Alexander Baron

Susie Thomas (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 4 Dec 1917
Died 6 Dec 1999
Activity 1948-1973

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Baron's Works

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Alexander Baron's first novel,

From the City, From the Plough

(1948), which captured the experience of ordinary infantrymen during the Second World War in direct but unemotive prose, sold over a million copies. After six years in the army, Baron was back in London when Jonathan Cape threw a party to celebrate his bestseller:

It was a beautiful summer evening. I set off on the 73 bus from Hackney. I've always been very shy and was all the more so after the war. I was very badly shaken up by then. I finally got off the bus at King's Cross and I walked through Bloomsbury. Then I saw a pub and I thought: ‘I'll buy some Dutch courage.' So I stopped and had a double whisky … I arrived at the Cape offices, and I stood on the opposite pavement and looked up at the windows of the

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3835 words

Citation: Thomas, Susie. "Alexander Baron". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12608, accessed 26 November 2024.]