Talk:J. B. Priestley

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University of Bradford Library[edit]

Think it might be worthwhile mentioning somewhere that the University of Bradford's main library is named The "J B Priestley Library" after him? --81.101.136.128 (talk) 18:55, 13 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]


The current article (as at 03/07/09) says that the University library was named after his death. I'm pretty sure it was named after him from the point that the current building was put up. It was already known by that name in 1974 when I started at the university. I'm also surprised there is no mention of the statue of JBP outside the National Film and Photograhy Museum in Bradford.

The 31st of June[edit]

No mention of this novel of his -- great book, I wonder why it isn't listed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.103.142.181 (talk) 02:15, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

AA Milne, JK Rowling[edit]

I've removed the following recent additions, which seem improbable, and may be vandalism (that is to say, intentional damage to Wikipedia):

After a short spell in the cotton factories he took an aprentiship with A.A Milne and she taught him a lot about what he knew and taught him about writing from his heart as he said in a newspaper later on in his life.
He became a friend of the writer J.K Rowling and he inspired her to become the writer she is today. She also took writing lessons with him at an early age. So many say that he is the man behind the Harry Potter series.

When Priestley died, Rowling was about 19. A friendship between the two is improbable, though not impossible. A friendship with Milne, more or less a contemporary, is more possible, but the saccharine wording of the paragraph has a bogus air that would be difficult to reconcile with Priestley's work. Moreover both additions were made, without sources, in the same edit. --Tony Sidaway 15:36, 14 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, very suspect. He was never in a cotton factory. After leaving school, he worked as a clerk in a wool-sorter's office in Bradford, Yorkshire, a long-established wool centre.(86.140.6.209 (talk) 23:49, 14 April 2009 (UTC)).[reply]

The fact that the author of the segment thinks that AA Milne (Alan Alexander) is a woman would also make me suspiciousOzwaldowl (talk) 15:28, 4 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Letters from the first world war[edit]

Maybe someone would introduce this material to the J.B. Priestley article http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/nov/16/books.booksnews--User:Brenont (talk) 02:41, 1 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some extracts from these can be found in the Vincent Brome biography of the author.(86.140.6.209 (talk) 23:49, 14 April 2009 (UTC))[reply]

Where did the 'B' come from?[edit]

(Hope this query is not outside the Wiki guidelines) He was actually christened plain John Priestley. Any ideas about the mysterious insertion of 'Boynton'?(86.140.6.209 (talk) 00:05, 15 April 2009 (UTC)).[reply]

Incidently im not sure Priestly was a 'regular prostitute on the BBC'```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.11.23.211 (talk) 19:28, 1 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Refused Honours[edit]

Suggest that this information be included.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/honours-list/9039608/Official-JB-Priestley-Roald-Dahl-Lucian-Freud-and-LS-Lowry-among-277-others-turned-down-honours-from-the-Queen.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.29.232.53 (talk) 22:01, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Already in, but thanks for the nudge—reference now added. --Old Moonraker (talk) 14:43, 27 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Introductory Paragraph[edit]

" His output included literary and social criticism."

It can be sourced? It should be longer too. Justicejayant (talk) 13:00, 8 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Bibliography[edit]

I believe 'English Journey' was followed by 'Russian Journey' and 'Chinese Journey'. And there was certainly a book of music criticism called 'Trumpets Over the Sea'. Valetude (talk) 22:25, 13 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism?[edit]

The list of his novels has recently been added-to with 'King of Lies (2013)'. Is this a new discovery, or just vandalism? Valetude (talk) 23:44, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In the absence of any answers, I have deleted this and another entry that is clearly vandalism. Valetude (talk) 15:36, 19 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hits you over the head? Inappropriate =[edit]

In the Careers section, referring to An Inspector Calls

"It 'hits you over the head' with his views on socialism"

Really? I think that is debatable (the play is powerfully motivated by his views on social justice but there is nothing explicitly Socialist in the text) and the language inappropriate. Quotation marks are used but no reference is cited. There's nothing wrong with emphasising the social concerns of the play but some reference to public reception and critical opinion should be given and less inflammatory languge used. Itsbruce (talk) 10:04, 9 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Lede[edit]

"A career which straddled the 20th century" would only have been possible if he had one (mixed) metaphorical foot firmly planted in the 19th century and the other in the 21st, like many of these people; and he didn't. >MinorProphet (talk) 17:15, 16 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

MinorProphet: Agreed. It wouldn't be too BOLD for you to go ahead and replace "straddled" with whatever you consider a more felicitous expression: Noyster (talk), 21:33, 16 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Boldly replaced with felicitous silence, plus a couple of reliable refs. >MinorProphet (talk) 12:57, 17 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment[edit]

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:J. B. Priestley/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

.
  1. Inline references required using one of the {{Cite}} templates (convert existing reference)
  2. Probably too many wikilinked years see WP:DATE
  3. Add {{Persondata}} information
  4. Move birth/death locations from lead into text of Career paragraph which should include details on these events
Keith D 19:49, 11 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 19:49, 11 August 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 19:15, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Bibliography[edit]

Here is his official bibliography from https://jbpriestley.co.uk/biography/ (not as one might imagine from https://jbpriestley.co.uk/bibliography/ - evidently a slip-up there)

Not quite the same as the article currently lists.

PLAYS
  • 1931 The Good Companions (adaptation with Edward Knoblock)
  • 1932 Dangerous Corner
  • 1933 The Roundabout
  • 1934 Laburnum Grove
  • 1934 Eden End
  • 1935 Duet in Floodlight
  • 1936 Cornelius
  • 1936 Spring Tide (with George Billam)
  • 1936 Bees on the Boatdeck
  • 1937 Time and the Conways
  • 1937 Mystery at Greenfingers
  • 1937 I Have Been Here Before
  • 1937 People at Sea
  • 1938 Music at Night (published 1947)
  • 1938 When We Are Married
  • 1939 Johnson Over Jordan
  • 1940 The Long Mirror (published 1947)
  • 1942 Good Night Children
  • 1944 They Came to a City
  • 1944 Desert Highway
  • 1945 How Are They at Home?
  • 1946 Ever Since Paradise
  • 1947 An Inspector Calls
  • 1947 The Rose and Crown
  • 1948 The Linden Tree
  • 1948 The Golden Fleece
  • 1948 The High Toby (for Toy Theatre)
  • 1949 The Olympians (opera, music by Arthur Bliss)
  • 1949 Home is Tomorrow
  • 1950 Summer Day’s Dream
  • 1950 Bright Shadow
  • 1952 Dragon’s Mouth (with Jacquetta Hawkes)
  • 1953 Treasure on Pelican
  • 1953 Try It Again
  • 1953 Private Rooms
  • 1953 Mother’s Day
  • 1954 A Glass of Bitter
  • 1955 Mr Kettle and Mrs Moon
  • 1956 Take the Fool Away
  • 1958 The Glass Cage
  • 1963 The Pavilion of Masks
  • 1964 A Severed Head (with Iris Murdoch)
  • 1974 The White Countess (with Jacquetta Hawkes)
FICTION
  • 1927 Adam in Moonshine
  • 1927 Benighted
  • 1929 Farthing Hall (with Hugh Walpole)
  • 1929 The Good Companions
  • 1930 The Town Major of Miraucourt
  • 1930 Angel Pavement
  • 1933 Wonder Hero
  • 1933 Albert Goes Through
  • 1933 I’ll Tell You Everything (with Gerald Bullett)
  • 1936 They Walk in the City
  • 1938 The Doomsday Men
  • 1939 Let the People Sing
  • 1942 Blackout in Gretley
  • 1943 Daylight on Saturday
  • 1945 Three Men in New Suits
  • 1946 Bright Day
  • 1947 Jenny Villiers
  • 1951 Festival at Farbridge
  • 1953 The Other Place
  • 1954 The Magicians
  • 1954 Low Notes on a High Level
  • 1961 Saturn Over the Water
  • 1961 The Thirty First of June
  • 1962 The Shapes of Sleep
  • 1964 Sir Michael and Sir George
  • 1965 Lost Empires
  • 1966 Salt is Leaving
  • 1967 It’s an Old Country
  • 1968 The Image Men : vol.1 Out of Town, vol.2 London End
  • 1971 Snoggle
  • 1975 The Carfitt Crisis
  • 1976 Found Lost Found
NON-FICTION
  • 1918 The Chapman of Rhymes (later withdrawn)
  • 1922 Brief Diversions
  • 1922 Papers from Lilliput
  • 1923 I for One
  • 1924 Figures in Modern Literature
  • 1925 The English Comic Characters
  • 1926 George Meredith
  • 1926 Essays of Today and Yesterday
  • 1926 Talking
  • 1927 Open House (essays)
  • 1927 Thomas Love Peacock
  • 1927 The English Novel
  • 1928 Apes and Angels
  • 1929 English Humour
  • 1929 The Balconinny & Other Essays
  • 1932 Self-selected Essays
  • 1934 English Journey
  • 1936 Charles Dickens
  • 1937 Midnight on the Desert,A Chapter in Autobiography
  • 1939 Rain Upon Godshill, A Further Chapter in Autobiography
  • 1940 Postscripts
  • 1940 Britain Speaks
  • 1941 Out of the People
  • 1942 Britain at War
  • 1943 British Women Go to War
  • 1944 Manpower
  • 1944 Here Are Your Answers
  • 1945 Letter to a Returning Serviceman
  • 1946 Russian Journey
  • 1946 The Secret Dream
  • 1947 Arts Under Socialism
  • 1947 Theatre Outlook
  • 1949 Delight (essays)
  • 1951 The Priestley Companion
  • 1955 Journey Down a Rainbow (with Jacquetta Hawkes)
  • 1956 The Writer in Changing Society
  • 1956 All About Ourselves & Other Essays
  • 1957 The Art of the Dramatist
  • 1957 Thoughts in the Wilderness (essays)
  • 1958 Topside or the Future of England
  • 1959 The Story of Theatre
  • 1960 William Hazlitt
  • 1960 Literature and Western Man
  • 1961 Charles Dickens – A Pictorial Biography
  • 1962 Margin Released
  • 1964 Man and Time
  • 1966 The Moments & Other Pieces
  • 1967 The World of J.B.Priestley
  • 1968 Trumpets Over the Sea
  • 1969 Essays of Five Decades (selected by Susan Cooper)
  • 1969 The Prince of Pleasure
  • 1969 Charles Dickens & His World
  • 1970 Anton Chekhov
  • 1970 The Edwardians
  • 1972 Victoria’s Heyday
  • 1972 Over the Long High Wall (essays)
  • 1973 The English
  • 1974 A Visit to New Zealand
  • 1974 Outcries & Asides (essays)
  • 1975Particular Pleasures
  • 1976 English Humour
  • 1977 Instead of the Trees – A Final Chapter of Autobiography

Fully protected[edit]

This article is fully protected due to an edit war. Please discuss that dispute, or separately post unrelated edit requests. Thank you. Samsara (talk) 15:38, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sourcing of criticism[edit]

@JJS1780: Thank you for the personal message (PM). Wikipedia requires all article content to be verifiable from reliable sources. The relevant policy is WP:RS. In the present case, a writer's own words are not regarded as reliable comment on themselves (writers often bend reality to literary effect). Rather, it is necessary to source any criticism from a reputable and independent third-party source. Also, a Wikipedia editor may not pass unsourced judgement on any factual matter, as that amounts to original research WP:OR which is not what Wikipedia is for. For example to claim that Priestley was racist requires a source which says that "Priestley was racist" or similar, one cannot rely on his own writings and judge that they are racist. I have not seen the original context for his remarks but, assuming they stand alone as you portray them, I would have expected a reliable authority to have commented on it - until that can be dug out, the article should avoid making unsupported claims. Finally, you used abusive language in your value judgement and that is always unacceptable in a Wikipedia article, even if you are quoting an abusive remark by someone else. Phew! Hope that makes things a bit clearer. — Cheers, Steelpillow (Talk) 18:49, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Steelpillow and JJS1780: What is required are sources such as The Independent, for example, or this book or this one, etc; there's plenty more where they came from. A word of caution: avoid the word 'racism' as that's possibly WP:SYNTH, and certainly anachronistic. But 'prejudice' would be precise. Cheers, O Fortuna!...Imperatrix mundi. 13:09, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
ping Samsara, as FYI. O Fortuna!...Imperatrix mundi. 13:13, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: So if I unprotect, can an edit be made that resolves the dispute? Samsara 12:22, 26 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Steelpillow: Would this be acceptable to you, per the sources presented? Samsara 12:41, 26 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I told you, I'm outta here. Too much kneejerk smugness for my taste. I only came back out of politeness to reply to JJS1780‎‎'s PM. — Cheers, Steelpillow (Talk) 13:08, 26 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Unprotected. Samsara 14:32, 26 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Samsara: Do you want me to make that edit? Sorry not to be clear earlier- I only provided the sources here as a form of dispute resolution; I didn't have a dog in the race, just saw it on RC. I wonder if the text should be formed along the lines of 'JBP is today seen as having, as was not uncommon at the time, a prejudice against the Irish,secondary sources provided above as is shown in his work, English Journey.primary source already in the article' Thoughts? O Fortuna!...Imperatrix mundi. 12:38, 27 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: Yours seemed to me to be a solution that addresses both sides' concerns. Unusually, neither of them are now commenting further, but it makes sense to me to nonetheless address the issues highlighted. The particular edit you've recommended reads well, so keeping in mind that I also was drawn here purely to resolve the controversy, I would encourage you to make it, and consider it the new and current consensus. Samsara 13:18, 27 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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His politics[edit]

These would merit a separate section, perhaps quite detailed. The current paragraph about his prejudice against the Irish would belong in such a section, perhaps mentioning that his mother was from an Irish family, which he never mentioned in any of his writings. Valetude (talk) 23:59, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Half-sister?[edit]

In all his voluminous non-fiction, about half of it relating directly to his youth in Bradford, there is not a single mention of his half-sister. He clearly goes to great lengths to keep her out of the picture, referring to himself as his father's 'only son', but never as his 'only child', as we detect only when we look closely. There might be a story here, possibly connected to his relationship with his future second wife Jane Wyndham-Lewis, while the first wife was dying of cancer. Valetude (talk) 00:12, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright problem removed[edit]

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