John Galsworthy  (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright.
Notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906–1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter.
He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.
Life
Galsworthy was born at what is now known as Galsworthy House (then called Parkhurst) on Kingston Hill in Surrey, England, the son of John and Blanche Bailey (née Bartleet) Galsworthy.
His family was prosperous and well established, with a large property in Kingston upon Thames that is now the site of three schools: Marymount International School, Rokeby Preparatory School, and Holy Cross Preparatory School.
He attended Harrow and New College, Oxford.
He  took a Second in Law (Jurisprudentia) at Oxford in 1889,Oxford University Calendar 1895, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895, 262 then trained as a barrister and was called to the bar in 1890.
However, he was not keen to begin practising law and instead travelled abroad to look after the family's shipping business.
During these travels, he met Joseph Conrad in 1893, then the first mate of a sailing-ship moored in the harbour of Adelaide, Australia, and the two future novelists became close friends.
In 1895 Galsworthy began an affair with Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper (1864–1956), the wife of his cousin Major Arthur Galsworthy.
After her divorce ten years later, they were married on 23 September 1905 and stayed together until his death in 1933.
Before their marriage, they often stayed clandestinely in a farmhouse called Wingstone in the village of Manaton on Dartmoor, Devon.
In 1908 Galsworthy took a long lease on part of the building, and it was their regular second home until 1923.
Career
From the Four Winds, a collection of short stories, was Galsworthy's first published work in 1897.
These and several subsequent works were published under the pen name of John Sinjohn, and it was not until The Island Pharisees (1904) that he began publishing under his own name, probably owing to the recent death of his father.
His first full-length novel, Jocelyn, was published in an edition of 750 under the name of John Sinjohn—he later refused to have it republished.
His first play, The Silver Box (1906),—in which the theft of a prostitute's purse by a rich 'young man of good family' is placed beside the theft of a silver cigarette case from the rich man's father's house by 'a poor devil', with very different repercussions,Description of the plot from  John Galsworthy, by George Orwell, Monde   23 March 1929 though justice was clearly done in each case—became a success, and he followed it up with The Man of Property (1906), the first book of a Forsyte trilogy.
Although he continued writing both plays and novels, it was as a playwright that he was mainly appreciated at the time.
Along with those of other writers of the period, such as George Bernard Shaw, his plays addressed the class system and other social issues, two of the best known being Strife (1909) and The Skin Game (1920).
thumb|John Galsworthy He is now far better known for his novels, particularly The Forsyte Saga, his trilogy about the eponymous family and connected lives.
These books, as with many of his other works, deal with social class, and upper-middle class lives in particular.
Although sympathetic to his characters, he highlights their insular, snobbish, and acquisitive attitudes and their suffocating moral codes.
He is viewed as one of the first writers of the Edwardian era who challenged some of the ideals of society depicted in the preceding literature of Victorian England.
The depiction of a woman in an unhappy marriage furnishes another recurring theme in his work.
The character of Irene in The Forsyte Saga is drawn from Ada Pearson, though her previous marriage was not as miserable as that of the character.
Causes and honours
Causes
Through his writings Galsworthy campaigned for a variety of causes, including prison reform, women's rights, and animal welfare, and also against censorship.
Galsworthy was a supporter of British involvement in the First World War.
In an article for The Daily News on 31 August 1914 Galsworthy called for war on Germany to protect Belgium.
Galsworthy added "What are we going to do for Belgium — for this most gallant of little countries, ground, because of sheer loyalty, under an iron heel?"
Playne Caroline Elisabeth.
Society at War, 1914-1916.
New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1931 (p.87).
During the First World War he worked in a hospital in France as an orderly, after being passed over for military service, and in 1917 turned down a knighthood, for which he was nominated by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, on the precept that a writer's reward comes simply from writing itself.
Galsworthy opposed the slaughter of animals and fought for animal rights.Sternlicht, Sanford.
(1987).
John Galsworthy.
Twayne Publishers.
p.
21.  He was also a humanitarianDurey, Jill Felicity.
(2019).
John Galsworthy (1867–1933) and Animal Welfare.
Minnesota Review 92: 95-110.
and a member of the Humanitarian League.Wilson, David A. H. (2015).
The Welfare of Performing Animals: A Historical Perspective.
Springer.
pp.
30-31.
He opposed hunting and supported the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports.Tichelar, Michael.
(2017).
The History of Opposition to Blood Sports in Twentieth Century England.
Routledge.
p. 131.
Honours
Galsworthy was offered a knighthood in 1918, but he refused it.
He was erroneously awarded the rank in the published list when his letter declining the honour went astray, but he was never given the accolade, and the honour was later withdrawn.A. Michie, God Save The Queen at 107 (1952).
In 1921 Galsworthy was elected as the first president of the PEN International literary club and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1929.
He was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize for Literature, having been nominated that same year by Henrik Schück, a member of the Swedish Academy.
He was too ill to attend the Nobel Prize presentation ceremony on 10 December 1932, and died seven weeks later.
He donated the prize money from the Nobel Prize to PEN International.
Death
Galsworthy lived for the final seven years of his life at Bury in West Sussex.
He died from a brain tumour at his London home, Grove Lodge, Hampstead.
In accordance with his will he was cremated at Woking, with his ashes then being scattered over the South Downs from an aeroplane,Geoffrey Harvey, Galsworthy, John (1867–1933), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 29 July 2012 but there are also memorials to him in Highgate (West) CemeteryOther Writers.
www.poetsgraves.co.uk and in the cloisters of New College, Oxford, cut by Eric Gill..
kindersleyworkshop.co.uk The popularity of his fiction waned quickly after his death, but the hugely successful black-and-white television adaptation The Forsyte Saga in 1967 renewed interest in his work.
Legacy
A number of John Galsworthy's letters and papers are held at the University of Birmingham Special Collections.
In 2007, Kingston University opened a new building named in recognition of his local birth.
Galsworthy Road in Kingston, the location of Kingston Hospital, is also named for him.
Family
Galsworthy's sister Lilian (1864–1924) was married to the German painter and lithographer Georg Sauter from 1894.
With the beginning of World War I, Sauter was interned as an enemy alien at Alexandra Palace and later expelled.
Their son Rudolf Sauter (1895–1971) was also a painter and graphic artist, who among other things, illustrated the works of his uncle.
Notable adaptations
thumb|300px|Bury House, Galsworthy's West Sussex home.
The Forsyte Saga has been filmed several times:
That Forsyte Woman (1949), dir.
by Compton Bennett, an MGM adaptation in which Errol Flynn played a rare villainous role as Soames.
The Forsyte Saga (1967 TV series), directed by James Cellan Jones, David Giles, starring Eric Porter, Nyree Dawn Porter, Kenneth More, and Susan Hampshire, 26 parts.
The Forsyte Saga (2002 TV series), dir.
by Christopher Menaul, starring Gina McKee, Damian Lewis, Rupert Graves, and Corin Redgrave, 13 parts.
The White Monkey was made into a silent film of the same name in 1925, directed by Phil Rosen, and starring Barbara La Marr, Thomas Holding, and Henry Victor.
The Skin Game was adapted and directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1931.
It starred C.V. France, Helen Haye, Jill Esmond, Edmund Gwenn, John Longden and Phyllis Konstam.
Escape was filmed in 1930 and 1948.
The latter was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Rex Harrison, Peggy Cummins, and William Hartnell.
The screenplay was by Philip Dunne.
One More River (a film version of Galsworthy's Over the River) was filmed by James Whale in 1934.
The film starred Frank Lawton, Colin Clive (one of Whale's most frequently used actors) and Diana Wynyard, and featured Mrs. Patrick Campbell in a rare sound film appearance.
The First and the Last, a short play, was adapted as 21 Days, starring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier.
Galsworthy's short story The Apple Tree was adapted into a radio play for Orson Welles' Lady Esther Almanac radio series on CBS, first broadcast on 12 January 1942; the play was again produced by Welles for CBS on The Mercury Summer Theatre of 6 September 1946.
The 1988 film A Summer Story was also based on The Apple Tree.
The NBC University Theater aired radio adaptations of his plays Justice on 31 October 1948 and The Patrician on 26 February 1950.
The Mob, adapted by John Foley in 2004 for the BBC Radio World Service.
Works
The Forsyte Chronicles
The Salvation of a Forsyte (The Salvation of Swithin Forsyte) (1900)
On Forsyte 'Change (1930) (re-published 1986 as "Uncollected Forsyte")
Danaë (1905–06) in Forsytes, Pendyces, and Others (1935)
The Man of Property (1906) – first book of The Forsyte Saga (1922)
The Country House,(1907)
"Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (1918) – first interlude of The Forsyte Saga in Five Tales (1918)
In Chancery (1920) – second book of The Forsyte Saga
"Awakening" (1920) – second interlude of The Forsyte Saga
To Let (1921) – third book of The Forsyte Saga
The White Monkey (1924) – first book of A Modern Comedy (1929)
The Silver Spoon (1926) – second book of A Modern Comedy
"A Silent Wooing" (1927) – first Interlude of A Modern Comedy
"Passers-By" (1927) – second Interlude of A Modern Comedy
Swan Song (1928) – third book of A Modern Comedy
Four Forsyte Stories (1929) – "A Sad Affair", "Dog at Timothy's", "The Hondekoeter" and "Midsummer Madness"
Maid in Waiting (1931) – first book of End of the Chapter (1934)
Flowering Wilderness (1932) – second book of End of the Chapter
One More River (originally Over the River) (1933) – third book of End of the Chapter
Plays
The Silver Box, 1906
Strife, 1909
Joy, 1909
Justice, 1910
The Little Dream, 1911
The Pigeon, 1912
The Eldest Son, 1912
The Fugitive, 1913
The Mob, 1914
The Little Man, 1915
A Bit o' Love, 1915
The Foundations, 1920
The Skin Game, 1920
A Family Man, 1922
Loyalties, 1922
Windows, 1922
Escape, 1926
Punch and Go, 1935
Essays
Quality, 1912,
The Inn of Tranquility, 1912,
Addresses in America, 1912
Two Essays on Conrad, 1930
Collections
The Manaton Edition, 1923–26 (30 vols.)
The Grove Edition, 1927–34 (27 Vols.)
Other works
From the Four Winds, 1897 (as John Sinjohn)
Jocelyn, 1898 (as John Sinjohn)
Villa Rubein and Other Stories, 1900 (as John Sinjohn)
A Man of Devon, 1901 (as John Sinjohn)
The Island Pharisees, 1904
A Commentary, 1908
Fraternity, 1909
A Justification for the Censorship of Plays, 1909
A Motley, 1910
The Japanese Quince, 1910
The Spirit of Punishment, 1910
Horses in Mines, 1910
The Patrician, 1911
Moods, Songs, and Doggerels, 1912
For Love of Beasts, 1912
Treatment of Animals, 1913
The Slaughter of Animals For Food, 1913
The Dark Flower, 1913
The Freelands, 1915
A Sheaf, 1916
Beyond, 1917
Five Tales, 1918 (Contents: "The First and Last", "A Stoic", "The Apple Tree", "The Juryman", and "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (the first interlude of The Forsyte Saga)
Saint's Progress, 1919
Tatterdemalion (short stories), 1920
Captures, 1923
Abracadabra, 1924
The Forest, 1924
Old English, 1924
The Show, 1925
Caravan: The Assembled Tales of John Galsworthy, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1925
Verses New and Old, 1926 (poems)
Castles in Spain, 1927
Bambi, Mar 16, 1928, wrote the foreword to Felix Salten's now famous novel
Exiled, 1929
The Roof, 1929
Soames and the Flag, 1930
The Creation of Character in Literature, 1931 (The Romanes Lecture for 1931).
Forty Poems, 1932
Autobiographical Letters of Galsworthy: A Correspondence with Frank Harris, 1933
Collected Poems, 1934
The Life and Letters, 1935
The Winter Garden, 1935
Forsytes, Pendyces and Others, 1935
Selected Short Stories, 1935
Glimpses and Reflections, 1937
Galsworthy's Letters to Leon Lion, 1968
Letters from John Galsworthy 1900–1932, 1970
Notes and references
Further reading
External links
;Digital editions
List of Works
The Forsyte Chronicles
Plays by John Galsworthy on Great War Theatre
;Biographical entries
John Galsworthy at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Interview with Galsworthy biographer Jeffrey Reznick on "New Books in History".
John Galsworthy letters.
Available online through Lehigh University's I Remain: A Digital Archive of Letters, Manuscripts, and Ephemera.
;Physical collections
The Papers of John Galsworthy at Dartmouth College Library
