Amis, Kingsley

British novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic.

Kingsley Amis was a successful and productive English author. Born in London to a lower middle class family, he published his first story at eleven, and earned scholarships to the City of London School and St. John's College, Oxford. After serving in World War II, he accepted a teaching position and began publishing poetry. His first novel, Lucky Jim, was published in 1952 to great acclaim. Throughout his prolific and eclectic career, he wrote poetry, screenplays, short stories, essays, and criticism, but is best remembered for his satirical novels in diverse genres. His novels are distinguished by their biting humor, lucid style, traditional values, and working-class sensibility.

Kingsley Amis -- British novelsit, poet and critic -- was born in Claphem and educated at the City of London School and St. John's College, Oxford. He lectured in English at Swansea and then Cambridge.

During the 1940's and 1950's, Amis became associated with writers known as the Angry Young Men and poets of the Movement. He published his first volume of poetry, Bright November in 1947, and his Collected poems, 1944-79. Amis has also written 14 novels, achieving popular recognition with Lucky Jim (1954). His most recent novel, The old devils (1986), was awarded the Booker Prize. Amis has written fiction about the supernatural, The green man (1969), and criticism of science fiction: New maps of hell (1969) and The golden age of science fiction (1981).

English author, born on April 16,1922, the son of William Robert and Rosa Annie (Lucas) Amis. Amis achieved both popularity and critical acclaim with his first novel, Lucky Jim, whose publication in 1953 instantly marked Amis as a major comic novelist. His many subsequent works have revealed him to be an author of extraordinary range and versatility. His essays, poems, and short stories have been published in magazines, journals, and collected editions. His novels include That Uncertain Feeling (1955), I Like It Here (1958), Take a Girl Like You (1960), One Fat Englishman (1963), The Anti-Death League (1966), Ending Up (1974), and Jake's Thing (1978). He has also written a number of genre novels, such as Colonel Sun (a spy thriller, 1968), The Green Man (a ghost story, 1969), and The Riverside Villas Murder (a mystery, 1973).

Amis' 1986 novel, The Old Devils, received Britain's prestigious Booker Prize. His final three books are The Folks That Live on the Hill (1990), Memoirs (1991), and The Biographer's Moustache (1995). Amis was married first to Hilary Ann Bardwell in 1948 and divorced in 1965; he married the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard in 1965 and was divorced in 1983. He has three children from his first marriage: Philip Nicol William Amis, the author Martin Louis Amis, and Sally Myfanwy Amis. Amis passed away on October 22, 1995.

Epithet: author

Title: Knight

Biographical Note

Kingsley Amis was born in London on April 16, 1922, the son of William Robert and Rosa Annie (Lucas) Amis. Following service in the British Army from 1942 to 1945 and first-class honors in English at St. John's College, Oxford, Amis was a lecturer in English at University College of Swansea, Wales, from 1949 to 1961. He subsequently became a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge University, 1961-1963, and held visiting professorships at Princeton and Vanderbilt Universities.

Amis achieved both popularity and critical acclaim with his first novel, Lucky Jim, whose publication in 1953 instantly marked Amis as a major comic novelist. His many subsequent works have revealed him to be an author of extraordinary range and versatility. His essays, poems, and short stories have been published in magazines, journals, and collected editions. His novels include That Uncertain Feeling (1955), I Like It Here (1958), Take a Girl Like You( 1960), One Fat Englishman (1963), The Anti-Death League (1966), Ending Up (1974), Jake's Thing (1978), and The Folks That Live on the Hill (1990. He has also written a number of genre novels, such as Colonel Sun (a spy thriller, 1968), The Green Man (a ghost story, 1969), and The Riverside Villas Murder (a mystery, 1973). Amis' 1986 novel, The Old Devils, received Britain's prestigious Booker Prize. His final three books are The Folks That Live on the Hill (1990), Memoirs( 1991), and The Biographer's Moustache (1995).

Amis was married first to Hilary Ann Bardwell in 1948 and divorced in 1965; he married the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard in 1965 and was divorced in 1983. He had three children from his first marriage: Philip Nicol William Amis, the author Martin Louis Amis, and Sally Myfanwy Amis. Amis passed away on October 22, 1995.