B. S. Johnson
A fiercely innovative writer who treated the novel as a physical object, cutting holes in pages and boxing manuscripts to challenge literary form.
1933–1973 (age 40)·English novelist, poet and critic·Birthday: February 5·The Silent Generation
Biography
B.S. Johnson was a literary provocateur who believed the novel was exhausted and needed radical, physical reinvention. In the 1960s and early 70s, he produced a series of formally audacious works that were as much sculptures as stories. His novel 'The Unfortunates' was published in a box of loose-leaf chapters, allowing readers to shuffle the narrative like a deck of cards, while 'Albert Angelo' famously featured a hole cut through its pages to reveal the future. Johnson saw himself as telling truths—often autobiographical, bleak, and funny—and considered conventional narrative a lie. His intense commitment to his avant-garde principles, coupled with a combative public persona, made him a singular, polarizing figure in British letters, whose short life and career ended by his own hand.
The Silent Generation
1928–1945
Born between the Depression and the end of WWII. Too young to fight, old enough to remember. They became the conformist middle managers of the 1950s — and the civil rights leaders who quietly dismantled Jim Crow.
B. was born in 1933, placing them squarely in The Silent Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When B. Was Born
The biggest hits of 1933
#1 Movie
King Kong
Best Picture
Cavalcade
B.'s Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1933Born
FDR's New Deal launches; Prohibition ends
Gas: $0.18/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Stormy Weather" — Ethel WatersBest Picture: Cavalcade
1938Started school
Kristallnacht and the escalation toward WWII
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $2,850Min wage: $0.25/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Begin the Beguine" — Artie ShawBest Picture: You Can't Take It with You
1946Became a teenager
United Nations holds its first General Assembly
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $5,150Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Prisoner of Love" — Perry ComoBest Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
1949Could drive
NATO founded; Mao proclaims the People's Republic of China
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,450Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Riders in the Sky" — Vaughn MonroeBest Picture: All the King's Men
1951Could vote
First color TV broadcast in the US
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,925Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Too Young" — Nat King ColeBest Picture: An American in Paris
1954Turned 21
Brown v. Board of Education desegregates US schools
Gas: $0.29/galHome: $8,925Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Little Things Mean a Lot" — Kitty KallenBest Picture: On the Waterfront
1963Turned 30
JFK assassinated in Dallas; Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $13,100Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"Sugar Shack" — Jimmy Gilmer & The FireballsBest Picture: Tom Jones
1973Turned 40
US withdraws from Vietnam; Roe v. Wade decided
Gas: $0.39/galHome: $22,100Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" — Tony Orlando & DawnBest Picture: The Sting
Key Achievements
- Published 'The Unfortunates' (1969) as a box of 27 unbound sections to be read in any order.
- Created a literal hole in the pages of his novel 'Albert Angelo' (1964) to disrupt linear narrative.
- Wrote 'House Mother Normal' (1971), presenting the same events from the perspectives of eight nursing home residents.
- Directed several experimental films, including the self-referential 'Fat Man on a Beach' shortly before his death.
Did You Know?
He was a talented footballer and played for the amateur team founded by the publisher of his first novel.
He worked as a supply teacher and a clerk, jobs he despised and which fueled the anger in his early work.
His final, posthumously published novel, 'See the Old Lady Decently', was intended as the first of a trilogy titled 'The Matrix'.
He had a famous public feud with novelist and critic Anthony Burgess over the nature of experimental fiction.
“Telling stories is telling lies.”
