Items from John Fowles Library

The collection consists of Volume III from the publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society containing John Fowles' stamp. The volume includes an inserted page of numerical references together with 1 page folio typescript with autograph revisions by John Fowles. The sale catalogue of Charles Cox is kept with the volume.

John Robert Fowles was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 31 March 1926. He was educated at Bedford School, 1940-1944, and spent a year at Edinburgh University before entering military service with the Royal Marines, 1945-1946. He went on to read French at New College, Oxford, receiving his degree in 1950. In 1954 John Fowles married Elizabeth Whitton, who died in 1990. He married his second wife, Sarah Smith, in 1998. In the 1950s and early 1960s, John Fowles worked first as a university lecturer in English in France, and later as a school teacher in Greece and London. His international reputation as a novelist was assured early with the publication in 1963 of 'The Collector', the success of which was followed by 'The Magus' (1965), 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' (1969), 'Daniel Martin' (1977), and 'The Maggot' (1985). In 1981, Harold Pinter's screenplay of 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' was filmed with Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep in the lead roles. John Fowles also published poetry, criticism, and wrote on historical and topological subjects, mainly about the South West of England. He received a number of literary awards and honours, including an honorary degree from the University of Exeter in 1983. John Fowles lived at Lyme Regis, on the Devon-Dorset border and died in 2005.

Usual EUL conditions apply.

Purchase

2 items only

Description compiled by Christine Faunch, Archivist, 6 June 2008.

Restrictions may apply on reproduction and quotation: please refer to the Archivist for details.

See EUL MS 102. Other papers of John Fowles are held at the University of Texas (Harry Ransom Center), USA, and at Stanford University, USA.