how a scanner can be useless
...nd short stories. He returned to the United States from Europe in 1957, and took a position as an associate editor at Holiday magazine. With encouragement from Thornton Wilder, who took interest in Knowles' writing, he started working on A Separate Peace, which became his first published novel. When the novel became successful, Knowles was able to quit his job with the magazine, and devote himself to his writing. In addition to A Separate Peace, John Knowles has published eight other books; in addition, he wrote a travel book, and also published a collection of his short stories. Knowles was honored with the position of writer-in-residence at both Princeton University and the University of North Carolina, and has also given lectures at various schools across the country. Knowles' biggest success was his first, and none of his other novels have achieved the status that A Separate Peace has enjoyed; however, as in his first work, his main themes are greed, competitiveness, and corruption in the lives of wealthy American characters. John Knowles is currently living in Florida, and continues to write. His father was in the coal business in West Virginia. Both his dad and mother were, however, originally from Massachusetts; New England, to them, meant the place to go if you really wanted an education. his brother had, to be sure, gone to Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, but then he dutifully went off to Dartmouth, deep in deepest New Hampshire. he was expected to follow him to Mercersburg, but picking up a catalog one day which was lying around the house, the catalog of Phillips Exeter Academy, he found a preliminary application form on the last page and, just for the hell of it, filled it out and mailed it. Soon, entrance ...