Hawkes, John Clendennin Burne, Jr (1925-1998)

US novelist. His writing was characterized by a Gothic, macabre violence, nightmarish landscapes, and oblique plotting. His novels included The Cannibal 1949, dealing with the horror of authoritarian power in Nazi Germany; The Lime Twig 1961, a thriller set in post-war London; and Second Skin 1964, a first-person recollection set on a tropical island.

His later novels became more accessible and include Travesty 1976, a suicide note in the form of a monologue; The Passion Artist 1979, narrating a widower's fantastic experiences in a European city; Whistlejacket 1988, which combines photography, anatomy, painting, and fox-hunting into a metaphysical thriller, and Hawkes Scrapbook 1991.