Walter Greenwood
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Walter Greenwood (December 17, 1903 – September 13, 1974) was an English novelist, best known for the socially influential novel Love on the Dole (1933).
Greenwood was born in Hankey Park, Salford in Lancashire, the son of radical working class parents. His father died when he was nine, and his mother supported him by working as a waitress. Like many children he left school at the age of 13 to work as a pawnbroker's clerk. He took a succession of low paid jobs, and continued to educate himself in Salford Public Library. During periods of unemployment he worked for the local Labour Party and began to write short stories.
While unemployed, he wrote his first novel, Love on the Dole, in 1932. It was about the destructive social effects of poverty in his home town. After several rejections, it was published in 1933. It was a critical and commercial success, and a huge influence on the British public's view of unemployment. It even prompted Parliament to investigate, leading to reforms. The popularity of the novel, which was later adapted as a play that had successful runs in both England and the United States, meant Greenwood would not have to worry about employment again. He stayed in Salford for a while, and served on the council, but soon moved to London. In 1937 he married Pearl Alice Osgood, an American actress and dancer.
Although he never matched the success of Love on the Dole, he produced a succession of novels during the 1930s: His Worship the Major (1934), The Time is Ripe (1935), Standing Room Only (1936), Cleft Stick (1937), Only Mugs Work (1938), The Secret Kingdom (1938) and How the other Man Lives (1939). He also co-wrote a George Formby film, No Limit (1935).
During the Second World War Greenwood produced films for the British government, and served in the Royal Army Service Corp. 1944 saw the publication of Something in my Heart, and the end of his marriage to Pearl.
After the war he wrote the Trelooe trilogy – So Brief the Spring (1952), What Everybody Wants (1954) and Down by the Sea (1956) – and a few plays: Cure for Love (1947, filmed 1950), Too Clever for Love (1952) and Saturday Night at the Crown (1958). He retired to Douglas, Isle of Man in the 1950s, and wrote his autobiography, There Was A Time (1967). After he died his manuscripts and letters were bequeathed to Salford University.
[edit] References
- Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, edited by Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1942.
