John Osborne: The Many Lives of the Angry Young ManJohn Osborne, the original Angry Young Man, shocked and transformed British theater in the 1950s with his play Look Back in Anger. This startling biography–the first to draw on the secret notebooks in which he recorded his anguish and depression–reveals the notorious rebel in all his heartrending complexity. Through a working-class childhood and five marriages, Osborne led a tumultuous life. An impossible father, he threw his teenage daughter out of the house and never spoke to her again. His last written words were "I have sinned." Theater critic John Heilpern’s detailed portrait, including interviews with Osborne's daughter, scores of friends and enemies, and his alleged male lover, shows us a contradictory genius–an ogre with charm, a radical who hated change, and above all, a defiant individualist. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 15 | |
| 23 | |
Every Day Is Mothers Day to Me | 33 |
Father and Son | 44 |
The Naked Christ | 55 |
Why Ozzy Was Expelled from School | 65 |
The First Father Figure | 70 |
Runaway Lovers | 253 |
Another Perfect House Party | 260 |
The Case of Osbornes Son | 268 |
Spiritual Longing | 274 |
Third Marriage | 281 |
Inadmissible Evidence | 292 |
A Patriot for Me | 301 |
The Death of George Devine | 314 |
The Apprentice Actor in Search of a Home | 79 |
What Is Truth and What Is Fable? | 87 |
Aunt Ednas Knitting Needles | 94 |
The Apprentice Playwright in Search of an Audience | 104 |
First Love First Marriage | 113 |
First Divorce | 123 |
A Subject of Scandal and Concern | 133 |
The Father Reclaims the Son | 151 |
Proceed to Texas | 162 |
Critics | 168 |
Context Is All | 173 |
Three Prize Victims | 186 |
Success | 195 |
A Typical Night on Montana Street | 206 |
Take My WifePuhleeze | 212 |
Good Brave Causes | 226 |
Damn You England | 237 |
The Biggest Floperoo Ever | 247 |
Breakdown | 320 |
The Real Thing | 332 |
My Dear Tony | 344 |
Lost Illusions | 349 |
The Chapter of Accidents | 359 |
Watch It Come Down | 375 |
A Better Class of Person | 386 |
Country Matters | 397 |
What Happened to Nolan | 411 |
En Route to Shropshire | 424 |
Strindbergs Man in England | 434 |
Déjàvu | 442 |
The End | 457 |
Epilogue and The Search for Faith | 472 |
Acknowledgements | 483 |
Notes and Sources | 485 |
| 515 | |
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Common terms and phrases
actor actress Alan Bates Anthony Anthony Creighton Archie Rice asked Back in Anger became Beuselinck British called champagne Chapter child Christmas Coward Creighton critics daughter David Hare dear death Déjàvu Devine's director drama dramatist Edenbridge England English Entertainer Faber & Faber father feel film fucking George Devine Helen Osborne Hellingly homosexual HRHRC Hurst Inadmissible Evidence Jill Bennett Jimmy Porter Jocelyn Rickards John Osborne knew Krost later letter lived London Look Back Lord Chamberlain lover Luther marriage married Mary Ure mother Music Hall Nellie Beatrice never night Noël Coward Nolan notebook Olivier opening Osborne wrote Osborne's Pamela Lane Patriot Penelope Gilliatt Peter play playwright Rattigan remembered Richard Eyre role Royal Court script seemed Shaw Slickey stage star Sunday talk theatre There's thing thought told Tony Richardson took Tynan visited West End wife writing young