A Separate Peace book report - detailed analysis, book summary, literary elements, character analysis, John Knowles biography, and everything necessary for active class participation. Introduction A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age novel published in 1959 and written by John Knowles. The novel is Knowles first and … [Read more...] about A Separate Peace
John Knowles
John Knowles was an American author born in Fairmont, West Virginia on September 16, 1926.
His father was the vice president of a coal company and as a result, the Knowles' lived comfortably. Knowles graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1945 and went into the army afterward, serving in the Air Force during World War II.
After the war, Knowles attended Yale University. While there he contributed to the campus humor magazine, 'The Yale Record' and was a member of the 'Yale Daily News' staff. He was also a record-holding champion varsity swimmer. He graduated in 1949 and went on to write for the Hartford Courant and Holiday magazine.
During this time, he also began to write novels.
Knowles' first novel 'A Separate Peace' (1959), draws from his childhood attending Phillips Exeter Academy, and his 1981 novel 'A Peace Breaks Out' used the same setting to greater advantage.
Including these, Knowles published 12 books in his lifetime, the last one being published on the internet in its burgeoning days in 1995.
Knowles died on November 29, 2001. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 75.