Wain, John (Barrington) (1925–1994)

English poet and novelist. His first novel, Hurry on Down (1953), expresses the radical political views of the Angry Young Men of the 1950s. He published several volumes of witty and ironic verse, collected in Poems 1949–79 (1981), and was professor of poetry at Oxford University from 1973–80.

Wain was born in Stoke-on-Trent, north Staffordshire, and studied at Oxford. He lectured in English literature at Reading University from 1947–55, then worked as a freelance writer and lecturer or visiting academic. He achieved fame with his first novel; others include Living in the Present (1955), The Contenders (1958), The Young Visitors (1965), and the mid-20th-century Oxford saga comprising Where the Rivers Meet (1988), Comedies (1990), and Hungry Generations (1994). His short stories are collected in Nuncle (1960), Death of the Hind Legs (1966), The Life Guard (1971), and King Caliban (1978). Volumes of his verse include A Word Carved on a Sill (1956) and Feng (1975).

He also wrote several important critical studies, including Essays on Literature and Ideas (1963) and Samuel Johnson (1974).