Paul Scott (novelist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Paul Scott
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Scott in 1977
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| Born | Paul Mark Scott 25 March 1920 London, England |
| Died | 1 March 1978 (aged 57) London, England |
| Occupation | author, literary agent |
| Education | Winchmore Hill Collegiate School |
| Genre | Fiction, Poetry |
| Notable awards | Booker Prize |
| Spouse | Nancy Edith Avery |
Paul Mark Scott (born March 25, 1920 – died March 1, 1978) was an English writer. He is most famous for his four-book series called The Raj Quartet. Near the end of his life, his novel Staying On won the important Booker Prize in 1977. His series of books was later made into a popular TV show called The Jewel in the Crown in the 1980s. This TV show helped him become well-known and praised, even though he didn't receive much fame during his lifetime.
Paul Scott was born in London. During World War II, he served in the army in India, Burma, and Malaya. After the war, he returned to London and worked as a successful literary agent. This meant he helped other writers get their books published. In 1960, he decided to become a full-time writer himself. He used his experiences in India to write The Raj Quartet. Later in his life, he taught at the University of Tulsa in the United States. Many of his personal writings are kept there.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Paul Scott was born in North London. He was the younger of two sons. His father, Thomas, was an artist who drew for calendars and cards. His mother, Frances, was the daughter of a laborer. Scott later felt that he was pulled between his mother's creative dreams and his father's practical view of life.
Scott went to a private school called Winchmore Hill Collegiate School. However, he had to leave early without finishing his studies. This happened because his father's business faced money problems. This early stop in his education reflected a struggle he felt throughout his life. He often had to choose between practical needs and his desire to create. Scott worked as an accounts clerk and took evening classes. In his free time, he wrote poetry. He later noticed that the strict social rules of his childhood were similar to those he saw in British India.
Military Service in India
Paul Scott joined the British Army as a soldier in 1940. He trained in England. Sadly, during this time, two of his aunts died in an air raid.
In 1943, when he was 22, Scott was sent to India as an officer. He sailed from Liverpool. Soon after arriving, he became sick with a long-term illness called amoebic dysentery. This illness was not properly diagnosed until 1964. It might have affected his personality and his writing. He joined the Indian Army Service Corps. He learned about life in places like Abbottabad and Murree. He made many close friends with Indian soldiers. You can find characters based on these friends in his later books.
He later helped organize supplies for the Fourteenth Army. This army was fighting to take back Burma. After the city of Rangoon fell in 1945, he spent time in Calcutta and Kashmir. He was then sent to Malaya to fight the Japanese. However, the Japanese had already given up by the time he arrived. When he was away from India, he missed the country very much and wanted to go back. At the end of the year, he returned to England. He had spent three years in India, a time of great change and conflict for the country. He continued to write poetry during his army service.
Writing Career and Success
Before joining the army, Scott had published some religious poems in 1941. He also wrote for magazines like Country Life and The Times. His poems were included in other collections. In 1948, he published some plays.
After leaving the army in 1946, Scott worked for two small publishing companies. In 1950, he became a literary agent. People described him as a caring and dedicated agent. He helped many famous authors, including Arthur C. Clarke and Muriel Spark. He was known for supporting new writers and helping them improve their work.
Scott's first novel, Johnny Sahib, was rejected by 17 publishers before it was finally released in 1952. It won a literary prize. He kept working as a literary agent to support his family, but he also published books regularly. His other early novels included The Alien Sky (1953), A Male Child (1956), The Mark of the Warrior (1958), and The Chinese Love Pavilion (1960). He also wrote radio plays for the BBC.
In 1960, Scott left his steady job as an agent to become a full-time writer. He tried different settings in his novels Bender (1963) and Corrida at San Feliu (1964), but they didn't feel quite right. His publishers helped him fly to India in 1964. This trip was a last effort to become a successful novelist and earn enough money. In India, he gathered ideas for his next five novels. These books were all set in India during and after World War II, leading up to India's independence. He used the time of the British Raj (British rule in India) as a big idea in his stories. He once said, "I don't think a writer chooses his metaphors. They choose him."
During his stay in Bombay, he stayed with Dorothy Ganapathy, who became a lifelong friend. He also spent time in rural areas with army friends. His stomach illness got worse during his visit to India. When he returned, he had to have painful treatment. But after that, he felt much better and started writing.
In June 1964, at age 43, Scott began writing The Jewel in the Crown. This was the first book of what would become The Raj Quartet (published in 1966). The other books in the series were The Day of the Scorpion (1968), The Towers of Silence (1971), and A Division of the Spoils (1975). Scott worked mostly alone. He only visited India two more times while writing The Raj Quartet. He worked in a room at his home in Hampstead, overlooking his garden. He also earned money by writing reviews for newspapers and magazines.
Scott's daughter said that he focused so much on his writing that it was like he "exiled himself to the one room where there was nothing but the typewriter and the blank page." She felt it made him a great writer but changed him as a person.
In 1976 and 1977, Paul Scott was invited to be a visiting professor at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. This financial offer was a great relief because he had always worried about money as a writer. The University of Texas also bought his original writings. His final novel, Staying On, was published in 1977. This book won the Yorkshire Post Fiction Award and the Booker Prize in 1977. Scott was too unwell to attend the Booker ceremony.
Book and TV Adaptations
The novel Staying On was made into a TV show by Granada Television. It starred Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. Its success in 1981 encouraged Granada to create a much bigger project. They turned The Raj Quartet into a major 14-part TV series called The Jewel in the Crown. It was first shown in the United Kingdom in 1984. It was also broadcast in the United States and many other countries. In 2001, the British Film Institute voted it the 22nd best British television program of all time. It was also adapted as a nine-part radio show in 2005.
Legacy and Archives
While teaching at the University of Tulsa in 1976, Paul Scott arranged to sell his personal letters to the university's McFarlin Library. This made about 6,000 of his letters available for study. These letters start from 1940, when he joined the British Army, and end just a few days before he died in 1978.
At the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, you can find Scott's letters with other writers he worked with. These include Arthur C. Clarke, M. M. Kaye, and Muriel Spark.
Hilary Spurling wrote a complete biography of Scott in 1991. Janis Haswell also put together a two-volume collection of Scott’s letters. The first volume covers his army years and early career. The second volume covers the time he wrote The Raj Quartet and the end of his life.
Personal Life
In 1941, in Torquay, Scott met and married Nancy Edith Avery, who was a nurse. She later became a novelist herself. They had two daughters, Carol (born 1947) and Sally (born 1948).
Towards the end of his life, Scott faced serious health challenges. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1977 while in Tulsa. He passed away at the Middlesex Hospital in London on March 1, 1978.
Images for kids
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Scott in 1977
See also
In Spanish: Paul Scott para niños
