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Osborne, John James
Osborne, John James (1929–94), playwright, who made his name with Look Back in Anger (1956, pub. 1957), which was followed by Epitaph for George Dillon (1957, pub. 1958; written in the mid-1950s in collaboration with Anthony Creighton); The Entertainer (1957, which starred Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice, a faded survivor of the great days of music hall); Luther (1961, based on the life of Martin Luther); Inadmissible Evidence (1964, the tragedy of a down-at-heel solicitor, Bill Maitland, plunging rhetorically towards self-destruction); and A Patriot for Me (1965, set in Vienna, based on the rise and fall of Redl, a homosexual officer in the Austro-Hungarian army). His later works (which include West of Suez, 1971; A Sense of Detachment, 1972; Watch it Come Down, 1976; and Déjavu, 1992, a sequel to Look Back in Anger) became increasingly vituperative in tone; his outbursts of rage against contemporary society frequently exhilarating, for the anger that made him known as an ‘Angry Young Man’ remained one of his strongest theatrical weapons, but he also expressed from time to time an ambivalent nostalgia for the past that his own work did so much to alter. His autobiography A Better Class of Person appeared in 1981 and Damn You, England, a collection of reviews and other pieces, in 1994. (See also kitchen sink.)
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Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Osborne, John James." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Osborne, John James." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-OsborneJohnJames.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Osborne, John James." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-OsborneJohnJames.html |
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Abert, John James
Abert, John James (1788–1863) military engineer, born in Frederick City, Maryland. Abert persistently lobbied Congress to form a Corps of Topographical Engineers separate from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1838 a separate U.S. Army Corps of Topographic Engineers was established, and Abert was promoted to colonel and named commander of the new corps on July 7, 1838.
Abert was a friend of the naturalist John James Audubon, who named a squirrel after him (the Sciurus aberti.). |
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Cite this article
"Abert, John James." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Abert, John James." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-AbertJohnJames.html "Abert, John James." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-AbertJohnJames.html |
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Osborne, John James
Osborne, John James (1929–95) English dramatist whose play Look Back in Anger (1956) established his reputation as one of the ‘Angry Young Men’ of British theatre. His other successes included The Entertainer (1957) and Luther (1961) but later works such as The Hotel in Amsterdam (1968) and Watch It Come Down (1976) provoked critical hostility.
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Cite this article
"Osborne, John James." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Osborne, John James." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-OsborneJohnJames.html "Osborne, John James." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-OsborneJohnJames.html |
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