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J. B. Priestley

File:J._B._Priestley_arrives_in_New_York,_1931,_Associated_Press.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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J. B. Priestley

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Also known as John Boynton Priestley, J Priestley

English writer (1894–1984)

OverviewAI-generated

J. B. Priestley was a male author from the United Kingdom. He was born on 13 September 1894 and died on 14 August 1984. His professional career began in 1924. He also wrote under the pseudonym Peter Goldsmith.

Priestley’s body of work includes 313 recorded works. Notable titles include *Two time plays*, *Scenes of London life, from Sketches by Boz*, *Three plays and a preface*, and *Saturn Over The Water*. His writings have been referenced by 765 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Open Library, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
13 September 1894
Died
14 August 1984
Works
313

Top works

  • Epilogue written by J.B. Priestley, spoken by Dame Sybil Thorndike, D.B.E. after the last performance of As you like it by Bristol Old Vic company at the Theatre Royal, Bristol, May 2nd, 1970
  • Two time plays
  • Scenes of London life, from Sketches by Boz
  • Three plays and a preface
  • Saturn Over The Water

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United Kingdom
Active from
1894-09-13
Active to
1984-08-14

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
165
Total plays
418

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/J.+B.+Priestley">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · J. B. Priestley

Quotes

  • Those no-sooner-have-I-touched-the-pillow people are past my comprehension. There is something suspiciously bovine about them.
  • I suppose -- in the last resort -- you trust life -- or you don't. Well -- I don't. There's something malicious . . . corrupt . . . cruel . . . at the heart of it. We don't belong. We're a mistake.
  • I have lived longer than you. I have thought more, and I have suffered more. And I tell you there is more truth to the fundamental nature of things in the most foolish fairy tales than there is in any of your complaints against life.
  • Remember what we once were and what we thought we'd be. And now this. And it's all we have, Allan, it's us. Every step we've taken -- every tick of the clock -- making everything worse. If this is all life is, what's the use? Better to die, like carol, before you find it out, before Time gets to work on you. I've felt it before, Allan, but never as I've done tonight. There's a great devil in the universe, and we call it Time.
  • But the point is, now, at this moment, or at any moment, we're only a cross-section of our real selves. What we really are is the whole stretch of ourselves, all our time, and when we come to the end of this life, all those selves, all our time, will be us -- the real you, the real me. And then perhaps we'll find ourselves in another time, which is only another kind of dream.
  • Living in age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us every day, but it changes and withers at a touch.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
( 1894-09-13 ) 13 September 1894, Manningham , West Riding of Yorkshire , England
Died
14 August 1984 (1984-08-14) (aged 89), Alveston, Warwickshire , England
Occupation
Novelist playwright screenwriter broadcaster commentator
Alma mater
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Period
20th century
Spouse
Pat Tempest ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1921 ; died 1925 ) ​ Jane Wyndham-Lewis ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1925 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1953 ) ​ Jacquetta Hawkes ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1953 ) ​
Children
5, including Sylvia , Mary and Tom

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Citizenship
United Kingdom
Place of birth
Bradford
Place of death
Stratford-upon-Avon
Educated at
Trinity Hall
Languages spoken
English language
Conflict
World War I
Military branch
British Army
Official website
jbpriestley.co.uk
Image
J. B. Priestley arrives in New York, 1931, Associated Press.png
Show 12 more facts
date of birth
1894-09-13
date of death
1984-08-14
Commons category
John Boynton Priestley
name in kana
ジョン・ボイントン・プリーストリー
has works in the collection
Minneapolis Institute of Art
start of work period
1924-00-00
name in native language
John Boynton Priestley
pseudonym
Peter Goldsmith
unmarried partner
Peggy Ashcroft
Sources (9)

via Wikidata · CC0

~19 min read

Encyclopedic overview

John Boynton Priestley (/ˈpriːstli/; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator.

His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in The Good Companions (1929), which first brought him to wide public notice. Many of his plays are structured around a time slip, and he went on to develop a new theory of time, with different dimensions that link past, present and future.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “J. B. Priestley” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)