“…And the rising sun shall rise yet higher, destroying with its flaming fire the evil will of the wicked West, but smiling warmly on the rest”
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Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, commonly known as Anthony Burgess, was an English writer, screenwriter, and composer.
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culture · English writer and composer (1917–1993) · writer · journalist · translator · screenwriter · poet · composer · novelist · autobiographer · literary critic · science fiction writer · also Anthony Burgess, John Anthony Burgess Wilson, John Burgess Wilson, Joseph Kell, Burgess
Born 25 February 1917 · Died 22 November 1993 · Q217619
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2026· 6 entries
“Easier, lad, with those soft small bodies....Nothing to it. They're just soft squashy things.”
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“…Just you bloody hypocrites with your four wives and your ten thousand houris in heaven?…”
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“...I’m a typical Englishman of my class - a crank idealist.”
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“…as the cinema shows us, they are much more accessible and, for that matter, much more wanton than our own women”
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“die somewhere in the Mediterranean lands, with an inaccurate obituary in the Nice-Matin, unmourned, soon forgotten”
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2023· 4 entries
The Guardian: Classical home listening: Sean Shibe; French music for two pianos – and Anthony Burgess’s guitar quartets
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The Guardian: Newly discovered string quartet by Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess to have premiere
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Released album “Complete Guitar Quartets”.
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A piece written for a string quartet was discovered in the archives of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, premiering for the first time on 1 December of that year
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2022· 2 entries
The Guardian: Anthony Burgess translation of Molière’s The Miser comes to light for first time
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The Guardian: The Observer/Anthony Burgess prize for arts journalism 2023
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2021· 2 entries
The Guardian: Poem of the week: To Vladimir Nabokov … by Anthony Burgess
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The International Anthony Burgess Foundation premiered a webpage cataloguing various stage productions of "A Clockwork Orange" from around the world
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2020· 1 entry
The Guardian: ‘Don’t read Clockwork Orange – it’s a foul farrago,’ wrote Burgess
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2019· 3 entries
The Guardian: Observer/Anthony Burgess prize for arts journalism 2019
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The Guardian: From the archive: Anthony Burgess falls for Sophia Loren, in 1984
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A previously unpublished analysis of A Clockwork Orange was discovered titled, "The Clockwork Condition"
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2018· 2 entries
The Guardian: The Black Prince by Adam Roberts review – wonderful homage to Anthony Burgess
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Released album “The Bad‐Tempered Electronic Keyboard”.
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2014· 1 entry
The Ransom Center added the archive of Burgess's long-time agent Gabriele Pantucci, which also includes substantial manuscripts, sheet music, correspondence, and contracts
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1995· 1 entry
Burgess's widow sold a large archive of his papers to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin with several additions made in subsequent years
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1993· 1 entry
Died 1993-11-22.
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1991· 2 entries
Awarded Companion of Literature (1991).
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Was awarded the title of Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature
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1986· 2 entries
“being charitable in accepting the work at all,”
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And wrote a new libretto for Weber's last opera Oberon (1826), reprinted alongside the original in Oberon Old and New
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1982· 1 entry
Adapting the libretto from James Joyce's Ulysses
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1976· 1 entry
Where he was active in the local community, becoming a co-founder of the Princess Grace Irish Library, a centre for Irish cultural studies, in 1984
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1975· 1 entry
And at the University at Buffalo in 1976
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1974· 2 entries
Resulting in the first public performance of an orchestral work by Burgess – a momentous occasion for the composer which spurred him on to renew his composing activities with other large scale works, including a violin c
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“The scientific approach to life is not necessarily appropriate to states of visceral anguish.”
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1972· 1 entry
Awarded Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation for A Clockwork Orange (1972).
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1969· 1 entry
As a visiting professor at Princeton University with the creative writing program in 1970, and as a distinguished professor at the City College of New York in 1972
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1966· 1 entry
Burgess chose as his favourite music Purcell's "Rejoice in the Lord alway"; Bach's Goldberg Variations No
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1964· 1 entry
Liana gave birth to Burgess's son, Paolo Andrea
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1963· 1 entry
Over lunch in Chiswick and began an affair
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1961· 1 entry
Was to be entitled Devil of a State and, although it dealt with Brunei, to avoid libel the action had to be transposed to an imaginary East African territory similar to Zanzibar, named Dunia
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1958· 1 entry
The work was not published until 1961, for what it was worth it was made a choice of the book society
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1954· 1 entry
Burgess joined the British Colonial Service as a teacher and education officer in Malaya, initially stationed at Kuala Kangsar in Perak
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1951· 1 entry
Burgess wrote his first play, called The Eve of Saint Venus
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1942· 1 entry
Burgess and Jones were married on 22 January 1942.
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1941· 1 entry
Burgess was pursued by the Royal Military Police for desertion after overstaying his leave from Morpeth military base with his future bride Lynne
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1940· 2 entries
As a British Army recruit in Eskbank in Scotland before becoming a Nursing Orderly Class 3 in the Royal Army Medical Corps
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“I was either distractedly persecuted or ignored. I was one despised. ... Ragged boys in gangs would pounce on the well-dressed like myself.”
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1922· 1 entry
Burgess was raised by his father and stepmother
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1917· 1 entry
Born 1917-02-25.
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