Alan Sillitoe

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Alan Sillitoe (2009)

Alan Sillitoe (* 4. March 1928 in Nottingham , † 25. April 2010 in London ) was a British writer who particularly by its story " The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner " ( The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner was known in 1959).

Life

He grew up as one of five children in a working class family. Many of his works deal with the situation of workers in England. Here he writes from his own experience. Even at school he wrote essays and short stories. His father, a mostly unemployed tanner, was unable to support him in this regard because he was illiterate . His grandfather supported his love of books and gave his grandson his first novel.

He was not allowed to attend Nottingham High School as he did not receive a scholarship at the school. When the Second World War broke out, he was sent to a family in Worksop, and three months later he returned home. With the war, there were more jobs again, so that at the age of 14 he started working in a factory where his father had also found work.

He joined the Royal Air Force , but initially continued to work in various factories. He was later stationed in Southeast Asia, Spain and France from 1946 to 1949. After returning from abroad, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent 16 months in an Air Force hospital. During this time he was already writing poems, which did not appear until more than ten years later.

It was not until 1953 that he began to send poems and novels to various publishers in England, France and the USA, but for the time being he did not get any approval from anyone to publish his works. During this time he had already met Ruth Fainlight , an American poet, whom he later married.

In 1955 Sillitoe began his novel The Adventures of Arthur Seaton , which was about life in Nottingham . This novel was the first for which he found a publisher in Mark Goulden, and was published in 1958 under the title Saturday Night and Sunday Morning . With his second publication, the short story The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (dt. The loneliness of the long-distance runner ), Sillitoe won the Hawthornden Prize in 1960 .

His works have been associated with the Angry Young Men movement, which included John Osborne and John Braine , whose works dealt with class conflict. Sillitoe, too, devoted himself to the living conditions of the working class in his works, but he said about his works that he did not portray class conflicts, but individual fates. In fact, the exact psychological observation is next to the exact description of the milieu and the socio-political statement. The novels also focus on loners.

The filming of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Tony Richardson was born in 1962 after Sillitoes own script and was in Germany as one of the most impressive examples of the British New Wave celebrated, an era marked by almost documentary realism film movement of the 60s, and even more popular than the original Narrative.

Works (in German)

  • Saturday night and Sunday morning (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, 1958). Novel. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1961; Diogenes, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-257-20230-X
  • Key to the door (Key to the Door, 1961). Novel. People and World, Berlin 1966
  • The Death of William Posters (1965). Novel. Diogenes, Zurich 1969, 1st part of the 'William Posters' series
  • A Start in Life (1970). Novel. Diogenes, Zurich 1971, 1st part of the 'Michael Cullen' series
  • Nihilon also trip to Nihilon (Travels in Nihilon, 1971). Novel. Diogenes, Zurich 1973
  • The Burning Tree (A Tree on Fire, 1967). Novel. Diogenes, Zurich 1975, 2nd part of the 'William Posters' series
  • Pictures from Margaret's life . Short stories. Volk und Welt Verlag, Berlin 1976, license no. 302-410 / 107/76
  • The son of the widower (The Widower's Son, 1976). Novel. Diogenes, Zurich 1981, 2nd part of the 'Flame of Life' series
  • Stories , 5 volumes. Diogenes, Zurich 1981
  • The Flame of Life (The Flame of Life, 1974). Novel. Diogenes, Zurich 1982, 1st part of the 'Flame of Life' series
  • The man who told stories (The Storyteller, 1979). Novel. Diogenes, Zurich 1983, 3rd part of the 'Flame of Life' series
  • Lost (The Lost Flying Boat, 1983). Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1987
  • Island in the Mist (Out of the Whirlpool, 1987). Novel. Heyne, Munich 1987
  • The Woman on the Bridge (Her Victory, 1982). Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1989
  • Master tales . Diogenes, Zurich 1991
  • The magic box and other stories . Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23959-1

literature

  • Sonja Bahn: Alan Sillitoe . In: Horst W. Drescher (Hrsg.): English literature of the present in single representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 399). Kröner, Stuttgart 1970, DNB 456542965 , pp. 207-223.
  • Richard Bradford: The life of a long-distance writer: The biography of Alan Sillitoe , London a. a., Owen, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7206-1317-9 . Manfred Pfister (literary scholar)
  • David Gerard: Alan Sillitoe: a bibliography , London: Mansell [u. a.], 1988, ISBN 0-88736-104-8 .
  • Manfred Pfister / Rebekka Rohleder: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner , 3rd edition 2009, JB Metzler, Stuttgart-Weimar, ISBN 978-3-476-040008 .
  • John Sawkins: Then with the hammer. A study of Alan Sillitoe's early work on the subject of alienation . Brockmeyer, Bochum 1992, ISBN 3-8196-0026-4 .

Web links

Wikiquote: Alan Sillitoe  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Sillitoe, Alan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Nottingham
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 2010
Place of death London