Arnold Bennett

-
An extraordinarily prolific English writer of both literary-realist and mass-interest novels, short stories, pocket philosophy self-help manuals, plays, journal articles and book reviews, AB was acclaimed as an artist in his own time and was also politically and culturally influential. He served as director of the Ministry of Propaganda under Lord Beaverbrook in the first world war. He estimated his own output in 1930 as seventy or eighty books written, of which only a handful were well-known.
Staley, Thomas F., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 34. Gale Research, 1985.
26
His wealth and influence, as well as his painstaking realism, earned him the scorn of the modernist writers of the next generation.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of a young Arnold Bennett, seen half-profile in a stiff collar.

Milestones

27 May 1867

Enoch Arnold Bennett , future novelist, was born in Hope Street at Burslem in Staffordshire, in the Potteries region which he later immortalised in fiction.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

By 15 April 1898

AB , already a successful journalist himself, published Journalism for Women: A Practical Guide, a how to volume meant to provide aspirants with practical information on becoming successful journalists.
Times. Times Publishing Company.
(15 April 1898): 10d
Parker, Peter, editor. A Reader’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Parker 69

October 1908

AB 's realist novel The Old Wives' Tale was published. It established his name, and remains probably his best-known work.
Drabble, Margaret. Arnold Bennett: A Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.
155

By early October 1930

AB titled an ambitious novel, Imperial Palace, from a phrase used by William Wordsworth for the mysterious origins of the human individual.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
45640 (10 October 1930): 7

Early on 27 March 1931

AB , novelist, died in London after a long battle with typhoid fever (which he had contracted in France at the end of the previous year).
He died during the night. Drabble dates his death as 26 March.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Drabble, Margaret. Arnold Bennett: A Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.
349

Biography

Birth and Family

27 May 1867

Enoch Arnold Bennett , future novelist, was born in Hope Street at Burslem in Staffordshire, in the Potteries region which he later immortalised in fiction.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Please click on login button to check your access and/or enter your credentials. Alternatively if you don’t have access, please click on “Subscribe”.

Log inSubscribe