Knowles, John

Knowles, John, 1926–2001, American writer, b. Fairmont, W. Va., grad. Yale, 1949. He is best known for his semiautobiographical first novel, A Separate Peace (1960), a coming-of-age story about a boy in a New England prep school during World War II. A sequel, Peace Breaks Out, appeared in 1981. His other novels include Morning in Antibes (1962), The Paragon (1971), Spreading Fires (1974), and A Vein of Riches (1979).

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Knowles, John

(born Sept. 16, 1926, Fairmont, W.Va., U.S.—died Nov. 29, 2001, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) U.S. author. Educated at Yale University, he gained prominence for his first novel, A Separate Peace (1959), about the competitive friendship of two private-school students. Most of his novels, which include Indian Summer (1966), Spreading Fires (1974), and Peace Breaks Out (1981), are psychological examinations of characters caught in conflict between the wild and the pragmatic sides of their personalities.