Introduction

Re-reading B. S. Johnson

Glyn White

Philip Tew

pp. 3-13

in: Philip Tew, Glyn White (eds), Re-reading B. S. Johnson, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

Abstract

In 2006 writing about B. S. Johnson and his work is a much different matter to so doing a decade ago when both editors were first undertaking projects concerned with his oeuvre and life. At that point in time Johnson's work was out of print in his home country. He remained a marginal figure, virtually forgotten, and only occasionally referred to by those writing about British literature of the 1960s and 70s, very much in passing, as a representative of "the experimental novel". Since the publication of Jonathan Coe's award-winning biography, Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson (2004), and the republication of the majority of Johnson's novels by Picador, there is now a much greater awareness of both the author and his work and its significance. To memorialise a new era in critical interpretation of this intriguing author we entitle this present volume Re-reading B. S. Johnson.