(1953) was the first novel by John Wain (1925-94), then a university lecturer who had previously published poetry and criticism and was also making a name as a broadcaster on BBC radio’s Third Programme with his series on contemporary fiction and poetry,

(26 Apr-24 Sep 1953). Wain’s book can be seen as the inaugural novel of the literary “Movement” of the 1950s and as introducing a new kind of male anti-hero, a precursor of the “Angry Young Men” of the later 1950s epitomized by Jimmy Porter in the play

(1956) by John Osborne (1929-94), and an example of the “outsider” anatomized in the 1956 literary and philosophical study of that title by Colin Wilson (1931-2013) – indeed, the term is used in

when its…

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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Hurry on Down". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 June 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35420, accessed 26 November 2024.]