Amis, Sir Kingsley William

▪ 1996

      British novelist and poet (b. April 16, 1922, London, England—d. Oct. 22, 1995, London), created about 40 books—over 20 novels as well as several volumes of poetry, short stories, and miscellaneous other works—but remained best known for his first published novel, Lucky Jim (1953), which launched his literary career. A satire of academic life, it was regarded by some as one of the funniest books in the English language. It won the Somerset Maugham Award and gained Amis fame as one of Britain's Angry Young Men, a label he rejected. Amis also was considered representative of the so-called Movement poets of the 1950s. After Amis' education at St. John's College, Oxford, was interrupted by service in the Royal Corps of Signals during World War II, he graduated in 1947. He taught (1949-61) at universities in Wales and the U.S. and then accepted a post as fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He resigned in 1963 and thereafter—with the exception of a visiting professorship at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. (1967-68)—concentrated on his writing. Among his notable novels were That Uncertain Feeling (1955), Take a Girl like You (1960), The Green Man (1969), Girl, 20 (1971), Ending Up (1974), Jake's Thing (1978), and The Old Devils (1986), which won the Booker Prize. In addition, Amis also wrote a James Bond novel, Colonel Sun (1968), under the pseudonym Robert Markham. His last book was The Biographer's Moustache (1995). Though his early novels were considered liberal in tone, he had become increasingly conservative by the late 1960s, and some considered him an irascible curmudgeon. Nonetheless, he had the status of a British institution and remained one of the best of the moral satirists. Amis was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1981 and was knighted in 1990.

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