[This entry was updated by Thomas C. Foster (University of Michigan--—Flint) with the entry by Ellen Pifer (University of Delaware) in the Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, volume 8, pp. 79-106.]

A novelist who writes for a living, says author John Fowles, is an altogether different creature from one whose art is his life. The latter, a "dynamic artist," seeks "to form new images and new methods of describing his world," while his less adventurous cousin, the "static artist," uses the traditional techniques of his craft to ensure the current "market value" of his work. As a novelist Fowles has managed to succeed in both categories. He has earned international prominence not only as an innovator seeking new methods of describing contemporary reality, but also as the author of works of fiction that have ranked high on best-seller lists in the United States and abroad. In 1972 Fowles's...