catering, and co-managing a restaurant with his brother.<ref>Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, vol. 2, R. Reginald, Mary A. Burgess, Douglas Menville, 1979, pg 1130</ref>

During World War II, he worked in the Naval section at the code-breaking establishment, [[Bletchley Park]], translating Italian Naval codes. A wearer of large, brightly coloured bow-ties and shirts, Sinclair McKay described him as one of the "famous homosexuals" at Bletchley. He was billeted with a "kind family" in the village of [[Simpson, Milton Keynes|Simpson]], who worried about his "prodigious consumption" of cigarettes by coughing theatrically. They only read (and re-read) [[John Bunyan]]'s ''[[The Holy War]]''. The "claustrophobia" of the billet may have contributed to his increasing depression and his "Pompeiian mood swings". The work situation was stressful and led to a nervous breakdown, for which he was treated by [[Rolf-Werner Kosterlitz]]. A colleague said when he threw an inkpot at a Wren (a member of the British Women's Royal Naval Service--WRNS) that "Angus isn't really mad. He threw inkpots at all the right people!"<ref>{{cite book |last= McKay |first= Sinclair  |title=  Bletchley Park: The Secret Archives |accessdate=  |edition=  |origyear=  |year= 2016 |publisher= Aurum Press |location= London |isbn=  978-1-78131-534-7  |oclc= |pages= 83, 84 }}</ref>

A [[The Women's Royal Naval Service|Wren]], Dorothy Robertson, was taught [[traffic analysis]] by Wilson and another instructor. She recalled him as:<ref>{{cite book | last = Smith | first = Michael | title = The Emperor's Codes: Bletchley Park and the breaking of Japan's secret ciphers | publisher = Bantam Press | date = 2000 | location = London | page = [https://archive.org/details/emperorscodesble0000smit_l9m6/page/210 210] | url =https://archive.org/details/emperorscodesble0000smit_l9m6| url-access = limited | isbn = 0593-046412 }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|a brilliant young homosexual .... He used to mince into the room wearing, in those days, outrageous clothes in all colours; he chain-smoked; his nails were bitten down to the quick and he had a rather hysterical laugh.}}

Wilson returned to the Museum after the end of the war, and it was there that he met Tony Garrett (born 1929), who was to be his companion for the rest of his life. Years later their life together was sympathetically portrayed in the BBC2 film "Angus and Tony" (1984), directed by [[Jonathan Gili]]. It was one of the first depictions of the life of a gay couple on British television.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

Wilson's first publication was a collection of short stories, ''The Wrong Set'' (1949), followed quickly by the daring novel ''Hemlock and After'', which was a great success, prompting invitations to lecture in Europe.<ref>{{cite news |last=Drabble |first=Margaret |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/03/featuresreviews.guardianreview3 |location=London |work=The Guardian |title=Back – due to popular demand: Margaret Drabble on Hemlock and After, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes and No Laughing Matter by Angus Wilson |date=3 May 2008 |access-date=11 August 2011}}</ref>

Wilson worked as a reviewer, and in 1955 he resigned from the British Museum to write full-time (although his financial situation did not justify doing so) and moved to [[Suffolk]].{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

He was instrumental in getting [[Colin Wilson]]'s first novel published in 1956<ref>Desert Island Discs Archive: 1976–1980</ref> and from 1957 he gave lectures further afield, in Japan, Switzerland, Australia, and the USA. He was appointed a [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1968 New Year Honours]],<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=44484 |date=29 December 1967 |page=11 |supp=y}}</ref> and received many literary honours in succeeding years. He was made a [[Knight Bachelor]] in the [[1980 Birthday Honours]],<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=48212 |date=13 June 1980 |page=2 |supp=y}}</ref> and was President of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] from 1982 to 1988. His remaining years were affected by ill health, and he died of a stroke at a nursing home in [[Bury St Edmunds]], Suffolk, on 31 May 1991, aged 77.<ref name=TimesObit />

Wilson's writing, which has a strongly [[satire|satirical]] vein, expresses his concern with preserving a liberal [[humanistic]] outlook in the face of fashionable doctrinaire temptations. Several of his works were adapted for television. He was Professor of English Literature at the [[University of East Anglia]] from 1966 to 1978,<ref name=WWW>{{cite web|title=WILSON, Sir Angus (Frank Johnstone)|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U176296|work=Who Was Who|publisher=A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc|access-date=30 May 2013|date= Nov 2012}}</ref> and jointly helped to establish their [[UEA Creative Writing Course|creative writing course]] at master's level in 1970,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/awilson.htm |title=Angus Wilson |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060928074133/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/awilson.htm |archive-date=28 September 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> which was then a groundbreaking initiative in the United Kingdom.<ref name=":0" />

Wilson's medals, then in private ownership, were shown on the BBC Television programme ''[[Antiques Roadshow]]'' in August 2018.<ref name="ARS">{{Cite episode |title=Helmingham Hall 3 |series=Antiques Roadshow |series-link=Antiques Roadshow |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bh2q3w/ |access-date=19 August 2018 |network=[[BBC Television]] |date=19 August 2018  |series-no=40 |number=22 }}</ref>

==Bibliography==

===Novels===
*''[[Hemlock and After]]'' (1952)
*''[[Anglo-Saxon Attitudes]]'' (1956)
*''[[The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot]]'' (1958)
*''[[The Old Men at the Zoo]]'' (1961)
*''Late Call'' (1964)
*''No Laughing Matter'' (1967)
*''As if by Magic'' (1973)
*''Setting the World on Fire'' (1980)

===Short story collections===
*''The Wrong Set'' (1949)
*''Such Darling Dodos'' (1950)
*''[[A Bit Off the Map]]'' (1957)
*''Death Dance'' (selected stories, 1969)

===Play===
*''The Mulberry Bush'' (1955)

===Others===
*''Emile Zola: An Introductory Study of his Novels'' (1952)
*''For Whom the Cloche Tolls: a Scrapbook of the Twenties'' (1953)
*''The Wild Garden or Speaking of Writing'' (1963)
*''The World of Charles Dickens'' (1970)
*''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'': Penguin Classics (1974) Introduction
*''The Naughty Nineties'' (1976)
*''The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Works'' (1977)
*''Diversity and Depth in Fiction: Selected Critical Writings of Angus Wilson'' (1983)
*''Reflections In A Writer's Eye: travel pieces by Angus Wilson'' (1986)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*[[Peter J. Conradi|Conradi, Peter]], [[Isobel Armstrong]] and Bryan Loughrey (editors), "''Angus Wilson''", Northcote House, 1997, {{ISBN|0-7463-0803-5}}.
*[[Margaret Drabble|Drabble, Margaret]]. ''Angus Wilson: A Biography''.London: Secker & Warburg, 1995. {{ISBN|0-436-20038-4}} (Hardcover) {{ISBN|0-436-20271-9}} (Paperback)
*Halio, Jay, "''Angus Wilson''", Oliver & Boyd, London, 1964.
*Stape, John Henry and Anne N. Thomas. ''Angus Wilson: A Bibliography 1947–1987''. London & New York: Mansell Publishing, 1988. {{ISBN|0-7201-1872-7}}.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Books and Writers |id=awilson |name=Angus Wilson}}
* {{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4848/the-art-of-fiction-no-20-angus-wilson| journal= The Paris Review | title=Angus Wilson, The Art of Fiction No. 20| author= Michael Millgate| date=Autumn–Winter 1957 | volume= Autumn-Winter 1957 | issue= 17 }}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/23/angus-wilson-darling-dodo Evaluation] by [[D. J. Taylor (writer)|D. J. Taylor]] in ''[[The Guardian]]''
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_6910799 Finding aid to Joseph Kissane correspondence with Angus Wilson at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]
* [https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/212 Angus Wilson Papers] are housed at University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections & Archives

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Angus}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:People educated at Westminster School, London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Merton College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia]]
[[Category:English short story writers]]
[[Category:English satirists]]
[[Category:Bletchley Park people]]
[[Category:People from Bexhill-on-Sea]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century British short story writers]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:English gay writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people]]