Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Kingsley Amis" - New World
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Although Amis found greater success as a novelist, he could not stop the writing of his poetry. He joined the poetic group, [[Movement (literature)|The Movement]], which consisted of his dear friend Philip Larkin, as well as [[Robert Conquest]] and [[Elizabeth Jennings]]. The group helped to encourage Amis' poetry and he published his second collection of poems,''A Frame of Mind'' in 1953, followed by ''Poems: Fantasy Portraits'' in 1954. Bot Amis and Larkin shared a passion for jazz and politics. Amis was a noted [[atheist]] and, as a young man, a vocal member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist Party]]. His stint with Communism did not last long, and soon he disagreed with the actions taken by the USSR, especially the Hungary invasion of 1956. No greater change could take place than the complete juxtaposition of Amis' believes. After the events of 1956, Amis became very anti-communist and very conservative. He implemented his newfound ideals in his writings, beginning with his essay, "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right" (1967). These same sentiments can be felt in his later novel ''Russian Hide and Seek'' (1980). | Although Amis found greater success as a novelist, he could not stop the writing of his poetry. He joined the poetic group, [[Movement (literature)|The Movement]], which consisted of his dear friend Philip Larkin, as well as [[Robert Conquest]] and [[Elizabeth Jennings]]. The group helped to encourage Amis' poetry and he published his second collection of poems,''A Frame of Mind'' in 1953, followed by ''Poems: Fantasy Portraits'' in 1954. Bot Amis and Larkin shared a passion for jazz and politics. Amis was a noted [[atheist]] and, as a young man, a vocal member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist Party]]. His stint with Communism did not last long, and soon he disagreed with the actions taken by the USSR, especially the Hungary invasion of 1956. No greater change could take place than the complete juxtaposition of Amis' believes. After the events of 1956, Amis became very anti-communist and very conservative. He implemented his newfound ideals in his writings, beginning with his essay, "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right" (1967). These same sentiments can be felt in his later novel ''Russian Hide and Seek'' (1980). | ||
| − | As Kingsley Amis political life turned conservative, his personal life was anything but. | + | As Kingsley Amis political life turned conservative, his personal life was anything but. He ended his 15 year marriage to Hilary Bardwell when he left her for fellow novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard in 1965. Amis married Jane (as she was called), but was given a taste of his own medicine when she walked out on him in 1983, declaring that he was impossible to live with. The couple had one daughter. Amis made it no secret that he regretted his actions, he wished he had never left Hilary. In an odd and extraordinary turn of events, Amis hired Hilary as his housekeeper after his second marriage fell apart. Hilary brought with her the couples two children, Martin and Philip, as well as her new husband. Hilary and her husband Alistair had one son together, James. The group lived together for the next fifteen years until Amis death in 1995. Hilary nursed Amis during his last years, caring for all of his needs. Before his death, Kingsley Amis was knighted in 1990. |
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==Writing Career== | ==Writing Career== | ||
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===Science Fiction === | ===Science Fiction === | ||
| + | In 1960, Kingsley Amis wrote ''New Maps of Hell'', the writing of which was spurred onward by his critical interest in the [[science fiction]] genre. It was in this novel that one of Amis most popular phrases, "comic inferno" was coined. The phrase describes a humorous [[dystopia]], which was unlike other writers of the time. In particular, Amis found inspiration in the works of [[Frederick Pohl]], [[Cyril M. Kornbluth|C.M. Kornbluth]], and [[Robert Sheckley]]. Although these writers followed a [[dystonpia]]n th | ||
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Amis's critical interest in [[science fiction]] led to ''[[New Maps of Hell]]'' (1960), his interpretation of the genre's literary qualities. He was particularly enthusiastic about the [[dystopia]]n works of [[Frederik Pohl]] and [[Cyril M. Kornbluth|C.M. Kornbluth]], and in ''New Maps of Hell'' he coined the term "comic inferno", describing a type of humorous dystopia, particularly as exemplified in the works of [[Robert Sheckley]]. With the [[Sovietology|Sovietologist]] [[Robert Conquest]], Amis produced the science fiction anthology series ''[[Spectrum]]'' I–IV, which drew heavily upon the 1950s magazine ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]''. He wrote three science fiction novels, ''[[The Alteration]]'', an [[Alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] novel set in a twentieth-century Britain where the [[Reformation]] never occurred; ''[[Russian Hide-and-Seek]]'', an alternate history where Russia had conquered Britain after the Second World War; and the supernatural-horror novel ''[[The Green Man]]'', which the [[BBC]] adapted for television. | Amis's critical interest in [[science fiction]] led to ''[[New Maps of Hell]]'' (1960), his interpretation of the genre's literary qualities. He was particularly enthusiastic about the [[dystopia]]n works of [[Frederik Pohl]] and [[Cyril M. Kornbluth|C.M. Kornbluth]], and in ''New Maps of Hell'' he coined the term "comic inferno", describing a type of humorous dystopia, particularly as exemplified in the works of [[Robert Sheckley]]. With the [[Sovietology|Sovietologist]] [[Robert Conquest]], Amis produced the science fiction anthology series ''[[Spectrum]]'' I–IV, which drew heavily upon the 1950s magazine ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]''. He wrote three science fiction novels, ''[[The Alteration]]'', an [[Alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] novel set in a twentieth-century Britain where the [[Reformation]] never occurred; ''[[Russian Hide-and-Seek]]'', an alternate history where Russia had conquered Britain after the Second World War; and the supernatural-horror novel ''[[The Green Man]]'', which the [[BBC]] adapted for television. | ||
Revision as of 16:41, 22 January 2007
Sir Kingsley William Amis (April 16, 1922 – October 22, 1995) was an English poet, academic, novelist, and teacher. Amis was considered a refractory and revolutionary, as well as one of the "angry young men" of the 1950s (though he denied his participation). However, with age he became a reactionary, and was known to all as a "supreme clubman, boozer and blimp." His early struggle with money and education, instilled in Amis the desire to create his destiny and make his life more than what others thought it could be. The result was a deeply intelligent and witty man, whose stories and poetry reflect his awareness of the world. In all, Amis penned over twenty novels, published three collections of poetry, as well as writing short stories and scripts for radio and television. His later writings showed his maturity as a critic and consisted mainly of books concerned with purely social and literary criticism. Amis is also known for the work of his son, Martin Amis, a famous British writer.
Biography
Kingsley Amis was born in Clapham, South London, as the only son of a buisness man. Not much is recorded of Kingsley Amis childhood, but he completed his secondary education and went on to pursue higher education at the City of London School and St. John's College, Oxford. It was while studying at Oxford that he met Philip Larkin, the two became quick friends and that frienship would prove to be one of the most important of his entire life. During this time spent at Oxford, Amis was made aware of his lower-middle-class origins and he sought to better his education and made goals for improving his life. He took a brief stint from Oxford to serve his country during World War II in the Royal Corps of Signals. Amis was determined to finish college and as soon as his service and the war were over, he returned to Oxford and graduated in 1947. That same year, Amis published his first book of poetry, Bright November, these poems, however were not widely recognized.
In 1948, Kingsley Amis fell in love with bright and sunny seventeen-year-old Hilary Bardwell. He lovingly called her "Hills" and the couple began their marriage with the birth of their son Martin in 1949. Martin, a famous writer in his own rite, wrote an autobiographical account of his life as Amis son. He called it Experience; it was a very straightforward novel, yet it reflected a good humor and many compared the quality of his descriptions to Dickens.
I slept in a drawer and had my baths in an outdoor sink. My nappies bore triangular singe marks where they had been dried on the fireguard. It was tough. My father's dinner would often consist of the contents of the doggybag that my mother brought back from the cinema café (the Tivoli) where she worked.
Martin Amis, Experience
Amis, now needing to support a growing family, went on to work as an English lecturer at the University of Wales Swansea (1948–61), and followed that with teaching at Cambridge (1961–63), where he distinguished himself as a fellow of Peterhouse. Although money was tight, Martin Amis' depiction of the families early days soon changed for the better with the publication of Amis' first novel, Lucky Jim. The novel was published in 1954 and became an immediate success in the literary world. Luck Jim was an innovative work for several reasons, foremost among them is the fact that Amis featured a simple and ordinary man as an anti-hero. The novel centers around Jim Dixon, a junior university teacher who contsitently faces problems with his girlfriend and his supervising professor. He tries to reconcile himself to his occupation, only to realize that he despises anything dealing with the pretensions of "academic life". Constantly spurred on by ambition for a better place in life, Jim finds himself unable to break the bonds of social classes and he finds himself in constant peril of losing his job. The story was considered exemplary of the 1950s era in Britain. It went on to win the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction . During this time of popularity, Amis is reported to have associations with the group of writers who called themselves the Angry Young Men.
Although Amis found greater success as a novelist, he could not stop the writing of his poetry. He joined the poetic group, The Movement, which consisted of his dear friend Philip Larkin, as well as Robert Conquest and Elizabeth Jennings. The group helped to encourage Amis' poetry and he published his second collection of poems,A Frame of Mind in 1953, followed by Poems: Fantasy Portraits in 1954. Bot Amis and Larkin shared a passion for jazz and politics. Amis was a noted atheist and, as a young man, a vocal member of the Communist Party. His stint with Communism did not last long, and soon he disagreed with the actions taken by the USSR, especially the Hungary invasion of 1956. No greater change could take place than the complete juxtaposition of Amis' believes. After the events of 1956, Amis became very anti-communist and very conservative. He implemented his newfound ideals in his writings, beginning with his essay, "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right" (1967). These same sentiments can be felt in his later novel Russian Hide and Seek (1980).
As Kingsley Amis political life turned conservative, his personal life was anything but. He ended his 15 year marriage to Hilary Bardwell when he left her for fellow novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard in 1965. Amis married Jane (as she was called), but was given a taste of his own medicine when she walked out on him in 1983, declaring that he was impossible to live with. The couple had one daughter. Amis made it no secret that he regretted his actions, he wished he had never left Hilary. In an odd and extraordinary turn of events, Amis hired Hilary as his housekeeper after his second marriage fell apart. Hilary brought with her the couples two children, Martin and Philip, as well as her new husband. Hilary and her husband Alistair had one son together, James. The group lived together for the next fifteen years until Amis death in 1995. Hilary nursed Amis during his last years, caring for all of his needs. Before his death, Kingsley Amis was knighted in 1990.
Writing Career
You'll find that marriage is a good short cut to the truth. No, not quite that. A way of doubling back to the truth. Another thing you'll find is that the years of illusion aren't those of adolescense, as the grown-ups try to tell us; they're the ones immediately after it, say the middle twenties, the false maturity if you like, when you first get thoroughly embroiled in things and lose your head. Your age, by the way, Jim. That's when you first realize that sex is important to other people besides yourself. A discovery like that can't help knocking you off balance for a time.
Kinglsey Amis, from Lucky Jim, 1954
Science Fiction
In 1960, Kingsley Amis wrote New Maps of Hell, the writing of which was spurred onward by his critical interest in the science fiction genre. It was in this novel that one of Amis most popular phrases, "comic inferno" was coined. The phrase describes a humorous dystopia, which was unlike other writers of the time. In particular, Amis found inspiration in the works of Frederick Pohl, C.M. Kornbluth, and Robert Sheckley. Although these writers followed a dystonpian th
Amis's critical interest in science fiction led to New Maps of Hell (1960), his interpretation of the genre's literary qualities. He was particularly enthusiastic about the dystopian works of Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, and in New Maps of Hell he coined the term "comic inferno", describing a type of humorous dystopia, particularly as exemplified in the works of Robert Sheckley. With the Sovietologist Robert Conquest, Amis produced the science fiction anthology series Spectrum I–IV, which drew heavily upon the 1950s magazine Astounding Science Fiction. He wrote three science fiction novels, The Alteration, an alternate history novel set in a twentieth-century Britain where the Reformation never occurred; Russian Hide-and-Seek, an alternate history where Russia had conquered Britain after the Second World War; and the supernatural-horror novel The Green Man, which the BBC adapted for television.
A tape-recorded conversation on science fiction took place between Amis, C. S. Lewis and Brian Aldiss in Lewis's rooms at Cambridge in December 1962, shortly before Lewis's death. A transcript appears under the title 'Unreal Estates' in the collection On Stories by C. S. Lewis.
James Bond
Kingsley Amis became associated with Ian Fleming's James Bond in the 1960s, writing critical works connected with the fictional spy, either under a pseudonym or uncredited. In 1965, he wrote the popular The James Bond Dossier under his own name. That same year, he wrote, The Book of Bond, or, Every Man His Own 007, a tongue-in-cheek how-to manual about being a sophisticated spy, under the pseudonym "Lt Col. William ('Bill') Tanner", Tanner being M's Chief of Staff in many of Fleming's Bond novels.
It is widely claimed that after Fleming died in 1964 following completion of an early draft of The Man with the Golden Gun, the publisher commissioned Amis and possibly other writers to finish the manuscript. Bond historians and Fleming biographers have in recent years debunked this theory, indicating that no such ghostwriter was ever employed, though Amis did provide suggestions on how to improve the manuscript, later rejected. [See here for more on the controversy]
The empty room gazed bleakly at Bond. As always, everything was meticulously in its place, the lines of naval prints exactly horizontal on the walls, water-colour materials laid out as if for inspection on the painting-table up against the window. It all had a weirdly artificial, detached air, like part of a museum where the furniture and effects of some historical figure are preserved just as they were in his lifetime.
Kinglsey Amis, Colonel Sun
In 1968 the owners of the James Bond property, Glidrose Publications, attempted to continue the series by hiring different novelists, all writing under the pseudonym "Robert Markham". Kingsley Amis was the first to write a Robert Markham novel, Colonel Sun, but no further books were published under that name. It is widely believed that Amis had planned to write a second Bond novel but was talked out of it. Colonel Sun was adapted as a comic strip in the Daily Express in 1969. In a 2005 Titan Books reprint volume of the comic strip, an introductory chapter indicated that Amis planned to write a short story featuring an elderly Bond coming out of retirement for one last mission, but Glidrose refused him permission to write it. Amis was unsuccessful at persuading EON Productions to adapt his novel as a film. According to the Titan Books introductory chapter, Amis was told that Harry Saltzman (co-producer of the Bond series up until 1974) had "blackballed" any use of Colonel Sun as a Bond film, apparently in response to Glidrose having rejected the publication of the post-Fleming Bond novel, Per Fine Ounce by Geoffrey Jenkins, which Saltzman had championed. In 2002, however, Colonel Sun was clearly referenced in the James Bond film Die Another Day in which the villain was named Colonel Tan-Sun Moon.
Bibliography
- 1947 Amis's first collection of poems, Bright November
- 1953 A Frame of Mind
- 1954 Poems: Fantasy Portraits.
- 1954 Lucky Jim, Amis' first novel ISBN 10-0142180149
- 1955 That Uncertain Feeling
- 1956 A Case of Samples: Poems 1946-1956.
- 1957 Socialism and the Intellectuals. A Fabian Society pamphlet
- 1958 I Like it Here
- 1960 Take A Girl Like You ISBN 10-0140018484
- 1960 New Maps of Hell
- 1960 Hemingway in Space (short story), Punch Dec 1960
- 1962 My Enemy's Enemy
- 1962 The Evans County
- 1963 One Fat Englishman
- 1965 The Egyptologists (with Robert Conquest).
- 1965 The James Bond Dossier
- 1965 The Book of Bond, or Every Man His Own 007, under the pseudonym "Bill Tanner|Lt.-Col William ('Bill') Tanner"
- 1966 The Anti-Death League
- 1968 Colonel Sun, a James Bond novel, under the pseudonym "Robert Markham."
- 1968 I Want It Now
- 1969 The Green Man ISBN 10-0897332202
- 1970 What Became of Jane Austen and Other Questions
- 1971 Girl, 20
- 1972 On Drink ISBN 10-0224007971
- 1973 The Riverside Villas Murders
- 1974 Ending Up
- 1974 Rudyard Kipling and his World
- 1976 The Alteration ISBN 10-0881844322
- 1978 Jake's Thing
- 1979 Collected Poems 1944-78
- 1980 Russian Hide-and-Seek
- 1980 Collected Short Stories
- 1983 Every Day Drinking
- 1984 How's Your Glass?
- 1984 Stanley and the Women
- 1986 The Old Devils
- 1988 Difficulties With Girls
- 1990 The Folks That Live on the Hill
- 1990 The Amis Collection
- 1991 Memoirs ISBN 10-0671749099
- 1991 Mr Barrett's Secret and Other Stories
- 1992 The Russian Girl ISBN 10-0670853291
- 1994 The semi-autobiographical You Can't Do Both ISBN 10-0091803195
- 1995 The Biographer's Moustache ISBN 10-0002253305
- 1997 The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage ISBN 10-0312186010
- 2001 The Letters of Kingsley Amis, Edited by Zachary Leader ISBN 10-0786867574
Amis Favorite Poets
Kingsley Amis wrote The Amis Anthology: A Personal Choice of English Verse (1988) in which he listed....
Richard Aldington - Kenneth Allott - Matthew Arnold - Kenneth Ashley - W. H. Auden - William Barnes - Oliver Bayley - Hilaire Belloc - John Betjeman - Laurence Binyon - William Blake - Edmund Blunden - Rupert Brooke - Robert Browning - Robert Burns - Thomas Campbell - Thomas Campion - G. K. Chesterton - Hartley Coleridge - Robert Conquest - W. J. Cory - John Davidson - Donald Davie - C. Day Lewis - Walter De la Mare - Ernest Dowson - Michael Drayton - Lawrence Durrell - Jean Elliot - George Farewell - James Elroy Flecker - Thomas Ford - Roy Fuller - Robert Graves - Thomas Gray - Fulke Greville - Heath - Reginald Heber - Felicia Dorothea Hemans - W. E. Henley - George Herbert - Ralph Hodgson - Thomas Hood - Teresa Hooley - Gerard Manley Hopkins - A. E. Housman - Henry Howard - T. E. Hulme - Leigh Hunt - Elizabeth Jennings - Samuel Johnson - John Keats - Henry King - Charles Kingsley - Rudyard Kipling - Philip Larkin - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - John Lydgate - H. F. Lyte - Louis MacNeice - Andrew Marvell - John Masefield - Alice Meynell - Harold Monro - William Morris - Edwin Muir - Henry Newbolt - Alfred Noyes - Wilfred Owen - Thomas Love Peacock - George Peele - Alexander Pope - Frederic Prokosch - Walter Ralegh - John Crowe Ransom - Christina Rossetti - Siegfried Sassoon - John Skelton - Robert Southey - Edmund Spenser - Sir John Squire - Robert Louis Stevenson - Sir John Suckling - Algernon Charles Swinburne - George Szirtes - Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Dylan Thomas - Edward Thomas - R. S. Thomas - Francis Thompson - Anthony Thwaite - Chidiock Tichborne - Aurelian Townsend - W. J. Turner - Oscar Wilde - John Wilmot, Lord Rochester - Roger Woddis - Charles Wolfe - William Wordsworth - W. B. Yeats - Andrew Young
External links
- "Kingsley Amis in the Great Tradition and in Our Time," by Robert H. Bell, Williams College. Introduction to Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis, ed. Robert H. Bell, New York: G.K. Hall, 1998.
- Guardian Books "Author Page", with profile and links to further articles.
- The Paris Review interview, with downloadable PDF
| Preceded by: Ian Fleming 1953-1964 |
James Bond writer 1968 |
Succeeded by: John Pearson 1973 |
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[[Category:]]
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